The recent battles between the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, and Nandini in Karnataka and Aavin in Tamil Nadu may have some roots in a ten-year-old headline-grabbing tussle between Verghese Kurien, the driving force behind India's White Revolution and GCMMF chairman, and Amrita Patel, chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
Patel, a Verghese protégé, had wanted to create an umbrella brand under Mother Dairy (an NDDB subsidiary), by setting up joint ventures with state federations to create a centralised brand. Mother Dairy would hold a 51 per cent stake in each joint