I've been thinking for a while about what my next post should be about. And then I got this idea about creating awareness about people, movements in history etc. which have brought in a significant change to Indians and India. As part of it, I thought I should write about some untold Indian stories which most of us do not know about and bring some limelight to them. With this post, let me talk about Dr. Verghese Kurien, the milkman of India.
Dr. Kurien, also known as the Father of white revolution of India, is the man who is the backbone behind the success of our country's largest dairy development program. Born in Kerala, he went to US to finish his Masters, returned back to India and joined Dairy Department of the Govt. of India. As part of this, he was posted as an Engineer in a milk factory at a city called Anand in Gujarat. This is the time when a lot of farmers were facing a survival battle with a private giant in that field. Enthused by the challenge, Dr. Kurien left his job to join Shri Tribhuvandas Patel to set up a milk processing plant. At a time where people with hundreds of cattle can only succeed in the business, he chose to gather farmers even with one or two cattle to create a model where these small people can get profitable however small their produces were.The model allows them to be the owners of the dairy, elect representatives themselves to manage societies and employ professionals to operate the dairy. Impressed by this technique, then Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri created a special board which would replicate the same methodology throughout the country. Dr. Kurien was chosen to be the chairman of the board. With his hard work and great execution he brought smiles to 30 Lakh farmers from 16,000 villages in Gujarat producing 90 lakh litres of milk every day. And this organization is none other than the famous Anand Milk Union Limited, AMUL :-)
