The need for dairy professionals to run the ever progressing Indian dairy industry has been felt because of “Void” created due to tremendous growth of Dairy Industry and lack of trained Dairy Professional resulted in to origin of Sheth MC College of Dairy Science, Anand in 1961. The college provided quality dairy education to the aspiring students from all over India. In order to stay ahead in the era of competitiveness, the curriculum of the course was updated from time to time. A similar incident happened in 1987. The “necessity” of providing practical exposure to the dairy graduates and to make them ‘Industry- Ready’ led once again to an “invention”. An ICAR-NDDB joint panel was formed to amend the curriculum of Dairy Science subjects. Some changes that were made on that fateful day were:

1. Degree nomenclature was changed from B.Sc. (DT) to B.Tech. (DT).
2. The degree of 4 years included one year training programme.
3. Students were to be paid stipend for their in-plant training of one year.

However ever increasing as well as constant demand of skilled professional gained momentum, and the lacuna in the Dairy education system was churned by the great visionary and the Father of White Revolution Dr. V. Kurien in to conceiving Vidya Dairy to fulfil the dream of providing excellent practical training facilities to the students in to the live stream of commercial dairy environment like other big co-operative dairies.

The Vidya Dairy, spread across 20 acres of land, has been a helping hand for all the students of Sheth M.C College of Dairy Science, Anand by making them competent and preparing them for the dairy industry.

Vidya Dairy is a unique model in itself because not only it is working for a noble cause but also it is autonomous. Vidya Dairy receives milk from Amul Dairy, Anand. The raw chilled milk reaches the dairy in road tankers of varying capacity and it is then processed and transformed into various products like Market milk, Ice-Cream, Dahi, Cheese, Ghee, Paneer etc. All necessary care is taken to ensure that all the products comply with FSSAI requiements in the quality and food safety. The products manufactured at Vidya Dairy are sold under the brand name of ‘Amul-The Taste of India’ through the distribution channel managed by Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, (GCMMF Ltd), Anand. The aforesaid activities of the dairy helps in the financial viability of the plant and also for achieving its main mission i.e. Student training.

So its objectives and statutory status are totally different from other commercial dairy plants. Vidya Dairy is “Of the students, For the Students and By the students”. Previously Vidya Dairy was registered under section 25 of Company Act, 1956 – "as not for profit institution". Recently the said act was replaced in section 8 of Company Act, 2013.

Vidya Dairy has an installed capacity of 1, 00,000 litres of milk handling per day. For making the training programme effective, the hands-on training is imparted through 12 modules in different sections varying from production to engineering and accounts to administration which enables the students to get the knowledge of each and every process which is carried out in any commercial dairy plant. Students are enriched with the activities like:
1. Training at Amul Dairy Plant at Anand and Amul Chocolate Plant at Mogar for dried Milk, Butter, Fat Spread and Chocolate.
2. Training at Mansingh Institute of Training (MIT), Mehsana.
3. Involvement of Students in various activities such as Cost Control, ISO, HACCP, TQM, Apex Steering Council, SQC, Kaizen, House Keeping etc.
4. Participation of students in Market Survey, Consumer Awareness Programme.
5. Training on GMP, GHP, Allergen Awareness, ISO: 22000:2018, ISO: 9001:2015 and ISO: 14001:2015 standards.
6. Training module on ‘Self Motivation’, ‘Total Quality Management’, ‘Communication and Interview Skills’.
7. Interactive guest faculty sessions with the former College Faculty, Alumni, Dairy Professionals, Statutory Authorities and suppliers like Danisco, Dupont, Sealed Air, Chr. Hansen, Ecolab, Diversey and Kirloskar Pneumatics etc.
8. Monthly Feedback meetings in presence of Faculty from Dairy Science College for gap analysis.

-The main purpose of Vidya Dairy is to provide one year hands-on-experience to the students of Sheth M.C College of Dairy Science, AAU, Anand pursuing the studies of B.Tech (Dairy Technology).

-Vidya Dairy is also engaged in milk marketing in Anand and its adjoining townships, manufacture and marketing of a variety of milk products like Ice Cream, Ghee, Paneer and Cheese.

- To conduct short term external training programmes to train the workforce of Dairy Industry.

-Close association with the Plant Process Development wing of the NDDB and GCMMFL in carrying out research and development activities linked to milk processing and product development.

VISION

Vision of Vidya Dairy is “To excel in training professionals for the dairy industry by bringing them in touch with the emerging new technologies”.

MISSION

Mission of Vidya Dairy is “To organize elaborate hands-on training programmes for the students of Sheth M.C College of Dairy Science, Anand and for working professionals from the industry. This requires manufacture of dairy products by the use of modern dairy processes and green technology”.

MANDATE

Impart ‘Hands – on’ experience to the students and inculcate work culture of Quality, Productivity, Energy Conservation and Environment Protection; Maintain commercial viability & contribute towards product and process development.