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Home > About Dr.Kurien ABOUT DR.KURIENDr. Verghese Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 to an affluent Syrian Christian family in Calicut (now Kozhikode), Kerala. His father Puthenparakkal Kurien was a civil surgeon in British Cochin and his mother was a highly educated woman as well an exceptional piano player. He was named after his uncle Rao Sahib P.K Verghese. Dr Kurien joined Loyola College in Madras and attained his degree in B.Sc in Physics. He was also very active in sports and represented the college in cricket, badminton, boxing and tennis. He went to the United States of America on government scholarship where he pursued his degree in Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (Distinction). He returned to India after completion of his studies and on May 13, 1949 he headed for Anand, a place in Kaira district of Gujarat where he was supposed to spend five years as an officer of the Dairy division in return for the scholarship paid by the government. On arriving at Anand, he found that the farmers were being exploited by the distributors of milk and the entire region was controlled by a shrewd but clever businessman called as "Pestonjee Edulji" who marketed Polson butter. Looking at the struggle of these people to survive and mesmerized by the personality of their leader Tribhuvandas Patel who was trying to unite the farmers and form a cooperative movement against the exploitation, Dr. Kurien left his government job and joined forces with Tribhuvandas Patel and the farmers to start the Milk Cooperative movement in the region registered under the name of Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd (KDCMPUL), which was later renamed to now popular "Amul". He worked towards bringing a White Revolution in India and executed the much needed programme of "Operation Flood". Dr. Verghese Kurien married Susan Molly Peter on June 15, 1953 and they had one daughter Nirmala Kurien and a grandson, Siddharth. Dr. Kurein was the man responsible for turning India from a milk deficient country to the largest producer of milk in the world today. Under his inspiring leadership many important institutions were established namely the GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd) and NDDB (National Dairy Development board which played a significant role in shaping the Dairy Cooperative movement across the country and led the replication of Anand model of cooperative dairy practiced all over the country. Dr. Kurien always regarded himself as an employee of the farmers who would do anything to bring prosperity in their favor.In his service of over fifty years he attained 15 honorary degrees from different institutions of the world as he believed that learning should never stop. His enduring personality, spirit, undying charisma and conviction of turning the impossible into possible won him many accolades such as the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1963), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Krishi Ratna Award (1986), World Food prize (1989), Padma Vibhushan (1999), Economic Times award for Corporate Excellence (2001) and several other awards, but the best award that the people of the country gave him was the title "Milkman of India". After a lifetime of struggle and conviction towards serving the nation Dr. Verghese Kurien breathe his last on 9 September 2012 due to brief illness at Anand. His cremation rituals were performed by his grandson Siddharth. Dr. Verghese Kurien will always be remembered as the person who redefined the meaning of milk as a powerful tool for economic development.

HOME about Dr. Kurien HIS JOURNEYMILESTONEHis Thoughts Revolution Outcome Achievement Share A tribute Email : click here

Home > About Dr.Kurien > His Journey His journeyBirth & Education | Trip to USA | Arrival at Kaira | Supporting Tribhuvandas Patel Birth and EducationDr. Verghese Kurien was born on November 26, 1921 at Kozhikode, Kerala. His father was a Civil Surgeon in Cochin and his mother was a highly educated Syrian Christian lady, also an excellent piano player. He was third of the four siblings. Dr. Kurien joined Loyola College and earned a degree in B.Sc in Physics and later joined Guindy College of Engineering. He was very active in sports and represented college in boxing, cricket, tennis and badminton. He also joined the university training corps (UTC) and got selected as the outstanding cadet of the 5th battalion of the Madras UTC under the training of Captain K.S Thimmaiah, who later rose to become a distinguished General of the Indian army. From there, Dr. Verghese Kurien developed interest of joining the army but his mother never allowed him and after completing his college he joined Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) as a graduate apprentice. Dr. Kurien always believed in hard work and doing things on his own, hence he informed his Uncle John Matthai, who was the director of Tata Institute and later to become the first Railway minister and subsequently Finance minister of India, to not visit him at the hostel as others might question his competence of being selected.

