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Verghese Kurien has been the most inspiring social entrepreneur of India.

Kurien, hailed as India's doodhwalla (milkman) completely altered the state of India in terms of dairy production from being a milk-deficient, import dependent nation to becoming world's largest producer of milk in just two decades. Under his leadership, millions of marginal producers now have a guaranteed regular source of income and India has not only become self-sufficient but also exports to many countries like Australia, China, Singapore etc. In 30 years, milk available per person doubled. How did this revolution happen? After returning from US, having studied Dairy Engineering under government scholarship, he was posted at Amul an Indian dairy cooperative managed by the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF),in Anand . He wanted to leave soon after that and rather half-heartedly served out his bond period against the scholarship given by them. He had already made up mind to quit mid-way but was persuaded to stay back by his mentor and colleague, Shri Tribhuvandas Patel. Slowly he realized the power in the idea of all milk producers cooperating and pooling their resources to build a better life and achieving what they could never achieve alone. With the backing of a few enlightened political leaders and bureaucrats of the early Independence days who saw merit in their cooperative model, together they began working on this model with all their energy and determination. Meanwhile, Kurien's buddy and dairy expert H. M. Dalaya, invented the process of making milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk This was the reason Amul would compete successfully against Nestle which only used cow milk to make them. Livestock rearing and diary are as important a source of income to the farmers as agriculture is to them. For ages the farmers have learnt to live with their cattle and take care of them like the members of the family.The cattle yield milk and milk producers for farmers family as a course of much needed protein and for sale to others in the village and outside.As a source of income they are to supplement the income from farming.Animal husbandry improvement thus formed an integral part of the agricultural development programmes from the early stages of economic development in the country. With all that, the production of milk was not keeping pace with the rising population and the per capita availability of milk in the country came down.As against a consumption of 132 grams per head per day in 1951 the level declined to 108 grams in 1966 and drooped further to 107 by 1969-70.The supply of milk decreased causing hardships to the consumers. In 1970, the Indian government decided that the Anand model should be replicated gradually all over the country. The trios (T. K. Patel, Kurien and Dalayas) success at the cooperative's dairy led to

Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to replicate the program nationwide .Kurien was named chairman. Anands experiment became a torch bearer for the rest of the country. After he was appointed founder-chairman of the NDDB in 1965, to replicate Amul's model nationwide he started the Operation Flood or White Revolution. Operation Flood in India, started in 1970, was the world's biggest dairy development programme which made India, a milk-deficient nation, the largest milk producer in the world, surpassing the USA in 1998 and hence is also called the White Revolution of India Operation Flood was implemented in three phases. During its first phase, Operation Flood linked 18 of India's premier milksheds with consumers in India's major metropolitan cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Thus establishing mother dairies in four metros. By the end of Phase 1-there were 13,000 Anand pattern dairy cooperatives in 39 districts milk unions in the country. They handled three million litres of milk daily. Phase II increased the milksheds from 18 to 136; 290 urban markets expanded the outlets for milk. By the end of 1985, a self-sustaining system of 43,000 village cooperatives with 4,250,000 milk producers were covered. Phase III consolidated India's dairy cooperative movement. Milksheds peaked to 173 in 1988-89 with the numbers of women members and Women's Dairy Cooperative Societies increasing significantly.Increased emphasis to research and development in animal health and animal nutrition. Kurien founded the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) among many others in some of the major states organizing farmers into cooperatives. In this process he faced many challenges from the politicians as they didn't believe that Indian farmers were capable of managing their own business. Known for his blunt behaviour with the politicians and bureaucrats, he would brook no meddling from the political class or bureaucrats sitting in the capital cities, letting it be known upfront He never let anything come between his missions. He was a man of his word and delivered what he promised. The biggest example of this is how he brought the same revolution with edible oils. On being questioned the same by Indira Gandhi he proudly acclaimed, "You are now talking like the British who said we will give you freedom when you are ready."

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