NCCD was registered under the Society Registration Act, 1860 and given sanction by the Union Cabinet of India on 9 February 2012[2] in a session chaired by the country's Prime Minister.

This task force was discharged in 2010 on completing its mandate and in its report recommended that a dedicated institute be established to promote and coordinate various cold-chain initiatives undertaken by different government arms and the private industry.

The Government of India is one of the driving forces in developing the cold-chain industry and supports private participation through various subsidy schemes and grants.

While this specific produce is not native to India and is harvested only once only during winter, the success of cold-chain intervention has made potatoes available all through the year and is now considered part of the country's staple diet.

In the previous two decades, India has been developing at a quick pace and an increasing demand for high-value foods with a shift towards horticultural crops has been documented.

Various reports indicated that 18% to 40% of this produce was lost due to supply chain inefficiencies, concluding that a focused effort was required to promote the development of the cold-chain in the country.

Amongst the core identified development areas are the base infrastructure,[4] environmentally friendly technologies, standards, and protocols, enabling policies and specialised skills.

NCCD is overseen by a Governing Council and an Executive Committee, with equal representation of public and private sectors, chaired by the Secretary (A&C, Ministry of Agriculture).

It restructured the organization and added the position of Chief Executive Officer, to be filled by an industry stalwart with hands-on domain experience.

[5] In this duration, the first CEO also served, in individual capacity, as the Chief Advisor to the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, on topics of supply chain and postharvest management in India.

[7] NCCD is tasked with objectives [8] of national importance which include, In India, while almost 15% of fruits and vegetables have access to cold storage capacity, less than 5% of such goods are precooled or get transported in the cold-chain.

[15] Another initiative by NCCD is that of bringing synergistic uses to village level refrigerated pack-houses so as to benefit social and welfare needs of rural communities.