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Inside the Rise of India's Private Dairy Giants
Good morning. Milk isn’t just a household essential — it’s a political lever, a rural lifeline, and one of India’s most quietly protected sectors.
On The Core Report: Weekend Edition, Govindraj Ethiraj engages in conversation with Rajiv Mitra, Food and Dairy Industry Expert, as they talk on how dairy became central to India's domestic economy, why it’s left out of every major trade deal, and where the next big opportunity lies — not in producing more milk, but in building more value from it.
THE CORE REPORT: WEEKEND EDITION
Why Dairy Never Makes It Into Trade Deals
India left RCEP entirely because of dairy.
Both India-UK and India-US FTAs exclude dairy due to cultural sensitivity and economic protection.
The US exports ~$9B worth of dairy annually and wants access, especially for value-added products like cheese.
India is holding the line — not just for trade, but for the 80 million smallholder households who rely on dairy.
Domestic Market: Deep Roots, Slow Shift
India produces 240 million tonnes of milk annually, but barely exports 1%.
Half is consumed at source (by the producers); most of the rest goes into pouch milk and bulk ingredients like milk powder and mozzarella (used by pizza chains).
Value-added products like curd, paneer, cheese, and ghee are growing — but still early in their evolution.
Cooperative Vs Private: The New 50-50
30 years ago: 90% cooperative, 10% private.
Today: 50-50 split in milk handling.
Private players have gained ground with better tech, trust, and scale — especially in value-added and ingredient categories.
Cooperatives like Amul, Nandini, and Avin continue to dominate daily milk delivery into homes.
The Last Mile: The Farmer Still Needs Support
Most dairy farmers have 1–3 cows and are still outside the formal banking system.
Without financial inclusion, scaling up is difficult.
Better collection logistics, access to credit, and farmer education on quality (like avoiding antibiotic residues) are key to future growth — and export readiness.
As Rajiv Mitra puts it:
The next leg of growth in India’s dairy sector won’t come from producing more milk — it will come from how we build value, traceability, and trust, at scale and across borders.
Click below to watch the full podcast
ICYMI
HOW INDIA’S ECONOMY WORKS
Why India's Employment Puzzle Resists Solutions With Amit Basole
India’s unemployment problem isn’t new — and it’s not going away
Despite years of economic reform efforts, job creation remains weak.
Structural unemployment continues to rise, especially among youth and women.
Policy is not the problem — execution is
The issue isn’t always with central policy, but with gaps between design and delivery.
There’s poor coordination across ministries and levels of government.
Local governance is weak and municipalities are chronically underfunded, limiting their role in driving employment programs.
The missing middle: What reforms often ignore
Big-ticket reforms dominate headlines — but local bottlenecks remain ignored.
Lack of decentralised planning and ground-level accountability is holding back job creation.
Employment needs to be understood as a multi-level governance issue, not just a macroeconomic one.
What India’s demographic curve is telling us
India is in its demographic dividend window, but it’s narrowing.
Without jobs, a young population becomes a missed opportunity — or worse, a liability.
The conversation now includes a sobering question: Are we at risk of growing old before we grow rich?
THE SIGNAL DAILY
Will Cinema Theatres Survive The Streaming Era?
India makes more movies than any other country in the world. For many of us, going to the cinema used to be a regular habit — a weekend plan, a family tradition, a cultural moment. But COVID changed all that. Locked indoors, we turned to OTT platforms, got comfortable, and never really went back.
The impact shows up in the numbers: where a ₹100 crore box office once defined a hit, today the benchmark sits closer to ₹50 crore.
In this episode, Kudrat Wadhwa speaks with Ishaa Soni — a lifelong film lover whose relationship with theatres has changed dramatically since the pandemic. What’s behind the shift? What will it take to bring audiences like her back into cinema halls? And is Bollywood ready for the new rules of moviegoing?
What’s Behind India’s Labubu Doll Craze?
You’ve probably seen them — quirky little dolls hanging off tote bags, dangling from backpacks, sometimes even perched on dashboards. They’re called Labubu dolls, and they’re suddenly everywhere.
Standing just 25 cm tall, these oddball figurines went from niche to viral in 2024, after celebrity sightings with the likes of Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. Now, they’ve landed in India — and collectors can’t get enough.
But what exactly are Labubu dolls? Why are they flying off shelves across continents? And more importantly, how do you tell a real one from the fakes flooding the market?
Listen to Signal Daily’s Kudrat Wadhwa pulling the strings on the biggest toy trend of the year — and the booming subculture behind it.
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👥 THE TEAM
✍️ Zinal Dedhia, Salman SH, Kudrat Wadhwa | ✂️ Rohini Chatterji | 🎧 Joshua Thomas