Verghese Kurien
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A timeline
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Nov 26, 1921: Verghese Kurien born in Calicut (now Kozhikode in Kerala) to a Syrian Christian family. Father Puthenpurackal Kurien a civil surgeon in Cochin, mother an accomplished pianist
1944: After graduating in physics from Loyola College, Chennai (1940), gets a BE from College of Engineering, Guindy
1944: Joins TISCO Technical Institute as graduate apprentice, then starts his career as office apprentice. Gets a govt scholarship to train for 9 months at Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandary & Dairying, Bangalore
1948: Completes a master’s in engineering from Michigan State University, US, with dairy engineering as a minor subject. Ranked 7th
13 May 1949: Arrives on central govt deputation at the Govt Research Creamery, Anand, to serve out his bond period. Does not like his stint
1949-end: Relieved from bond, is about to leave Anand when requested to stay back by Tribhuvandas Patel, chairman of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited, formed in 1946 at the initiative of Sardar Patel, Joins the cooperative and is soon asked by Patel to help set up a dairy processing plant, which sees the birth of Amul
June 15, 1953: Marries neighbour’s daughter, Molly, whom he met just days earlier, on May 28. They have a daughter, Nirmala
Oct 31, 1955: Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited) launched. Name taken from 'amoolya', meaning priceless, as suggested by a quality control expert in Anand. Amul plant, largest in Asia, inaugurated by Nehru who embraces Kurien. Kurien credited with being the first to produce powder from buffalo milk in the plant
1965: PM Lal Bahadur Shastri creates National Dairy Development Board to replicate Amul’s success nationally. Kurien is chairman
1965: Awarded Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan a yr later
1967: Ad agency ASP creates iconic Amul girl as a response to rival Polson's butter-girl
1970: NDDB launches ‘Operation Flood’ which helps make India the world’s largest milk producer. NDDB has since integrated 96,000 dairy cooperatives in a milk grid following the ‘Anand pattern’
1973: The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that now owns and markets Amul comes into being. It has since grown into a $2.5 bn entity and has 32 lakh farmers in its fold. India’s milk procurement has increased from 20 million metric tonnes per year in 1960s to 122 MMT in 2011
1998: Steps down as NDDB chairman after 33 years
1999: Given Padma Vibhushan
2006: Resigns as GCMMF chairman amid controversy
Early life
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
By Amrita Patel
Transformed a town he wanted to leave
Verghese Kurien came to Anand more than 60 years ago after completing his graduation in the US, intending to leave soon. But drawn by the power of an idea — milk producers cooperating to build a better life — he stayed. Today, after a lifetime of service that touched millions of lives, Kurien passed away in the small town he never left. When Kurien arrived in Anand, there was a fledgling dairy cooperative born of the Independence movement. The cooperative’s chairman, Tribhuvandasbhai Patel’s skill in motivating people combined with Dr Kurien’s entrepreneurial qualities, helped transform the business into a model for dairying. In 1964, then PM Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand and created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the spirit of Anand throughout India and asked Kurien to be its first chairman. Kurien accepted on the condition that the headquarters remained in Anand. Establishing some 1,50,000 cooperatives with about 15 million members, and leading India to become the world’s largest milk producer was no mean feat. He strode like a Titan across bureaucratic barriers at every stage of NDDB’s history. The ultimate tribute to Kurien would be to protect what he stood for. May his vision continue to guide us.
Father of Milk Revolution
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Prashant Rupera TNN
Dr Verghese Kurien did not like drinking milk, but as the father of the White Revolution, he turned India into a nation of milk drinkers. In the six decades he spent in Anand, he led India’s transformation from a milk-deficient country into one of the world’s biggest milk producers. It was under Kurien’s leadership that small-town Anand became the milk capital of India, housing institutions like the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the National Dairy Development Board (first helmed by Kurien) and the Institute of Rural Management.
Contributions
Amul
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
The Syrian Christian who could not speak Gujarati found it difficult to find a paying guest accommodation when he first reached the city of his destiny, Anand. But soon, Verghese Kurien would turn the small Gujarat town into the heart of India’s white revolution. In the process, Kurien would also stitch together a cooperative movement of millions of women and farmers into owning a brand which generations of Indians would be unable to forget — Amul. His model of cooperative dairy development today links over 10 million farmers at 200 dairies across India producing over 20 million litres of milk every day — a feat many other countries have copied but never at the same scale of success. Kurien had left a lucrative job to join a small-time dairy cooperative in Anand in 1949. At that time, the cooperative he joined managed just a few hundred litres of milk a day. By the time Kurien was ready to hand over the baton in 2006, the Amul brand was selling over 90 lakh litres a day. Awarded the Padma Vibhushan, Magsaysay Award besides numerous other accolades, Kurien gained respect and space to run the cooperative movement as he knew best.
Kurien, born in Kozhikode in 1921, leaves behind a legacy that outstrips his image as India’s milkman. This extraordinary agent of social transformation as chairman of the National Dairy Development Board began ‘Operation Flood’ that spanned 26 years and eventually ushered in the white revolution. He began it all by turning buffalo milk into milk powder: a feat that experts worldwide at that time thought was not possible. His model of cooperatives spun networks of farmers that first brought milk from Gujarat to Mumbai and then hooked up farmers across several states into the milk revolution. The business multiplied in areas beyond milk — bringing a sense of ownership and control to farmers. The success of ‘Operation Flood’ led to ‘Operation Goldenflow’ which replicated the Amul model in the edible oil business linking more than a million farmers yet again. Many developing countries replicated the success of Amul over time with experts pouring into Anand to learn how communities could be empowered through Kurien’s mantras. Kurien also set up the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, which has produced some of the best brains working on rural development and remains a unique institution.
