Academic Qualifications:

• Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management, 1980 - 1982 Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), (Gujarat), India
• B.E. (Ag.) 1975 – 1980. College of Technology and Agricultural Engineering (CTAE), Udaipur (Rajasthan), India

Present Assignments:

• President, Indian Dairy Association (IDA)
• Board Member, International Dairy Federation
• Chairman - NIFTEM -T
• Member, Editorial Board of IDA

Work Experience:

• Dr. R S Sodhi has worked as Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., (AMUL) Anand Gujarat during 2010 to 2022, is a first-batch alumnus from IRMA, Anand, India and obtained his B.E.(Ag) degree from CTAE, Udaipur, India.
• For almost three decades, Dr. Sodhi has worked under direct guidance & mentorship of the legendary Dr. Verghese Kurien (father of dairy cooperative movement in India) and has ensured that values cherished by Dr. Kurien, such as integrity, dedication, courage, honesty, commitment to farmers and to consumers, remained deeply ingrained in the culture of Amul.
• Dr. Sodhi has 40 years of rich experience in leading & developing cooperative sector within Indian dairy industry, having served dairy farmers in several capacities. Due to Dr. Sodhi’s leadership, Amul accounts for 27% of organized dairy industry, within India. He has inspired Amul to achieve 8th position on the list of top milk processors of the world and win several national and international awards for innovations in dairy sector.
• Under his leadership, Amul was able to collect higher quantity of milk from more number of farmers. This enabled the cooperative to double its membership base from 17 lakhs farmer-members in the year 1993 to 36.3 lakhs farmer-members in the year 2022 and number of villages from 8900 to 18600 societies in the year 2022.
• Over the years, Dr. Sodhi has helped to expand Amul cooperative network by facilitating addition of seven new district level dairy cooperative Unions into Amul family, as members of GCMMF i.e. Amreli, Bhavnagar, Junagadh, Kutch, Porbandar, Morbi, Botad and Jamnagar. Currently, these dairy cooperatives are procuring around 40 lakhs liters of per day and milk producer members are getting around Rs. 16 – 17 crores per day.
• Dr. R S Sodhi took over as Managing Director of GCMMF (Amul) in the year 2010. Under his leadership, milk procurement price paid by Amul to farmers increased by 140%, in the last 10 years, from Rs. 337 per Kg-fat in 2009-10 to Rs. 835 per Kg-Fat in 2021-22.
• In fact, since he took over as National Head of Marketing, Sales & Distribution function at Amul head office in 1993, the business turnover of Amul has grown 47 fold from Rs. 980 crores in the year 1994-95, to Rs. 46,550 in the year 2021-22. In fact, during 2020-21, Group turnover of Amul exceeds Rs. 61,000 crores.
• Through remunerative prices and technological support, Dr. R S Sodhi encouraged the farmers of Amul to increase milk procurment by 194% in the last 11 years, from 91 lakhs litres per day in 2009-10 to 267 lakhs litres per day in 2021-22 . During the same period (last eleven years), under the leadership of Dr. R S Sodhi, the business turnover of GCMMF has grown by 481% from Rs. 8005 crores in 2009-10 to Rs. 46,550 crores during 2020-21.
• Under the leadership of Dr. R S Sodhi, GCMMF through its constituent Member Unions has started procuring milk from farmers of several other states of India outside Gujarat, including Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Goa, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. Dr. R S Sodhi has ensured that benefits of Amul cooperative movement extends to farmers across India. Leveraging on his vast experience in Indian dairy development, Dr. Sodhi helped the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir to revive & develop its dairy industry, based on Amul cooperative model. Recently, under his leadership GCMMF has singed Memorandum of Understanding for revival of dairy industry of Andhra Pradesh.
• During the last 11 years, no. of Bulk milk coolers deployed at village level has almost four times from 1802 to 7000. Number of villages having automatic milk collection systems using latest technology has increased by 95% in last 10 years.
• Under the leadership of Dr. R S Sodhi, in order to improve productivity of animal, Amul has initiated Strategic Productivity Enhancement Programme. Under this programme set of activities like Artificial Insemination, Pure breeding, Calf rearing, vaccination, deworming, supply of sexed semen doses etc. is carried out to improve productivity of milch animals. Similarly, to provide nutritionally balanced Total Milk Ration at lower cost for better milk productivity and animal health, Amul is encouraging its member unions to initiate Total Mixed Ration project. To improve fertility of animal, Amul has initiated Fertility Improvement Programme (FIP). Under this programme a dedicated and experienced team of Veterinary doctors conducted animal camps in selected villages. Under his leadership, 36 lakhs farmers of Amul Cooperative movement, have planted 8.6 crores saplings over 14 year period, to help conserve our natural environment.
• To provide balanced nutrition to milch animals of milk producer members, member unions of Amul is supplying around 10,000 MTs of cattle feed on daily basis to more than 18,600 villages at no profit no loss business policy
• Under his leadership, Amul has created 410 lakhs liter per day milk handling capacity. Under his guidance, it was also decided to increase milk processing capacity from current level to around 430 to 450 lakhs liter per day in next couple of years.
• He focused on integrating the all business processes through the use of Information Technology. He not only championed the implementation of the first ERP at Amul in 2000, but also steered the implementation of SAP across Amul (GCMMF) in 2011 and its district-level constituent Member Unions in the last eleven years.
• Dr. R S Sodhi has engineered the expansion of Amul’s product portfolio, inspiring launches of several innovative & pioneering products, which has helped brand Amul to retain its leadership, in almost every segment in which it operates. Infact, Amul is launching 1 product every 15 days during last five years.
• Dr. R S Sodhi has helped create 4 unique and distinct distribution highways for Amul, based on temperature requirements for storage and transportation. The highways are Frozen, Chilled, Fresh and Ambient. GCMMF became the only organization in India, to successfully manage all the four distribution highways. Through these 4 distribution highways, Amul products manufactured at 94 dairy pants are supplied to 130 warehouses and then to 10,000 distributors and 1 million scattered retail shops.
• Since 1994, Dr. Sodhi has been part of leadership team at Amul, which spearheaded Total Quality Management in Amul. TQM helped to transform the organizational culture, equipping it with the means to meet the challenges of liberalization.
• During the year 2019, to safeguard the interest of millions of milk producer members of India against the consequences of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), Dr. Sodhi lead the battle and convince policy maker not to include dairy under agreement.