HOME about Dr. Kurien HIS JOURNEYMILESTONEHis Thoughts Revolution Outcome Achievement Share A tribute Email : click here

Home > About Dr.Kurien > Milestone MILESTONE1920 - 1940 | 1940 | 1949 | 1952 | 1953 | 1955 | 1957 | 1962 | 19641920 - 1940It all began at Anand, a place in Kaira district, Gujarat famous for its Dairy Industry. It was ruled by some old players who started their dairy in 1890s and 1910s. However during the 1920s a new entrant called as Polson, which was led by a shrewd but clever Parsi businessman known as Pestonjee Edulji entered the market. He started supplying Polson butter to the British Army and its milk products soon became a household name. He built a large dairy in Anand in the year 1930. Once he was asked by the Bombay milk scheme whether it was possible for him to supply milk from Anand to Bombay some 350 kilometers away. Never before had liquid milk travelled such long distances, but Pestonjee was not the man who would let the opportunity go. He pasteurized milk and transported it to Bombay in a rather primitive fashion in milk cans wrapped up in gunny bags with chilled water poured on the cans. The experiment worked and very soon Bombay became an important market for Polson. With this Pestonjee started developing good relations with the government officials and he would persuade them to make arrangement so that he could get benefit out of it. Pestonjee knew that the main source of milk is the Kaira district so he persuaded the government officials to make arrangements that only Polson dairy could procure milk from the district. His wish was granted and Pestonjee started monopolizing the market; he started selling products to the people at higher prices and started exploiting farmers by paying them less for their produce and since Pestonjee monopolized the market, the milk producers had no option but become the victim of exploitation.By 1945, the Polson dairy was flourishing and the farmers were getting more and more exploited, leading to animosity among the farmers and hence the seeds of the movements were sown..

1940sIt was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patels vision that led to the growth of the cooperative movement. After fighting for and winning the freedom he recognized that independence was more than a political task. He knew that the rural people could never become completely free until they were liberated from the exploitation of money lenders, burdens of the social ills and the caste and class discrimination. He addressed the problems of building rural institutions and educating rural people for their development. Sardar Patel urged the dairy farmers to organize milk cooperatives, which would give them control over the resources they generated. He assigned Morarji Desai, his deputy, to coordinate this effort. Morarji Desai organized a meeting where he asked people to become the chairman of the cooperative and take the work ahead. A few people volunteered, but Morarjibhai chose Tribhuvandas Patel who was a committed freedom fighter and the elected vice president of the Kaira district congress committee. Tribhuvandas was a man of integrity and honour and he started the cooperative by organizing the dairy farmers and he soon managed to form a couple of cooperative societies. Although the farmers were ready to take their leaders advice but since milk was such a perishable commodity, farmers had to accept the price that the contractor offered and also Polson would use every trick in the book to procure milk at lower prices by accusing the milk producers that their milk lacks quality. Farmers got fed up of the daily exploitation and Tribhuvandas met Sardar Patel to seeka solution. Patel gave him a simple solution that if they wanted to stop exploitation then they need to remove Polson from the market by capturing the Bombay market for which they need to gather the masses and the cooperative needs to own the dairy. Only, then they could pressurize the Bombay Milk scheme (BMS) to buy milk from them and not Polson. However, Pestonjees reach was stronger than the cooperatives and Tribhuvandas and companys plea was rejected. In protest of the BMS, the cooperative society went on a 15 day strike, famously recalled in history as the Kaira strike. The farmers collected the milk and poured it on the streets but not even a single drop was given to Polson. Finally the BMS realized the strength of the union and kneeled to their demands. For Tribhuvandas Patel this was morale boosting incident as he travelled mile after mile, village after village trying to convince the famers to form the cooperative society. Finally in December 1946, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) was registered. By procuring the old dairy of World War I from the government they began their process.

1949Arrival of Dr.Verghese Kurien at AnandIt was Friday, 13 May, 1949 when Dr. Verghese Kurien first arrived at Anand to serve his bond in return of the scholarship he received from the government. Although he had no plans of working in the village but soon he started noticing the movement of the farmers in the village and admired the qualities of their leader, Tribhuvandas Patel. He started giving ideas to the cooperative, shared his views on how to go ahead and advised them in the selection of machinery for manufacturing milk. Tribhuvandas Patel recognized the potential of Dr. Verghese Kurien and just on the day when Dr. Verghese Kurien resigned from his job and packed his bags to leave, Tribhuvandas asked him to help him in setting the new dairy in the village, since no one in the village was able to run the new machinery. Dr. Kurien agreed and stayed back to help them.

