- Why in news
- On 4 August 2026 the Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Minister told the Lok Sabha about progress under NPDD, Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission and animal health preparedness.
- What it is
- The National Programme for Dairy Development (NPDD) funds dairy infrastructure such as chilling capacity, quality testing and village dairy cooperatives. The Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) works on indigenous cattle breed development, artificial insemination and genetic improvement. Both are run by the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying.
- NPDD cooperatives
- NPDD has helped organise 36,611 new dairy cooperative societies and strengthened 34,557 village-level societies as of June 2026.
- MAITRI
- MAITRIs are Multi-Purpose Artificial Insemination Technicians in Rural India; 47,687 have been trained under RGM.
- AHIDF
- Projects approved under the Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund have a milk processing and value addition capacity of 418 lakh litres per day.
- LHDCP vaccination
- LHDCP vaccination covers Foot and Mouth Disease, Brucellosis, Peste des Petits Ruminants and Classical Swine Fever.
- NLM entrepreneurship
- The NLM Entrepreneurship Development Programme has sanctioned 4,291 projects with subsidies of ₹1,356.53 crore, run on a digitised portal.
- Mock exercise
- Pashujanya Yudh Abhyas, a national mock drill for zoonotic outbreaks, was held in Madhya Pradesh from 29 June to 3 July 2026.
Don’t confuse with NPDD vs RGM: NPDD builds dairy infrastructure and cooperatives; RGM improves cattle breeds through insemination and genetics.
Don’t confuse with NLM vs LHDCP: NLM supports breed farms, fodder and entrepreneurship; LHDCP handles animal vaccination and disease control.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Dairy cooperatives and chilling capacity link small farmers to organised markets.
- Breed improvement and vaccination raise productivity and protect rural livelihoods.
Problems
- Procurement and retail price gaps may leave farmers without remunerative prices; the Department says it has received no report of this.
- Zoonotic disease risk needs sustained surveillance, laboratory capacity and coordination between States.
Way forward
- Expand cooperative coverage and quality testing while monitoring farmer price realisation.
- Repeat mock drills and strengthen surveillance under a One Health approach.
Put in your answer
Artificial insemination reach: Over 17.27 crore artificial inseminations in five years benefited nearly 5.98 crore farmers.
Chilling capacity: About 168 lakh litres per day of milk chilling capacity has been created under NPDD.
- 2015Mains GS3 · Q2Measures to promote livestock rearing for non-farm rural employment and income in India
- 2013Mains GS3 · Q6Strengthening measures to promote the pink revolution for nutrition and health
- 2025Prelims Q30Statements on Rashtriya Gokul Mission's aims for indigenous cattle and buffalo conservation
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Schemes on the syllabus, but parliamentary reply mainly gives progress data.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.