Last Updated : 10 September 2012 at 09:00 IST
India’s great milk man has gone and gone forever. By mobilizing a cooperative movement in milk, he took on corporate giants like Nestle. By producing milk powder out of buffalo milk—surplus in India--he created a revolution. And an unusual irony is this: Despite living in Gujarat for 60 years, he knew little Gujarati; and yet enjoyed excellent rapport and fluent “communication” with farmers.
India’s Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh recalled in his condolence message.
“Dr. 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. Dr Kurien was an icon of India’s cooperative movement and the dairy industry.”
He even admitted that he himself had a rewarding association with the man who engineered Operation Flood.
“I personally had a rewarding association with Dr. Kurien and benefitted from his sagacity and vision. He has left behind a void that would be very difficult to fill.”
Born in Kerala, Kurien graduated from the famous Loyola College and joined the Guindy College of Engineering, both in Chennai. Later on, his enthusiasm took him to Michigan where under the umbrella of a scholarship from India govt., he completed his masters in mechanical engineering in 1948. Dairy engineering was one of his minor subjects.
He had a bond period and he served the same at Government Creamery at Anand in Gujarat. That turned out to be a life-long bond. At the behest of the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, he tried to solve the problems of farmers there in Kaira. Later on Kurien joined Amul or Ananad Milk Union Ltd in 1949. The firm later on evolved to become Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation.
After Amul’s success, Lal Bahadur Shastri, India’s vegetarian Prime Minister invited Kurien to replicate the success across India; and Kurien became the head of NDDB or National Diary Development Board. The rest is history: India became the largest milk producer in world as flood gates opened by ‘Operation Flood’. He served at NDDB for a record 33 years.
In the meantime, he promoted and established close to 1.50 lakh village cooperatives, with over 15 million members. He also found Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand, in 1979, a pioneering institution.
“He strode like a titan across the bureaucratic barriers and obstacles that, at every stage of the NDDB’s history, could have brought it to its knees. But undaunted, he stood staunchly against the machinations of all those who beheld his achievement with envy and were affronted by the sheer tenacity of the man. By his example, he has taught us to act with courage when faced with those who oppose the interests of our nation and the farmers,” Dr. Amrita Patel, current Chairman NDDB said to The Hindu.
He was awarded a plethora of honours, including Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour.
And ironically, the greatest milkman of India did not like milk personally! "I don't drink milk. I don't like it," he used to say.
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