1952Increasing production of the cooperativeAlthough, Kurien stopped for a few days but looking at the struggle of the farmers he stayed back. He worked for the farmers in creating a better life for them by taking the cooperative movement ahead. He started working day and night for the dairy along with Tribhuvandas and hundreds of farmers. On the advice of Dr. Kurien, Tribhuvandas left the old machinery of manufacturing milk and collected money from the cooperative and bought new machinery from Larsen and Toubro in 1951. Dr. Kurien joined the cooperative as General Manager in 1950. With the new machinery in place, the procurement capacity of the cooperative rose from 200 litres of milk in 1948 to 20,000 litres in 1952. Slowly and gradually the name of Kaira reached till Delhi and the Anand model of cooperative started growing.

1953Learnings from New Zealand, H.M.Dalaya comes on board and MarriageIn 1952, the then Agriculture Secretary, Vishnu Sahay accompanied two Union government ministers to visit Anand and there he learned about the development and functioning of the cooperative. Highly impressed with the work, Sahay praised Dr. Kurien that at least one Indian studied abroad came back and is now serving the nation, to which Dr. Kurien replied that he wished to go to New Zealand to study more about the dairy industry and development.Vishnu Sahay got the idea of sending Dr. Kurien on a study trip to New Zealand under the Colombo plan of the Government of India from October 1952 to April 1953 for 5 months.Dr. Kurien went to New Zealand and studied about the recent happenings in Dairy Development. He also learnt that at most of the places in the world the milk powder was created from cows milk but in India buffalo milk was more than cows milk to which Dr. Kurien had the idea of producing skimmed milk powder from buffalo milk. However experts from all over the world believed that the powder cannot be made from buffalo milk but Dr. Kurien was not the one who would shy away from trying. Other than this he also learnt that the Dairy industry of many of the advanced nations of the world was run by the cooperative sector and not by private players. He also learnt a lot from Prof. Kelvin Scott who guided him throughout his trip. He spent two additional months in Australiastudying the Dairy industry structure and used that valuable experience in the coming future. Moreover his journey ended on a very good note when the Government of New Zealand offered food aid to the Kaira union for development of Dairy in India. This came as a confidence booster for the cooperative and the funds were wisely used for the future development.Marriage After returning from New Zealand in May, Dr. Kurien headed for Trichur to see Susan Molly Peter whom his family selected for him to get married.Post the first meeting with Molly, Dr. Kurien declared to both the families that he is not going without marrying her. The marriage ceremony took place within fifteen days as Dr. Kurien had to leave for Anand. The marriage took place on June 15, 1953 at the All Saints C.S.I Church at Trichurs Mission Colony. H.M dalaya One person that stuck with Dr. Kurien and the cooperative at Anand was Harichand M Dalay, an old colleague of Dr. Kurien and an expert on the Dairy industry. He had a farm of 300 cattle but due to partition, he was forced to leave for India. All was lost but he was a man with great expertise and Dr. Kurien requested him to join the Anand cooperative movement. H.M Dalaya accepted the offer and joined forces with Kurien and company.1955Worlds First Buffalo Milk Powder plant After returning from New Zealand, Dr. Kurien started his experiment of obtaining milk powder from buffalo milk. Through a series of experiments under the guidance of Dalaya and other cooperative members, Dr. Kurien became successful in making milk powder from buffalo milk and planned to build a plant where they could manufacture the buffalo milk powder.On November 15, 1954, the first president of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad laid the foundation for the worlds first dairy to manufacture milk powder from buffalo milkat Anand . Dr. Kurien was confident that the plant could be erected in a period of one year and when Maniben asked him who he wants to inaugurate the plant, he said Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. When contacted, Pandit Nehru gracefully accepted the invitation and informed that he would inaugurate the plant on October 31, 1955, the birth anniversary of Sarder Vallabhbhai Patel, which gave them exactly 11 months to build the plant. The work started and experts from foreign countries were called to erect the plant and finally on the day of the inauguration all the preparations were done.Pandit Nehru inaugurated the plant and gave an inspiring speech which boosted the morale of the cooperative. This is how the worlds first buffalo milk powder manufacturing plant came to life.

