Dairy engineer
Verghese Kurien on 1998 came with billion liters idea and introduced the world’s largest agricultural development programme. So on that year India crossed the world’s largest milk producer United States. In India, Kurien birthday was observed as National Milk day on November 26.
Birth:
Verghese Kurien was born at Calicut on November 26, 1921 from a Syrian Christian family. His father was a civil surgeon. Although he is a Christian, he becomes an atheist in his later life. He did his schooling in Diamond Jubilee Higher Secondary School, Gobichettipalayam, in Coimbatore district. On 1940 he got his degree in physics from Loyola College of Madras. Next he got his BE in mechanical from Guindy college of engineering. Because of his interest towards education, he joined Tata sons in Jamshedpur to study. After that he went to get master from Michigan College in US
Early Life:
Verghese Kurien on 1949 after he returned from US, Government appointed him as the creamery at Anand, in Gujarat. He was supposed to Work for 5 years there. But he doesn’t like the job. But he has to work for the scholarship offered to him. He was very much disappointed wit the works of Government. He married woman named molly and had a daughter Nirmala.
Nirmala son name was siddarth. But there was a man called Tribhuvandas Patel. He participated in the co-operative movement. So join has inspired to him to join. So Patel has formed a group called cooperative Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited. Patel has faced a lot of criticism and opposition for the movement. Kurien decided to support the movement.
Verghese Kurien Achievements
Verghese Kurien founded the famous and largest milk producer of India called AAVIN. Kurien is the founder and chairman of the company. Kurien along with his friend H. M. Dalaya founded the process of producing condensed milk and milk powder from the buffalo milk. A film was produced after his life history called “Manthan”. Shyam Bengal produced the film. It represented the milk movement in India.
So under the guidance of Kurien many companies were formed in India. After that Prime Minister Lal Bahdur Sasthri created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) which is based on Amul working model. Later Verghese Kurien becomes the chairman of NDDB. Then on 1970 they planned an operation called flood which is one of the largest dairy development programs.
Verghese Kurien Awards:
Verghese Kurien has bagged number of awards and list of awards were listed below.
- On 1963, he was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award. And on 1965 he was awarded Padma shri award.
- Then 1966 he walks given the Padma Bhushan award. Next 1986 he got the Krushi Ratna award.
- On 1986, Verghese Kurien got Wateler Peace Prize Award of Carnegie Foundation.
- World food prize a concern in America awarded him the World food prize to him on 1989.
- On 1991, Michigan State University awarded him distinguished alumni award. World dairy expo awarded him International person of the year award on 1993.
- On the late 1999, Kurien has received Padma Vibushan award from the Government of India.
- On 2013 a comic book was released on the title Verghese Kurien: The man with billion liter ideas. This book was written by Amar Chitra Katha.
Verghese Kurien and White Revolution:
He is better known as the father of white revolution of India and also he was called the mixed played during tour. He is also called by the name as milkman of India. He got his 9 months of training in dairy engineering National Dairy Research Institute of Bangalore on 1946.Once finishing his dairy engineering from US, he joined the dairy department in Government of India.
On 1949, Kurien was appointed as a Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery. It is a small milk-powder factory, in Anand, Gujarat. He was invited to Soviet Union for the advice from him by Premier Alexei Kosygin. He led the World Bank mission in Pakistan on 1982 with the invitation from dairy co-operatives. With the help of Kurien and the world food program China invented his own flood program. On 1979, Kurien founded the Institute of Rural Management in Anand (IRMA) in India andtrained the managers for the cooperatives.
Verghese Kurien and Amul:
Dr. Kurien started a movement called Milk Cooperation Movement. He named it as Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd [KDCMPUL] that was later known as Amul. But Kurien wanted a simple name to pronounce and it must also promote the growth of the union. So a quality control officer suggested him a simple name called Amulya, which is meant by priceless in Sanskrit.
The Amulya was changed to Amul in the future which also includes AMUL- Anand Milk Union Limited. So in the upcoming days Amul got a great success when his friend H.M. Dalaya introduced a process called condensed milk and skimmed milk from Buffalow milk and not from cow’s milk. This process was a huge success among the dairy industry. Amul is a cooperative scheme and it received Government attention.
Verghese Kurien and Lal Bahadur Sasthri:
For the new inauguration of the cattle feed plant of Amul, Verghese Kurien invited the then Prime Minister of India Mr. Lal Bahadur Sasthri. He was very much impressed with the process of milk plant at Anand and asked him to implement the process all over India to improve the economic condition of farmers. For this process on 1965, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was formed. But it needed a lot of money without any condition. When the president of World Bank came to India, Dr.Kurien asked him to give him money. After few days, his loan was approved without any condition. That operation was known as operation flood among the people of India. The main process was to replicate the work in Anand in various parts of India. The process was implemented in a three successful phases. And the process was taken over by more than the 72,000 villages in India.
Verghese Kurien death:
On September 9 at the age of 90, Verghese Kurien died of illness at Gujarat, India.