T Nanda Kumar, first IAS chairman of NDDB, has resigned as chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the organisation that spearheaded the Operation Flood programme that made India self-sufficient in milk. He will relinquish charge from August 1. Kumar was appointed by the previous UPA government for a five-year term that would have ended in February 2019. Kumar will also cease to be chairman of NDDB-promoted companies and institutions, including Mother Dairy Fruit and Vegetable Private Ltd, Indian Immunologicals Ltd, IDMC Ltd and Institute of Rural Management, Anand. While Nanda Kumar cited "personal reasons" for his premature resignation, sources pointed to tensions with the Union Agriculture Ministry "which has always wanted NDDB to function like a public sector undertaking answerable to Krishi Bhawan". This was, in fact, suggested by Nanda Kumar in an internal email addressed to "members of the NDDB family" announcing his decision: "There comes a time in everyone's life when one's value system comes into serious conflict with the external environment. A point of compromise becomes a point of no return. I have reached such a point."