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Dr. Kurien is the reason we can enjoy our daily milk, bread, and butter – literally.
He single-handedly spearheaded the White revolution in India. While we know the usual rote-learned story about his success, there are a few interesting things about this great man we do not really know.
Dr. Verghese Kurien hailed from Kozhikode, Kerala. He did his schooling in Diamond Jubilee Higher Secondary School in Gobichettipalayam. He pursued his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy. After graduation, he studied at the Tata Steel Technical Institute.
At that time, the Indian Government was granting Fellowships to meritorious students so that they could complete their Masters education abroad.
1. Dr. Verghese Kurien applied for this Government-sponsored Fellowship and wanted to pursue Metallurgy and not Dairy Engineering
During the fellowship interview this happened –
“What do you know about pasteurization?”, the interviewer asked Verghese Kurien.
“Something to do with milk?”, Kurien answered.
2. The Government Committee insisted he do his Masters in Dairy Engineering
The Government was aiming to improve the condition of its dismal dairy industry, and wanted Dr. Kurien to specialize in Dairy Engineering. And since they were the ones granting the fellowship, they had a say in it.
3. The college he was accepted in did not have a course in Dairy Engineering and Dr. Kurien ended up pursuing the course he loved
Michigan State University was where Dr. Kurien secured admission in and specialized in Metallurgy and Physics.
4. When he returned to India after his education, he had to serve out a bond period as stipulated in his Fellowship grant
He was assigned to the experimental creamery in Anand. Anand, at that time, was a very rural village in Gujarat’s Kheda district.
5. Dr. Kurien was not happy with the job he had
He served out the bond period for the heck of it.
6. Yes, Dr. Verghese Kurien almost quit, but Tribhuvandas Patel, founder of the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union, convinced him to stay and showed him the vision of White Revolution
It is important to remember that Dr. Kurien was interested in Metallurgy and not Dairy. Both the streams are as different as chalk and cheese. But he decided to stay back. Thank God.
7. But eventually, he fell in love with the village Anand
It is hard to not fall in love with Indian villages after getting to know the people. Dr. Kurien, while working on the problem of setting up a system of cooperatives, fell in love with Anand, and it became his life.
8. He sold the idea of cooperatives to Lal Bahadur Shastri in a very smart way
When the first cooperative was set up in Anand, the then Prime Minister visited the village. His visit was supposed to last for a day, but Dr. Kurien changed his plans so that Mr. Shastri would stay overnight.
Dr. Kurien made him talk to the farmers all night, and Dr. Shastri, being a good human being talked to them even on the next day.
The idea was sold and the blueprint for the nationwide Operation Flood was drawn out after this.
Dr. Kurien didn’t just have the operations expertise, he also knew how to sell the idea to important people.
9. He successfully set up AMUL, and gave it its name when the branding executives wanted a foreign and funky name
After he set up AMUL, the branding experts wanted Dr. Kurien to choose a name that sounded global and attractive. Dr. Kurien, who by then was a staunch nationalist, wanted an Indian name. He named it AMUL.
And thus the name Amul was born.
10. He took the middlemen out and the milk went straight from the cow to the people
The milk went from the producers to the cooperative unit to the factory and then directly to the Wholesalers. There was no middleman who jacked up the prices for a profit.
It was a straight line and the dairy farmers profited immensely because of this.
11. Dr. Kurien openly defied bureaucrats and was never bogged down by them
Dr. Verghese Kurien wanted to launch a line of sweet confectionaries under the brand of Amul. This move was met with a bit of resistance by a bureaucrat of Planning Commission.
“Listen, young man, you don’t even know how to milk a cow and you are lecturing me,” roared Verghese Kurien.
That shut that bureaucrat up proper.
12. He was also responsible for the first crowdfunded movie in India, and perhaps the World
Manthan was a movie Shyam Benegal wanted to make about the milk cooperative success in India. He hit a debacle when he ran out of money to complete the filming.
Dr. Kurien pitched in with help. He appealed to more than 20 million dairy farmers to contribute just 2 rupees per head.
The budget was full again and Shyam Benegal went on to win several National Awards for the movie.
And all the dairy farmers happily flocked to the cinema halls by the truckload to watch “their” movie, because they were technically the producers.
It is because of him we readily find milk at any corner in India. He also changed a regular Indian village of Anand into the milk-producing capital of the country.
Thank you, Dr. Kurien for believing in the mission and making our lives better.
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