Awards and Fellowships:

• Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris-Causa) by Shri O P Kohli, the Honorable Governor of Gujarat and Honorable Chancellor of Anand Agriculture University on 21st December 2018 at 15th Annual convocation.
• Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Tokyo, Japan regional award as Asia Pacific productivity Champion on 9th June 2021
• Life time achievement award by honorable president of India on behalf of the All India Food Processors Association on 20th December 2018 at New Delhi.
• Innovating For A Better Tomorrow By CNN-IBN & CNBC-Tv18 On 28/03/2014 At Delhi and Award received from Shri N. R. Narayana Murthy, Co-founder of Infosys.
• All India Management Association (AIMA) Public Service Excellence Award received from Shri Piyush Goyal, Hon’ble Minister Commerce & Railways, Government of India.
• R S Sodhi Awarded “Marketer Of The Year” By International Advertising Association Of India July 2018.
• IMC Distinguished Alumnus Award 2015 @ 6th Indian Management Conclave (IMC) 2015 - Hosted By ISB Hyderabad
• Bhamashah Award By CAIT (The Confederation of All India Traders) On June 2012 At Delhi

Dr. R S Sodhi has been continuously striving to make ‘Amul’ a globally known name. The remarkable story of this dairy cooperative has been chronicled, documented in various journals and discussed as a case study in numerous forums. This relentless advocacy of Indian dairy cooperatives and Indian dairy industry has led Dr. Sodhi to participate in several International seminars an conferences. Some of these are :-

• Harvard Business School India Convention – March 2009
• Poverty, Agriculture And Rural Transformation In India Conference Attended At Seattle, Washington, USA Organized By Bills & Melinda Gates Foundation
• Dr. V Kurien, Memorial Lecture At Michigan State University September 2017
• As An Expert On FAO Symposium On Agricultural Innovation – June 2018 in Rome
• Global Dairy Congress – St. Petersburg – Russia: June'11
• Indian Dairy Association (IDA) Dairy Industry Conference: Several Years
• IDF (International Dairy Federation) World Dairy Summit : Parma - Italy : October 2011, Lithuania 2015, Rotterdam - 2016, Belfast - 2017, South Korea - 2018 and Istanbul - 2019
• Anuga Foodtec: Separation & Drying Technologies For Milk & Whey, Cologne, Germany During March 2018
• International Cooperative Alliance, Canada – October 2016

Dr. R S Sodhi is a member of the Boards and Governing bodies of several organizations and institutions. He has actively participated in formulating and influencing National policy on several industrial sectors including, dairy industry and export sector. Some of the organizations in which Dr. Sodhi is a board member / director are:

• Member Panel to Draft - National Cooperation Policy Document, Government of India
• Board of Director on International Dairy Federation (IDF)
• XII Plan Working Group On Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Planning Commission, Government Of India
• Member Executive Council of Jammu & Kashmir State Rural Livelihood Mission, Government of Jammu & Kashmir
• Advisory committee of the Center for Management in Agriculture of IIMA
• Agricultural And Processed Food Products, Export Development Authority (APEDA)
• Member of NDDB Foundation Of Nutrition
• Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., Anand
• Kaira District Co-Operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd., Anand, Sabarkantha District Co-Operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd., Sabarkantha and Banaskantha District CoOperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd., Palanpur
• Jammu & Kashmir Milk Producers Cooperative Union Ltd
• Sardar Patel Trust, Karamsad
• Member of Task Force on Biotechnological Approaches For Food And Nutritional Security.
• Member of Standing Committee On Marketing Of International Dairy Federation.
• Member of National Institute Of Food Technology Entrepreneurship And Management (NIFTEM)
• Member of Agriculture Production Commissioner of Government of Uttar Pradesh for promoting designating, branding and marketing of products
• State Level Executive Committee (SLEC) Under National Livestock Mission
• Committee Member For Deemed University Status For IRMA & Design Post Graduation Programme
• Advisory council on Centre of Excellence for Dairy Skills in India (CEDSI)
• Governing board of Council of International Economic Understanding (CIEU)