It would be hard to find the right phrase to fit Kurien — an entrepreneur of world repute, a genius or as Nobel laureate Norman E Borlaug remembered him, “one of world’s great agricultural leaders of this century”.
Creater of modern Gujarat
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Kurien was the maker of modern Gujarat: Ela Bhatt
By Ela Bhatt
Amul in colloquial Gujarati means “priceless”. And that is what Verghese Kurien was and will remain for the people of Gujarat and India. He was the maker of modern Gujarat. He brought out the cooperative energies of Gujarat for common good. Generations of Gujaratis have grown up on the strength of milk security he produced in the state.
Logically, I have believed in unions and cooperatives. I believe that cooperatives are the only means to pull the poor out of financial crises. Naturally then, I had immense respect for Kurien who revolutionized the dairy cooperative in a way that it became a regular industry. Indeed, at a time when state transport buses were rarely seen in Gujarat’s villages, Amul milk tankers were a common sight. In Ahmedabad, there were many milk cooperatives, but they were in a financial mess. These were mostly run by men and were mismanaged. We at Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) wanted to rescue these cooperatives and consulted Kurien. However, we put forth a condition that these milk cooperatives should be managed only by women. Our argument was that women look after cattle, give them fodder, and milk them. And so we felt women should be made shareholders. Though Kurien did not follow the women-only model, he supported us. That is why 50 primary milk cooperatives run by SEWA women are a part of Amul. Kurien’s contribution to the life of a rural family goes beyond just forming milk cooperatives. National Dairy Development Board, Kurien’s brainchild, stressed on research and training. This brought the most advanced milk-processing technology to rural Gujarat. Farmers were trained to give the right feed to cattle, and were also given access to veterinary expertise which helped marginal farmers produce more and earn more. No wonder then that the Gujarat movement was replicated by other states. He was a farmer’s best friend. And as he has bid farewell, I sincerely hope that his legacy is taken forward for further benefit of farmers.: (As told to Radha Sharma)
Manthan
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
Srijana Mitra Das TNN
‘Manthan’, produced by 5L farmers
Kurien never suffered fools,” remembers Shyam Benegal. “You knew exactly where you stood with him — while he always stood his ground. He was a difficult, irascible —and wonderful — man.” Benegal would know. Dr Kurien and the acclaimed filmmaker began working together in the early 1970s when Benegal was a part of the ASP advertising company where Sylvester da Cunha took on Kurien’s Amul campaign. “The first product was Amul Milk Food for babies,” Benegal recounts. “It was made of buffalo milk. Everyone told Kurien it wouldn’t work. He didn’t listen — it worked. Brilliantly.” Kurien’s engagement with how Amul was portrayed to India’s public didn’t stop there. When Benegal was leaving advertising to make films, Kurien offered him two documentaries tracing the cooperative movement.
While researching, Benegal made a remark to Kurien. “I said, ‘These documentaries are fine but they’re basically preaching to the converted. They’re not for the general public.’ He replied — very brusquely, ‘What’s your suggestion?’ I told him I wanted to make a feature film. He said, ‘Why not?’ I didn’t have the money for it. ‘How much will it cost?’ he wanted to know. I said 10 lakh.” At that time, there were 5,00,000 farmers in the Gujarat co-operative movement. Kurien sent out a message saying if they were willing to forsake two rupees of their daily payment, this film could be made. They all agreed. And so “Manthan” happened, winning popular acclaim and National Awards When the film was made, there was a problem releasing it. He said, ‘I will release it,’ and did across Gujarat, where farmers came in lorries to see the film! The popularity of Manthan grew then on as did the co-operative movement.”
The New Zealand connection
New Zealand apologized for ‘brown’ tag
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
One conquered the snow white peaks and the other started the white revolution. And when they met they discussed colour. Few would know that Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mt Everest in 1953, had paid a visit to “the country’s milkman” Verghese Kurien to offer an apology. Hillary, who died in 2008, had paid a visit to Kurien in 1986 in Anand after the man who revolutionized India’s dairy sector was upset with the New Zealand government for racial discrimination. Kurien had gone to New Zealand as India’s representative at the International Dairy Federation Congress but had returned from the country after he was asked to fill in a form because he was brown. The form — called Form A — was to be filled along with the visa by those participants, who hailed from non-White countries. Kurien objected to the New Zealand government and told them that we should not be subjected to such discrimination and left for India. After his return, the then PM asked Hillary to meet him and apologize on behalf of New Zealand. Hillary was then NZ high commissioner in India.
New Zealand's suspicion on the indigenous Buffalo's milk production in India
[ From the archives of the Times of India]
For centuries, the holy cow has hogged the limelight in the land of Lord Krishna. It was Verghese Kurien who gave buffaloes their due. In July 2007, when TOI requested him to pose for a photo with a cow, Kurien insisted that the picture be taken with a buffalo, as a huge percentage of milk consumed by Indians was from buffaloes. His remark wasn’t without reason. In mid-1950s, Kurien and his team were pioneers in inventing the process of making milk powder from buffalo’s milk instead of cow’s. Later, it was this invention that helped Amul successfully compete against Nestle which used only cow’s milk. Dairy experts worldwide had snubbed Amul’s idea. “In fact, director of dairy research in New Zealand, William Riddet, came to Anand and asked me ‘Why are you such a bloody fool? Why are you working on a project that is bound to fail?’”Kurien had told TOI. According to him, NZ did not want India to produce milk powder as India was a major market for them. Today, India produces 1,65,000 tonnes of milk powder, several times more than NZ.
