Dr. R.S. Sodhi, MD, GCMMF Elected as President of IDA
Dr. R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF has beenelected as the next President ofIndian Dairy Association (IDA) – dairy industry’s apex body in the country. Dr. Sodhi is the first dairy professional from the federation and second from Gujarat’s dairy sector to be elected as President of IDA.
In a CEC meeting held on August 13, 2022 after election, newly elected CEC team under the leadership of Dr. R.S. Sodhi took charge from the outgoing committee headed by Dr. G.S. Rajorhia at the formal hand over and take over ceremony.
Before Dr. Sodhi, late Dr. Verghese Kurien, Father of India’s White Revolution, had served as the President of IDA between 1964- 65. He was then working with the Amul Dairy. Speaking after the announcement of election results, Dr. Sodhi said, “It is an honour for me to represent the IDA because Dr. Kurien, my mentor, held the same position in 1964 and now I have got the opportunity to lead IDA after 58 years.” He further said that as far as dairy industry is concerned it is ‘Atmanirbhar’ (self sufficient) and has the potential to become “dairy to the world”.
Other office bearers and members elected are: Vice Presidents: Mr. Ajay Kumar Khosla and Mr. Arun Patil; Member General Category: Dr. Geeta Patel, Mr. C.P. Charles, Mr. Anil Barman and Mr. Rajesh Gajanan Lele; Member (Research Worker and Educationist) Category: Dr. Bimlesh Mann and Dr. Bikash Chandra Ghosh; Member (Professional and Planners) Category: Mr. Sanjeev Sinha and Dr. B.V.K. Reddy; Member (Milk Producers) Category: Mr. Ram Chandra Choudhary and Mr. Chetan Arun Narake and Member (Dairy Industry) Category: M/s Everest Instruments Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Amardeep Singh Chadha.
It was the first time that the IDA CEC election held online in end-to-end mode. The whole process of election took approximately one month time. Members appreciated the Election committee members for organizing the election in record time with minimum election expenditure. Online Election software was developed by ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI) under the leadership of Dr. Sudeep Marwah, Principal Scientist, Computer Division of the institute. This software will remain with IDA for the next one year as per the contract with the institute.