1957Birth of AmulWith the increasing production capacity of the plant and the progressive nature of the cooperative, it was time to take the competition under consideration and there was a need to understand the finer points of marketing Kaira Cooperatives products. At a brainstorming session to come up with a good name for the products, a chemist at the laboratory suggested the name Amul. It comes from a Sanskrit word Amoolya which means priceless. Also it stood as an acronym for Anand Milk Union Limited. Advertising and Sales Promotion (ASP) did a fine job by crafting the Amul polka dotted girl and the best baseline a brand has ever had Utterly Butterly Delicious. the credit for the work goes to Eustace Fernandez, Slyvester Da cunha and his team.The name was registered in the year 1957 and till today it is the most recalled household name.It was also a special year for Dr. Kurien as her daughter Nirmala was born in 1957.

1962War against ChinaIn 1962, the clouds of war against China darkened the nation. The Prime Ministers office called the Amul cooperative to help the government as the army needed milk powder during the war; the requirement was 2750 tons within six months. Although that was outside the reach of the Amul cooperative but in collaboration with the Rajkot dairy they fulfilled the demand of the government by completely seizing the consumer market. The integrity of the cooperative and its leaders was such that when asked what they want in return of this favour, they said nothing and proved that in real sense it is serving the nation.Minoo Polson (son of Pestonjee Edulji) tried to increase the prices of its butter and take undue advantage of the scenario. When it came to the notice of Amul cooperative, they froze the manufacturing of Polson with the help of the government.

