In 1977, the then finance minister, H.M. Patel – father of Amrita Patel, who later became chairperson of the NDDB – suggested to Dr Verghese Kurien an “Operation Flood” like project for edible oils via a farmers cooperative network based on the Amul model. The objective was self-reliance in edible oils through increased productivity, effective distribution and price stability through Market Intervention Operations (MIO) by NDDB, leading to improved farmer livelihoods. The intent of MIO was to handle 15% of the edible oil produced in the country to manage price fluctuations.
The project was named Operation Golden Flow. Central to the operation was the brand ‘Dhara’, which was created to build a market for the Indian oilseed grower. It was inspired by the wordmark of Dalda in green on a yellow background, the leader in vanaspati. This was a part of the market intervention operation. Dhara was launched in Delhi on August 23, 1988. Dhara pricing was kept low due to economies of scale and blending with the donated oil from CLUSA (Cooperative League of the USA), a strategy taken from the ‘pump priming’ of donated SMP and butter-oil during Operation Flood.
Thus, Dhara brought prices of domestic oil at par with cheaper imported edible oil...
[...]
This self-sufficiency continued till the Narsimha Rao government signed the WTO agreement in 1994 and edible oil was put under OGL (Open General License) with 65% duty. By 1998 we were again importing around 30% of our edible oil. We could never foresee then, what was in store in the near future.
Add new comment