Demonetisation effect: Spending on milk and milk products fell in 2017-18

The amount spent on milk and milk products (M&MP) dropped 10%. While households, hotels, and halwai shops spent Rs 6 trn on M&MP in 2016-17, consumption expenditure reduced to Rs 5.4 trn in 2017-18

There would hardly be any Indian who does not remember the advertisement in the 1990s under Operation Flood with the lyric “Doodh hai wonderful”.

It was to popularise milk across the country’s demographics by showing a schoolgirl, a bodybuilder, and an aged couple enjoying milk. It was prescient in the sense that milk production and consumption more than doubled in two decades.

But something unusual happened in 2017-18. The amount spent on milk and milk products (M&MP) dropped 10 per cent. While households, hotels, and halwai shops spent Rs 6 trillion on M&MP in 2016-17, consumption expenditure reduced to Rs