Yojana, Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi

Book Review

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"it has been a Herculean task to gather complete information on my desk about the subjects I deal with normally such as agriculture as a whole and dairying in particular...before..a volume containing superb articles and innumerable statistical tables called Dairy India..(came out)" - The point of view of a journalist.

As a journalist perpetually in a hurry to write "stories" for newspapers, magazines or All India Radio it has been a Herculean task to gather complete information on my desk about the subjects I deal with normally such as agriculture as a whole and dairying in particular. Huge piles of annual reports, various official and semi-official publications and of course the mass of Parliament Questions are excellent sources. Only, the data are not so readily traceable so that one can complete an article in one go. This was the situation before a self-effacing person called P R Gupta decided to put together all information on dairying in India and abroad and produce a volume containing superb articles and innumerable statistical tables called Dairy India.

The volume has so much of information and data about almost everything connected with dairying that one could appreciate Mr. Gupta’s desire to undertake the 1998 edition because of the back-breaking task of editing such a large (pages 910+xviii) volume containing over 250 statistical tables, graphs and charts.

Dairy India 1997 is not merely a compilation of articles and statistical data. It places Indian dairy industry in the global perspective, it has illuminating discussions on marketing and a whole section is devoted to traditional delicacies which can be prepared from milk. Management of dairies, preparation of project reports updating dairy technology and a compendium of every organization connected with milk and dairying are some of the highlights of this volume.

Then the veterinary portions. It was for the first time that such an exhaustive description about various cattle diseases and their prevention and remedy have found mention in any journal or compendium, at least to this writer’s knowledge.

Next, the milk products. It is not a common knowledge that there are at least 400 varieties of cheese in the world and that its annual world production is about 12 million tonnes. One million tonnes of cheese are exported every year by various countries. Thereafter, Yoghurt. Why it did not click in India despite high voltage advertisement and state-of-the-art processing plants, is an interesting study.

All the well known names in dairy industry can be found in this volume either as writers of articles or as editors and founding editors.

Summing up, Dairy India is a source book for students, dairy scientists, dairy business, manufacturers of dairy equipment and veterinary medicines, to name a few.

Lastly, the cover. It shows a little girl pulling the family buffalo from the pond where it has been wallowing to her home. The caption, not provided on the cover but elsewhere is "Come home, mother" – the typical relationship between man and animal still found in Indian villages.

Source: Yojana, Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi

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