Verghese Kurien

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien (born November 26, 1921 at Kozhikode, Kerala) is called the father of the White Revolution in India. He is also known as the Milkman of India.

He was the chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd.(GCMMF). GCMMF is an apex cooperative organization that manages the Amul food brand. He is recognised as the man behind the success of the Amul brand.

He is credited with architecting Operation Flood -- the largest dairy development program in the world. Kurien, set up the Anand model of cooperative dairy development, engineered the White Revolution in India, and made India the largest milk producer in the world.

1 Education
2 Career
3 The White Revolution
4 Awards
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Education

Kurien graduated with Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940 and then did B.E. (Mech) from the University of Madras. After completing his degree, he joined the Tata Steel Technical Institute, Jamshedpur from where he graduated in 1946. He then went to USA on a government scholarship to earn his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (with distinction) from Michigan State University.

[edit] Career

When he came back to India, he was posted as a dairy engineer at the government creamery, Anand, in May 1949. Around the same time, the infant cooperative dairy, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited (KDCMPUL), -- now famous as Amul -- was fighting a battle with the Polson Dairy, which was privately owned. Young Kurien, fed up with being at the government creamery, which held no challenge, volunteered to help Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, to set up a processing plant. This marked the birth of AMUL.

[edit] The White Revolution

Kurien has since then built this organization into one of the largest and most successful institutions in India. The Amul pattern of cooperatives had been so successful, in 1965, then Prime Minister of India, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) (NDDB) to replicate the program on a nationwide basis citing Kurien's "extraordinary and dynamic leadership" upon naming him chairman.

Kurien also set up GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) in 1973 to sell the products produced by the dairies. Today GCMMF sells AMUL brand products not only in India but also overseas.

Kurien, plays a key role in many other organizations, ranging from chairing the Viksit Bharat Foundation, a body set up by the President of India to chairman of the Institute of Rural Management's Board of Governors in India.