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Verghese Kurien, fondly called the “milkman of India,” for his efforts in turning the country into the world’s largest milk producer, died yesterday at 90.
Kurien is credited with being the architect of the world’s largest co-operative dairy development programme, Operation Flood, which was launched in the western state of Gujarat in the 1970s.
Today, an estimated 10mn farmers across India produce more than 20mn litres of milk every day.
“It is with a deep sense of sadness that I have to inform you that Dr Kurien, father of the White Revolution, passed away in Nadiad, central Gujarat, early Sunday,” the chief of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, R S Sodhi, told reporters.
Sodhi said Kurien had been suffering from kidney problems for the past few months.
Kurien won many awards including the World Food Prize, the Magsaysay Award and top Indian honours such as the Padma Bhushan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Vice-president Hamid Ansari, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani joined others in paying tributes to Kurien.
Singh said in a condolence message that Kurien was an outstanding and innovative manager and an exceptional human being.
“His contribution to the welfare of the farmer and agricultural production and development of the country is immeasurable,” he said.
“In his long and illustrious career, Dr Kurien set up the Anand model of co-operative dairy development, engineered the White Revolution, and made India the largest milk producer in the world,” the prime minister said.
“Dr Kurien was an icon of India’s co-operative movement and the dairy industry,” Singh said in a condolence message sent to his widow Molly.
Gandhi said Kurien was a man of extraordinary vision, whose achievements in the dairy industry empowered hundreds of thousands of farmers, created a model for milk co-operatives that has inspired millions of others.
“Operation Flood that he launched remains a proud landmark in the history of modern India and is admired and emulated the world over,” the Congress chief said.
“We will always honour his memory and draw inspiration from his life,” she said.
Ansari said Kurien was credited with being the architect of the largest dairy development programme in the world.
“He engineered the white revolution in India and made India the largest milk producer of the world. He is recognised as the man behind the success of the Amul brand,” Ansari said.
Advani said: “It was due to the efforts of Mr Kurien that our country was able to become one of the major milk producing nations in the world. In addition, his exceptional contribution to agriculture and rural development were nothing short of extraordinary.”
Born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode, Kerala, Kurien graduated from Loyola College in 1940 and later completed his engineering from Guindy College of Engineering, Chennai. After a brief stint at TISCO he obtained a government of India scholarship to study dairy engineering.
Having acquired specialised training at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in Bangalore, Kurien went to the US and completed his masters in Mechanical Engineering with dairy engineering as a minor subject from the Michigan State University in 1948.
A year later, he was assigned to a Government Creamery in Anand, Gujarat as part of his bond commitment.
Arriving in Anand on a hot May 13 in 1949, Kurien was a harried man, only waiting to be released from his bond and leave the place as quickly as possible.
He got his release orders after six months and was all set to pack up and go to the city of big bucks, Bombay (now, Mumbai) - but a minor incident halted him in his tracks.
Just as he was preparing his exit, Tribhuvandas Patel, the then chairman of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as ‘Amul’, with whom Kurien had developed a good friendship, requested him to stay back in Anand for some more time and help him organise his co-operative society’s dairy equipment.
Kurien stayed back for a few more days...going on to become a legend through Operation Flood, launched in 1971.
“His forced tenure at Anand changed the destiny of the entire Indian dairy sector. He helped the fledgling dairy co-operative movement and was forced to stay there to see it flourish. The rest is history,” Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation’s Sodhi said.