1964Lal Bahadur Shastri visits AnandOn the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the then Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri , who had heard a lot about the development process going in Anand, he called the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Balwantrai Mehta and made an unusual request. He mentioned that he would like to visit Anand but a day earlier and spend a night at a small farmers house with no police protection where he can move freely and talk with the villagers. His main objective was to understand the life of the farmer and the way they perform functions at the cooperative. Balwantrai Mehta immediately conveyed the message to Dr. Kurien and raised the security issues related to the Prime Ministers request. But, like always Dr. Kurien found a way out and planned to take Shastriji secretly to a village 10 kms away from Anand called Ajarpura where he spent a night at a farmers house named Ramanbhai. The security cars were taken straight to Anand.During his night stay in Ajarpura the Prime Minister moved freely in the village and asked several questions to the villagers regarding their life, Amul and how the cooperative brought prosperity to their life. When the next day he arrived at Anand, he was most attentive to understand the working of the cooperative and applauded the work of the cooperative by giving an inspiring speech.The Prime Minister stayed at Dr. Kuriens home and in the evening had a detailed conversation where he mentioned his experience of having spent a night at a village and talking to the farmers. He said that he thought something special about Anand but he found nothing special. He added that the soil of Anand is not as good as the Indo-Gangetic plains, the climate is cold in winter and very hot in summer, rainfall is more or less similar to other places. He remarked that he expected greenery but it was all dusty and brown and the buffalos give less milk than the one in his home state of Uttar Pradesh and lastly the farmers here are good people but less hard working than the ones of Punjab. He was curious that what has then made this cooperative as the Centre of attraction of the world? Dr. Kurien agreed to all the observations of the Prime Minister but he mentioned one very important thing that it is the farmers cooperative union, they are the owners of the dairy and he was just an employee of the farmer. Being a dairy which is owned by the farmers gives them the will power and the energy to face every challenge and overcome it.The Prime Minister was convinced by his explanation asked him to replicate the Anand model in other parts of the country, which made Dr. Kurien imagine about the social and economic prosperity they could bring about if the model is replicated. He knew that it is going to be a tedious task but it was not impossible as the man with the stature and class of Dr. Kurien will always grow strong with the challenge. He started thinking and planning how this big dream can be brought to life and be replicated throughout the country.His Thoughts Dr. Verghese Kurien will always be remembered as a man with strong will and self-belief.Here are few of his thoughts."India's place in the sun would come from the partnership between wisdom of its rural people and skill of its professionals""The milk of India is produced by millions of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers'. It is on their behalf and in their name that i accept this high honour.""India needs to show an honest face, a kind face, a human face - and not an arrogant face as the powerful nations of today (do).""What you need is good management with farmer power. Good management gives this power the right direction and thrust. Nothing can stop the farmers then. Least of all the MNCs.""Milk is the only commodity which has to be collected twice a day, every day of the year. Thus, cooperatives are the only logical system for the dairy industry. About 85% of the industry in the US, Denmark and Australia is run by cooperatives. No other system will work for milk.""Who told you there is one Amul? There are more than 175 Amuls across various districts (in Gujarat).""True development is not the development of land, or of cows; it is the development of men and women.""Innovation cannot be mandated or forced on people; it is everywhere, a function of the quality of the people and the environment. We need to have enough skilled people working in a self- actuating environment to produce innovation""I am like a cat, throw me wherever you want to, I will still stand on my feet" "Eight hours for dairy, eight hours for family and eight hours for sleep""My philosophy in life is to do as much good as I can to those who are less fortunate, but I would like to live my life as a common man""The time has come for massive rural development in our country. The task is daunting and the opposing is great, but I believe that it is also the greatest opportunity that has ever been presented to a society such as ours.""I trust, in a humble way - dairying is such as instrument of change: an instrument not only of technical change, but also of economic and social change. It is to such instruments that we must look to build the India tomorrow.""All the tools are with us, in our Hands, to effect the transformation of our predominantly rural society. Never has an elite had such an opportunity.""In every successful grassroots cooperative, members trust their leaders. Trust is the most cost-effective way to manage cooperatives.""If we can again create the environment, the opportunity, and the education, our villages will provide a new generation of leaders who will not only rebuild our cooperative movement, but who will help us to build a truly great nation.""This process of modernization cannot merely demonstrate to producers the application of such techniques as artificial insemination, improved animal feeding etc. On the contrary, it inevitably shows the producers that they can use modern science and technology to achieve the larger objectives of their own lives.""To be quite honest, service to our nation's farmers was not the career I had envisioned for myself. But somehow, a series of events swept me along and put me in a certain place at a certain time when I had to choose between one option and another.""Sardar Vallabhai Patel's vision has always been a source of great inspiration. He knew that our rural people could never become really free until they were liberated from the exploitation of moneylenders. Sardar Patel believed that the way to address these problems was to build rural institutions that would serve the farmers' economic interests. He urged dairy farmers to organize milk cooperatives, which would give them control over the resources they generated and assigned Morarji Desai, his Deputy, to coordinate this effort.""I was fortunate that I enjoyed the support of all the governments that came to power. I have been and continue to be, highly critical of our bureaucracy. Fortunately for us, within our bureaucracy, there are a number of people who are dedicated, patriotic and able.""I am in the business of empowerment. Milk is just a tool in that.""I am supposed to exploit the consumer; and I will (exploit them), but not in a way that will create resentment. I have to milk the consumer. And milk them I will, but gently.""He was a man of great integrity; Amul was bound to be a success. Sincere leadership, patriotism and integrity are needed to build a cooperative. People like him exist in our villages and town. But do they get the opportunity?"Operation Flood1965 | 1968 | 1970-1980 | 1981-1985 | 1985-19961965Mr Kurien becomes Dr. Kurien and Quest for Operation FloodThe year of 1965 was fairly momentous for the cooperative society and also for Dr. Kurien. Michigan State University conferred an honorary degree of "Doctor of Science" thereby promoting him from Mr. Kurien to "Dr. Kurien".In September 1965, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. With this the dream of replicating the Amul model throughout the country and bringing it to reality became stronger.Dr. Kurien started thinking on the plan and he worked in coordination with Micheal Hales who was Food and Agriculture expert and a Harvard trained visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and H.M Dalaya. Michael Hales noted down all the points to be taken into consideration to replicate the plan and helped the cooperative to draft their plan to be presented to the government seeking their support for the programme. The amount that was required for replicating the Anand Model all over the country was over 650 crore rupees as estimated by the cooperative team. When the plan was presented to the state government and the other authorities, it was rejected as the government had the control over the dairy industry in India and they never wished to give that power to the villagers. It also led to a lot of corruption and soon the cooperative realized that they need to do something different. It was very easy to drop the plan but the conviction of the leader and the cooperative was not going to shy away from the challenge.1968Seizing the opportunityThere was a surplus production of milk in the European countries. So much so, that they had no clue what to do with the surplus milk. At that time, the Home Secretary, L.P Singh recommended Dr. Kurien to present their proposal to these European countries at the event, which happened in Rome called as the World Food Programme (WFP). Dr. Kurien realized that this opportunity will never come again as these nations will never commit this mistake again of over producing. Dr. Kurien visited Rome in October 1968 to present NDDB's project proposal to a twenty four nation executive committee of the WFP. The Agriculture Secretary of the Government of India at that time was B.R Patel who introduced Dr. Kurien to the WFP committee to present India's point of view. Dr. Kurien was waiting for this opportunity and was all set to go. He started by elaborating on the importance of milk in India. With a huge population there is a big space for dairy development in India and his intention was to replicate the Anand model in various parts of the country. He simply explained how he intended to use the donated milk to sell at a regular price in India in order to capture the markets of Delhi, Bangalore and other metros and milk rich cities and then generate the money out of it to fund the Operation Flood programme where his major goal was to make India a self-sufficient country in milk and milk products. He also added that if a country donates milk worth $100 million then it can expect 10% return on investment hence the donation is in fact an investment. He continued that he is not asking for such donations to sell them at a lower rate and make money out of it as many countries do it but to use it to raise money for Operation Flood to make India self-sufficient. The elaborate and passionate presentation was liked and more importantly very well received by the committee. Hence in March 1970, the proposal to award India the food aid donation was signed between the Government of India and the WFP. The cooperative won the major battle here which kick started the Operation Flood.

