26th November is a day that is remembered for a number of reasons in India. Apart from the tragedy of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, it was this day that the Indians got their constitution. Apart from these two, the day marks the birth anniversary of another legend Dr. Verghese Kurien who revolutionised the dairy sector of India.
Born in 1921 in Calicut, Kurien graduated into physics. Later, Kurien was sent to United States to study Dairy Engineering but he pursued his areas of interest i.e. Mechanical Engineering. The Government of India sent him to run the experimental creamery it had launched at Anand.
Kurien picked by the job half-heartedly just to serve the period mentioned in the bond. So what started as a half-hearted love story soon turned into a romantic saga.
The impossible was about to happen. Along with his associate, H.M. Dalmiya, Kurien started the manufacturing of skimmed milk powder from Buffalo milk which was till now considered impossible.
Global dairy major, Nestle now had got a competition in the segment because their milk powder was manufactured from cow milk, so was expensive to the India made product.
This was followed up by successful manufacturing of cheese from Buffalo milk. Amul was started with a unique distribution and marketing channel. A three-tier-milk collection was set up to facilitate hassle free milk collection from the farmers. A milk processing unit was established in every district.
He was the brain behind the Amul girl that features frequently in the Amul advertisements. He gave Sylvester Da Cunha of Da Cunha Communications (a firm that handles the PR of Amul), the creative liberty to release advertisements which till now is sustained. He established Amul as a brand that could take on the mighty ones in the business.
His idea of imparting ownership to the farmers became an international hit with both Russia and Pakistan inviting Kurien to help them establish cooperatives in milk production.
Amul by now had become a success model of its own. In 1965, Lal Bahadur Shastri ji asked Kurien to replicate its success in a nationwide scale and so National Dairy Development Board was established at Anand under Kurien.
Kurien established the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation in 1973 and the title of Amul was formally handed over to it.
It was his success that now almost dry state has its own cooperative in dairying like Nandini in Karnataka, Verma in Punjab, Saras in Rajasthan and Mahananda in Maharashtra.
The branding of the cooperative gave it a strength to take on the best ones in the name.
It was the success of Amul that it was extended to edible oils too which went onto become a household name too, Dhara and Safal in the area of frozen vegetables.
Kurien established a training institute to generate the next line of social entrepreneurs dedicated to bolster cooperative sector in India. It was her disciple Amrita Patel who went to head GCMMF once he decided to hang his boots.
Kurien has been conferred upon many prizes for his inspiring works. It was he who single handedly catapulted a milk importer into the largest milk producer of the world.
His birthday has been rightly designated the “National Milk Day “.
as it was he who singlehandedly catapulted a milk importer into the largest milk producer of the world. Even after the liberalisation of 1991, not many can match the hegemony of Amul which is right now collecting milk even from outside of Gujarat.
A day’s celebration falls short of soliciting the contributions of man who can be rightly held as a maker of modern India.
