Verghese Kurien, the father of the White Revolution, passes away at 90
Kurien had served as head of both - National Dairy Development Board and the GCMMF - for many decades.
Dr. Verghese Kurien, the man behind India's 'White Revolution' passed away on early Sunday morning at Nadiyad following a brief illness. He was 90.
Dr. Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode and had graduated from Loyola College in 1940 and went on to obtain an engineering degree from Guindy College of Engineering in Chennai. Kurien later went on to join Michigan State University to study mechanical engineering with dairy engineering as a minor subject.
On returning to India, he was posted in Anand at a government creamery as a part of the bond he had signed with the Government in 1949. And that was the beginning of a glorious chapter of Independent India's history of attaining global position in milk production.
Kurien went on to set up Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) apart from establishing and taking the brand Amul to dizzying heights. Successively, former Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri appointed him as the founding chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965, in his bid to replicate the Amul model across the country. For the record, the household word AMUL stands for Anand Milk Union Ltd.
It was NDDB under Dr. Kurien that later launched Operation Flood, also known as the White Revolution, which was the largest dairy development programme in the world. It was Operation Flood that led India to become the global leader in milk production in 2010-11, when the country produced about 17 per cent of the total milk in the world.
Along his way, Dr. Kurien picked up several national and international awards. While Ramon Magsaysay Award came way back in 1963, Padmashri came in 1964 and Padma Bhushan in 1966. Dr. Kurien was awarded the second highest civilian award of the country Padma Vibhushan in 1999. Several other awards were conferred on Dr. Kurien.
One of the most significant achievements of Dr. Kurien was the empowerment of the rural women by connecting them with the cooperative movement. Today, Amul as a group comprises of 15 district unions involving around 30 lakh farmers from 16000 villages in Gujarat, with an annual turnover of Rs 13,000 crore.
"He (Kurien) strongly believed that by placing technology and professional management in the hands of the farmers, the living standards of millions of rural poor could be improved," said current GCMMF Managing Director RS Sodhi.
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi expressed his grief on Dr. Kurien's demise on his twitter handle. "My heartfelt tribute on sad demise of Dr. Verghese Kurien. His pioneering work gave the milk revolution, transformed India & touched us all," Modi wrote.
AICC president Sonia Gandhi also condoled Dr. Kurien's death. In her message, Gandhi said that cooperation was religion with Dr. Kurien while farmers, pastoralists and women were his gods and Anand's Amul was his temple. The farmers and the pastoralists of India in general and Gujarat in particular will remain indebted to him eternally.
Gujarat Pradesh Congress president Arjun Modvadia and former Union minister Shankarsinh Vaghela also condoled Dr. Kurien's death. "India has lost a great soul, who was the harbinger of true revolution in the lives of Gujarat's farmer, women and pastoralists through his Amul Cooperative model," Vaghela said.