| 1981-1985 | 1985-19961970 - 1980Phase 1 of Operational Flood/Billion Liter IdeaIn a nutshell the approach was very simple. The first step was that the donated milk products would be reconstituted to provide the Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras liquid schemes with enough milk to obtain a commanding share of the markets. Next, the funds realized from this reconstitution and sale of donated products were used to resettle city-kept cattle and help them to breed and to increase organized milk production, its procurement and processing. Finally this entire operation would be directed towards stabilizing the position of major liquid milk schemes in their markets. 1981 - 1985Phase 2 of Operational Flood/Billion Liter IdeaThe second phase of the operation flood, which lasted from 1981 to 1985, was implemented with the seed capital raised from the sale of European Economic Committee's (EEC) gifts as well as a World Bank loan of Rs 200 crore. With this phase, the number of milk sheds increased the outlets for milk produced. By the end of this phase more than 43,000 village cooperatives covering 4.25 million milk producers were established.

1985 - 1996Phase 3 of Operational Flood/Billion Liter IdeaThe third phase of the operation added 30,000 new dairy cooperatives to the 42,000 existing societies. Member education was intensified, and significantly, the number of women members and women's Dairy cooperative societies increased considerably. This phase focused on assisting unions to expand and strengthen their procurement and marketing infrastructure to manage the increasing volumes of milk (by 1989 the number of milk sheds had grown to 173). Veterinary healthcare services, feed and artificial insemination services for cooperative members were extended. During this decade the increased emphasis was on research and development on animal health and animal nutrition.

White Revolution"Operation Flood started the White Revolution in India and made our country self-sufficient in milk and this was achieved entirely through the cooperative structure. Today around 12 million farmers in more than 22 states across the country own around 250 dairy plants handling around 20 million litres of milk a day. This is a remarkable achievement. While we in India tend to take our achievement for granted, this feat elicited high praise and admiration throughout the world.""In 1955 our butter imports were 500 tons per year; today our cooperatives alone produce more than 12,000 tons of butter. Similarly, we imported 3000 tons of baby food in 1955; today our cooperatives alone produce 38,000 tons of baby food. By 1975 all imports of milk and milk products stopped. The import permitted was that of food aid under Operation Flood.""A separate agency called as the Indian Dairy Corporation (IDC) was created to receive grants of food aid and use it in the Operation Flood, this agency was also headed by the marvelous Dr. Verghese Kurien." "Milk powder production increased from 22,000 tons in the pre-Operational Flood year to 1,40,000 tons by 1989.""In 1998 the World Bank published a report on the impact of dairy development in India and looked at its own contribution to this. The audit revealed that of the Rs 200 crore the world bank invested in Operation Flood, the net return on India's rural economy was a massive Rs 24,000 crore each year over a period of 10 years to which no other dairy programme has ever matched.""Moreover when Amul started there were so many competitors in the market like Polson and other foreign players but Amul stood the test of time and over the years emerged as India's favorite."

