Essay on Verghese Kurien: Varghese Kurien, the father of the White Revolution and popularly known as the Milk Man, who made India the world’s largest milk producer from a country facing milk shortage, had laid the foundation stone of the cooperative milk industry model in the country.
Dr. Varghese Kurien, a man who helped millions of poor farmers through this cooperative model, was born on 26 November 1921 in Calicut Madras Presidency (present-day Kozhikode, Kerala) in a Syrian Christian family.
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Brief Introduction
| Name | Dr. Verghese Kurien / Dr. Verghese Kurien |
| Birth | 26 November 1921 Kozhikode, Kerala |
| Death | September 9, 2012 (age 90) Nadiad, Gujarat, India |
| Work | Dairy Farming, Social Entrepreneur |
| nationality | Indian |
| Education | Engineering |
| Achievements | Father of White Revolution, responsible for the success of Amul and popularizing its model worldwide, honored with Padma Shri, Ramon Magsaysay, Padma Bhushan etc. |
Kurien completed his engineering studies from the Degree College of Engineering, Chennai after graduating in the year 1940 from Lyova College. After working for some time at TISCO, Jamshedpur, Kurien was given a scholarship by the Government of India to study dairy engineering.
Essay on Verghese Kurien in English
After receiving specialized training at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Daring in Bangalore, Kurien went to the US, where he earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University in 1948. Dairy engineering was also included as a subject in this engineering.
Dr. Kurien started Amul from a small garage in Anand, Gujarat. It was Kurien’s dream to make the country self-sufficient in milk production as well as improve the condition of farmers, he started Kheda District Co-operative Society along with Tribhuvan Bhai Patel.
At that time the dairy industry was occupied by private people. They developed institutions based on knowledge and management. In the year 1946, he established the Dairy Co-operative Union in Gujarat by joining two villages, which at present number is more than 16,100.
32 lakh milk producers are associated with this union. Kurien was the first person in the world to manufacture powder from buffalo milk. Earlier, only cow’s milk was used to make powder. In the year 1949, he took over the dairy business on the request of Tribhuvan Das Patel, president of ‘Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited’. This dairy was established on the initiative of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Kurien formed 60,000 co-operative societies of 60 lakh farmers, which supply three lakh tonnes of milk per day. This is known as ‘White Revolution’ and ‘Operation Flood’. In the year 1949 itself, he became the manager of ‘KDCMPUL’, which is now known as ‘Amul’.
Dr. Kurien established the ‘Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation’ in the year 1973 and remained its President for 34 years. That is why he is called the father of ‘White Revolution’. Impressed by the success of Amul, the then Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri formed the ‘National Milk Development Board’ (NDDB) to spread the Amul model to other places and made Kurien its chairman.
This board started ‘Operation Flood’ in the year 1970. Dr. Verghese Kurien was the founder head of NDDB from 1965 to 1998, head of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Limited from 1973-2006 and president of ‘Institute of Rural Management’ from 1979 to 2006.
Dr. Kurien was appreciated all over the world. He was awarded ‘Padma Shri’ in the year 1965 by the Government of India, ‘Padma Bhushan’ in the year 1966 and ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in the year 1999. In 1963, he was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership.
Dr. Kurien was awarded International Person of the Year by the World Dairy Expo in the year 1993, Distinguished Alumni Award by the University of Michigan, United States of America in the year 1994, World Food Prize in the year 1989, ‘Watler Peace Prize’ in the year 1986 and in the year 1986 He was awarded the ‘Qureshi Ratna Award’ by the Government of India.
Dr. Kurien has been awarded about 12 honorary degrees from universities across the world like University of Glasgow, University of New England, University of Roorkee etc. His well-known books are I To Had a Dream, The Man Who Made the Elephant Dance (Audio Book) and An Unfinished Dream.
At the age of 90, Dr. Verghese Kurien left his wife Molly Kurien and daughter Nirmala in his family and went to the next world. He died on 9 September 2012 in Nadiavad, Gujarat. Thus, this great personality got lost in this world.
