Mr. Praful Patel, Vice President, South Asia Region, World Bank visited Anand on Friday, January 20, 2006, to study the impact of the Amul Model of Dairy Development on the growth of India's dairy industry. He was accompanied by Ms. Priya Basu, Lead Economist, and Shri Inderbir Singh Dhingra, Specialist, Finance and Private Sector, World Bank. They held wide ranging discussions with Dr V. Kurien, Chairman and Shri BM Vyas, Managing Director GCMMF.

He lauded the efforts of the cooperatives in creating prosperity in the villages by providing sustainable income to the farmers. He believed that there was a scope for replication of this model in several countries of Africa where the farmers face severe poverty.

He and his team also interacted with Faculty members at IRMA and visited the Amul Dairy. They were impressed by the progress made by the dairy over the last 6 decades.