Nanda Kumar resigns as NDDB Chairman

Close on heels of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan’s announcement that he would demit office in September, another high-profile appointee of the UPA government, T Nanda Kumar, has resigned as Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), hinting at discomfort with the current “external environment”.

A retired 1972-batch IAS officer from the Bihar cadre, Kumar had submitted his resignation on June 29.

It was accepted by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet on Wednesday. Kumar retired from the IAS in 2010.

He was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of NDDB in March 2014 after the exit of Dr Amrita Patel in February 2014. Patel, who had served about 16 years as NDDB head, was the second Chairman of the institution after its founder Dr V Kurien.

Kumar, who had a five-year term ending in 2019, will be relieved on August 1.

Point of no return In a farewell email sent to NDDB employees last night, he hinted at the reason for his mid-term exit from the apex dairy institution.

“There comes a time in everyone’s life when one’s value system comes into serious conflict with the external environment. A point of no compromise becomes a point of no return. I have gone through such situations many times before. The dilemma is: should one allow such conflicts to affect an institution?”

“I have always believed that institutions are important, personalities should not matter beyond a point. I have reached such a point,” he wrote announcing that he had submitted his resignation on June 29 and that he had been informed about the acceptance of the “same by the Government”.

Kumar did not respond to a phone call.

Following his resignation, he will also step down from the posts of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mother Dairy, Indian Immunologicals Ltd., and IDMC Ltd.

Also he will step down from the position of Chairman, Board of Governors, IRMA and Anandalaya Education Society.

Kumar expressed satisfaction over the work done during his tenure, noting that NDDB had brought most of the Dairy Co-op Federations under a common umbrella to address the problems of farmers while taking care of the concerns of customers.

“The progress under the National Dairy Plan was accelerated to reach levels set by the World Bank. We are now in the process of requesting for an additional loan component,” he wrote.

National Dairy Plan The Centrally-funded NDDB is currently implementing the ambitious National Dairy Plan of the Central government, which aims to improve the breed of milch animals and thereby increase milk production.

Also, it aims to help provide rural milk producers with greater access to the organised milk-processing sector.

The NDP, to be rolled out in phases, was launched in 2011. It covers 18 major milk producing States of the country, which account for over 90 per cent of the country’s milk production.

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