(This story was first published on 26 November 2015 and is being reposted from The Quint’s archives to mark Dr Verghese Kurien’s death anniversary.)
Verghese Kurien, the ‘Milkman of India’, founded around 30 institutions of excellence (like AMUL, GCMMF, IRMA, NDDB) which are owned and managed by farmers, and run by professionals. As the founding chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), Kurien was responsible for the creation and success of the Amul brand of dairy products.
A key achievement at Amul was the invention of milk powder processed from buffalo milk, found in abundance in India, as opposed to that made from cow milk which was predominant in the then-major milk producing nations. For this innovation, Kurien was appointed as the founder-chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in 1965 by Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
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