GCMMFWhen the first phase of the Operation Flood started in 1970 many other dairy started opening up in the state of Gujarat and the problem at hand was that these dairies could become competitors to each other which is not good for the cooperative and certainly not for Operation Flood the private and government institution may take undue advantage of it but the genius mind of Dr. Verghese Kurien quickly worked out an idea and urged all the dairy owners in Gujarat to work together and compete with the private playes rather than competing with one another and hence Gujarat Cooperative Mik Marketing Federation (GCMMF) was established in the year 1973 under the leadership of Dr. Verghese Kurien. Since then there was no looking back and it strengthened the movement. The brand "Amul" is marketed under GCMMF. It is India's largest exporter of dairy products and it's available in more than 40 countries.Being an organization that has made a valuable difference in the dairy industry, it has won the several accolades: GCMMF has received the APEDA Award from Government of India for Excellence in Dairy Product Exports for the last 13 years.For the year 2009-10, GCMMF has been awarded "Golden Trophy" for its outstanding export performance and contribution in dairy products sector by APEDA.Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award in1999 in Best of All Category In 2002 GCMMF bagged India's Most Respected Company Award instituted by Business World.The IMC Ramkrishna Bajaj National Quality Award - 2003 for adopting noteworthy quality management practices for logistics and procurement.GCMMF is the first and only Indian organization to win topmost International Dairy Federation Marketing Award for probiotic ice cream launch in 2007.Macro impact The Amul model has helped India to emerge as the largest milk producer in the world.More than 15 million milk producers in India.1,44,246 Dairy cooperative societies across the country.Their milk is processed in 177 District Co-operative Unions and marketed by 22 State Marketing Federations, ensuring a better life for millions.Real pool consists of 3 million milk producer members.

ReachGCMMF is spread across the length and breadth of the country as it has offices in 43 cities in India like Chandigarh, Indore, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Bangalore, Chennai, Jammu etc., while the head office remains where it started in the district of Anand, Gujarat. Its overseas office is located in DubaiIt reaches more than 3 million milk producers in India and touches lives of its millions of consumers in more than 40 countries every day.Link www.amul.com/m/organisation#ourofficeEmail : gcmmfho@amul.coop

rmaThe Foundation of IRMAThe realization that we cannot depend upon an accidental Kurien, but we need to actively create better Kuriens by carefully selecting and training them, got Dr.Kurien thinking. As the implementation of Operation flood proceeded Dr.Kurien realised that most graduated from IIMs were not quite suited to the kind of work that needed to be done at the cooperatives. The IIMs were training students for the corporate and not the cooperative world. We needed an institute to train youngster specifically in rural management. We needed an institute to create and strengthen commitment to serving our rural people with dedication and honesty.It reaches more than 3 million milk producers in India and touches lives of its millions of consumers in more than 40 countries every day.The idea of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) was not on anybodys mental map until 1978. Dr Kurien offered to fund a separate course at IIMA to train cooperative managers but Ravi Mathai, the then director of IIM-A persuaded him against the idea. Ravi Mathai had, convinced Dr Kurien about building an autonomous institute with a distinct culture and values of its own.This resulted in the foundation of IRMA(, which as per the vision of Dr.Kurien was to produce young men and women who would think big, dream big and, in-time, act big an make their alma matter proud.

Home > AchievementAchievementHonorary Degrees Doctor of Science, Michigan State University, USA (1965) Doctor of Laws, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK (1974)Doctor of Science, Acadia University, Canada (1985)Doctor of Humane Letters, Ottawa University, Canada (1985)Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from Anna University, Madras (1988)Doctor of Public Service (DPS) from the University of New England, Australia (1989)Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from University of Guelph, Canada (1991)Doctor of Science from Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidya Nagar (1992)Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hyderabad (1996)Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) from Gujarat Agricultural University, Anand (1996)Honorary Doctor of Agricultural Sciences by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (1997)Honorary Doctor of Science by The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (1997)Doctor of Social Sciences (Honoris Causa) from the University of Roorkee (2000)Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) from the Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur (2000)Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa), from the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (Mar. 12, 2005)Recognition by Academies Senior Fellowship under the Colombo Plan for advanced training and studies in Dairy Plant Design and Dairy Engineering in New Zealand and AustraliaFellow of the Institution of Engineers (India) Patron, Indian Dairy Association, New DelhiHonorary Member, Association of Food Technologists (India), MysoreCompanion, British Institute of Management, London, UKFellow of the Senate of Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidhyanagar, Gujarat (1972)Fellowship, All India Management Association, Delhi (1990)Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Madras (1992)'Associate' of the Nutrition Foundation of India (May 1995)Honorary Fellowship of the Kerala Academy of Sciences (May 1998)Honorary Title of Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (2002)