Dr Kurien, a true Ratna in people's heart!

What is the point in asking for a Bharat Ratna for Dr Verghese Kurien, the father of White Revolution in India after he is not more? His yeoman contribution to the development of dairy industry in India and in the process making India one of the largest global producer of milk should have been recognised  when he was alive. As his personal assistant rightly pointed out, we do not want posthumous award.

 

Dr Verghese Kurien spent his entire life in the small town of Anand, Gujarat. He was former chairman of Anand Milk Union Ltd (Amul) and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Dr Kurien breathed his last at around 2 am on Sunday in a local hospital in Anand. He was 90 and is survived by his wife Molly and their daughter Nirmala.  

 

Often referred to as the "Milkman of India", Dr Kurien was responsible for helping make India the largest milk producer in the world with close to 17 per cent of the global production. The Operation Flood that he launched was the largest dairy development programme in the world and it helped to replicate the Anand model of cooperative dairying across India.  

 

Among other things, he helped found the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), an apex cooperative organization of milk producers that manages the famous Amul food brand. Dr Kurien set up the GCMMF in 1973 and served as its chairman until he resigned in 2006. The Government had honoured Dr Kurien with the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second highest civilian honour, in 1999. 

 

Dr Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 and graduated in Physics from Loyola College in Madras in 1940. He then obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, then a part of the University of Madras.  

 

He went on to join the Tata Steel Technical Institute, from where he graduated in 1946. He then won a government scholarship to do his Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from the Michgan State University in the United States. He also did nine months of specialized training in dairy engineering at the National Dairy Research Institute in Bangalore.  

 

Dr Kurien began work as a dairy engineer in Anand at the Government Research Creamery there in 1949. Later, his work with the local Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union to build an in-house processing plant and handle its on marketing led to the birth of Amul, which is now one of the largest food product businesses in India, having pipped competitors to the post. 

 

Based on the dramatic success of Amul, then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri created the National Dairy Development Board in 1965 and appointed Dr Kurien as its first chairman, a position he held until 1998. His task was to replicate the Anand model nationally. NDDB's Operation Flood helped dairy farmers to own and operate milk production, processing and marketing for the urban areas around the country. When the programme began in 1970, India's annual milk procurement was around 190,000 tons with 278,000 farmers involved.  

 

By 1998, when he left NDDB, its programmes involved more than 10 million dairy producers in 81,000 cooperatives, supplying nearly 5 million tons of milk annually to more than 1000 cities and towns across the country. India became the largest producer of milk in the world in 1998, surpassing the United States.  

 

His efforts in NDDB helped to stabilize milk price in India and ensure an adequate supply of hygienic milk to India's towns and cities while assuring millions of small farmers and landless labourers, who make up the majority of dairy cooperative membership, a regular source of income. Operation Flood also helped to build the dairy equipment industry in India, with some 95 per cent of the equipment used in NDDB cooperatives domestically produced. The success of Operation Flood inspired NDDB to try out its application in other commodities such as fruits and vegetables and vegetable oil.  

 

Dr Kurien also helped to establish the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) in 1979 at Anand, where NDDB is located and the town where he lived for more than six decades. The institute has since then produced hundreds of specialists in the management and development of rural cooperatives, non-governmental organizations and civic groups.   

 

During his long and distinguished career, Dr Kurien has also served as the Chancellor of the University of Allahabad, and as chairman of the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India Limited, the Indian Dairy Cooperation and the Gujarat Electricity Board.  

 

Dr Kurien wrote a book entitled An Unfinished Dream which includes his speeches, and which begins with a foreword by World Food Prize Founder Dr. Norman Borlaug. 

 

Never mind Sir! Bharat Ratna or not you will always remain one of India’s Ratna in the heart of millions of Indian who have grown up on ‘Amul’ butter and cheese. And in the hearts of poor farmers whose life you changed. 

 

RIP Dr Kurien.