Verghese Kurien

Hello! My name is Verghese Kurien. My story begins not with a love for cows or milk, but with a love for physics and engineering. I was born on November 26th, 1921, in a town called Calicut in Kerala, India. I loved to learn and was always fascinated by how things worked. In 1940, I went to Loyola College to study physics and then to the College of Engineering in Madras. My life took an unexpected turn when I received a government scholarship in 1946 to study in America at Michigan State University. The scholarship was for dairy engineering—a subject I knew nothing about and wasn't very interested in. But it was a great opportunity, so I went, promising myself I would find my own path later.

When I returned to India in 1949, the government sent me to a small, dusty town called Anand in the state of Gujarat. My job was to work at an old government creamery to fulfill the terms of my scholarship. I didn't like it at all. It was hot, I had little to do, and I felt my talents were being wasted. I counted the days until my bond was over and I could leave for a big city like Mumbai. But while I was there, I met a remarkable man named Tribhuvandas Patel. He was leading a group of poor local farmers who had started their own cooperative, the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union. They were tired of being cheated by middlemen who paid them very little for their milk. Tribhuvandas saw something in me and asked me to stay and help them build their own dairy. At first, I said no, but their determination and his vision for a better future for his people moved me.

I decided to stay for a little while to help them fix their machines. But a little while turned into a lifetime. The farmers' cooperative, which you might know today by its brand name, Amul, faced a huge problem. During the winter, the cows and buffaloes produced lots of milk, but in the summer, they produced much less. This meant that sometimes there was too much milk, and it would spoil. I had an idea: what if we could turn the extra buffalo milk into milk powder? That way, we could store it and sell it later. All the experts from other countries told me it was impossible; they said you could only make milk powder from cow's milk. But we didn't give up. After many experiments, in 1955, my team and I did it. We became the first in the world to make milk powder from buffalo milk. This breakthrough changed everything for our farmers.

Our success in Anand got noticed. In 1964, the Prime Minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, came to visit. He was so impressed with how our cooperative had empowered poor farmers that he asked me to help do the same for the entire country. The next year, in 1965, we started the National Dairy Development Board, and I was asked to lead it. Our mission was to take the 'Anand Model' to every corner of India. In 1970, we launched a massive program called Operation Flood. The idea was to create a national milk grid, connecting farmers in villages directly to customers in cities, without any middlemen. It was a huge undertaking, but it worked. We helped millions of farmers, especially women, earn a fair price for their milk and stand on their own feet.

Operation Flood was so successful that it became known as the 'White Revolution.' It transformed India from a country that had to import milk into the largest milk producer in the world. For my work, I received many honors, including the Padma Vibhushan, one of India's highest civilian awards, in 1999. People started calling me the 'Milkman of India.' I lived to be 90 years old, passing away on September 9th, 2012. I am remembered not just for building an industry, but for showing that the greatest resource our country has is its people. My story shows that with a good idea, hard work, and a belief in others, you can empower millions and change a nation for the better.