35 Facts About Verghese Kurien

Verghese Kurien, known as the "Father of the White Revolution" in India, was a social entrepreneur whose "billion-litre idea", Operation Flood, made dairy farming India's largest self-sustaining industry and the largest rural employment sector providing a third of all rural income.

Verghese Kurien made India self-sufficient in edible oils and fought against the "oil kings", who used underhanded and violent methods to enforce their dominance over the oilseed industry.

Verghese Kurien attended school at Diamond Jubilee Higher Secondary School, Gobichettipalayam, in Coimbatore district while his father worked at the government hospital there.

Verghese Kurien joined Loyola College at the age of 14, graduated in physics in 1940, and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, which at that time was part of the University of Madras, in 1943.

Verghese Kurien's father died when he was 22 years old.

Verghese Kurien wanted to join the army as an engineer, but his mother persuaded him to join the Tata Steel Technical Institute, Jamshedpur, on a recommendation by his uncle, who was a director with the Tatas, and from where he graduated in 1946.

Verghese Kurien soon wanted to disassociate with his uncle's sycophants.

Verghese Kurien left and applied for a scholarship provided by the government of India, and chose to study dairy engineering.

Verghese Kurien was sent to the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry in Bangalore where he spent nine months before being sent to America to study at Michigan State University, on a government scholarship.

Verghese Kurien returned with a master's degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in nuclear physics in 1948.

In 1949, Verghese Kurien was sent by the government of India to its run-down, experimental creamery at Anand, Bombay province to serve five years as an officer in the dairy division.

Verghese Kurien spent time going to Bombay city on weekends and under the pretext of work, volunteered to tinker with the primitive dairy equipment of Tribhuvandas Patel, who sought his help to process the milk of farmers he had brought together after a strike in 1946, and formed a cooperative to purchase their milk at nearby Kaira.

Verghese Kurien decided to quit the government job mid-way and leave Anand but was persuaded by Patel to stay with him after quitting them, and help him set up his dairy cooperative.

Verghese Kurien established the dairy cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited, at Anand, in the year 1950.

In 1956, Verghese Kurien visited Nestle in Switzerland at the invitation of the commerce and industries minister, to ask them to reduce imports of Indian production and have more Indians inducted, but they told him that making condensed milk "could not be left to the natives".

Verghese Kurien returned to India and boosted Amul's production and market of condensed milk; after two years the government banned the import of condensed milk into the country.

Nehru, who trusted Verghese Kurien, cut imports of butter in tandem, with Verghese Kurien promising and delivering an incremental increase of his production to eliminate butter shortage.

Verghese Kurien had to divert these away from his civilian market.

When Polson started grabbing his market share, Verghese Kurien ensured the government froze Polson's production lines, as part of the war effort.

In 1965, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri tasked Verghese Kurien to replicate the dairy's Anand scheme nationwide for which, the National Dairy Development Board was founded under Verghese Kurien on his conditions, that it be independent of governmental control and that it be set up at Anand, away from the capitals and closer to farmers.

Verghese Kurien was mindful of meddling by the political class and bureaucrats sitting in the capital cities, letting it be known upfront.

Verghese Kurien was negotiated with donors like the UNICEF for aid and confronted the New Zealand government and a lobbies in countries which he realised wanted to "convert aid into trade" for their companies, contrary to his ideal of India becoming self-sufficient.

Verghese Kurien used the proceeds from the sale of that "mountains and lakes" of dumped aid in the Indian markets as his "billion-litre idea" to encourage the movement of high-yield native cattle to urban areas and set up milksheds and dairy farms nationwide to stabilise the dairy markets of big cities.

Shastri took Verghese Kurien's help to manage the Delhi Milk Scheme; Verghese Kurien swiftly corrected prices.

Verghese Kurien was inspired by prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi's methods on setting up cooperatives and plants, Indira's intervention in fruits and vegetables, and Rajiv's intervention in oilseeds and edible oil markets.

Verghese Kurien was crucial in setting up similar cooperatives across India and beyond.

Verghese Kurien resigned from the position of GCMMF Chairman in 2006 after dwindling support from new members on the governing board and mounting dissent from his proteges backed by political forces desperate to make inroads into the cooperative dairy's district unions.

Verghese Kurien got his half a million member-farmers to contribute two rupees to make the movie, which was released in 1976.

Verghese Kurien's support was crucial in making the "Amul girl" ad campaign as one of the longest running, and Surabhi, a TV series on Indian culture fetching millions of postcards from viewers, one of the longest running on national television during the 1990s.

Book was given the synopsis 'The story of Dr Verghese Kurien is the story of Amul.

Verghese Kurien died from an illness at the age of 90 on 9 September 2012 at a Nadiad hospital, near Anand.

Verghese Kurien was brought up as a Christian before becoming an atheist.

Verghese Kurien was cremated and is survived by a daughter, Nirmala, and grandson.

Verghese Kurien had been bestowed with honorary degrees by the Michigan State University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Verghese Kurien either headed or was on the boards of several public institutions and received honorary doctorate degrees from universities worldwide.