Verghese Kurien Quotes

Indian entrepreneur

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Verghese Kurien (November 26, 1921 – September 9, 2012) was a legendary Indian social entrepreneur who was known by the sobriquet the "Milkman of India" and the "Father of the White Revolution" for his contribution to the 'billion-litre idea' the "Operation Flood". This is the world's biggest agricultural development programme which transformed India from being a milk-deficient country to largest milk producer in the world. Dairy farming became India’s largest self-sustaining industry. He also founded the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Among the several accolades and awards conferred on him, the most noteworthy are the Ramon Magsaysay Award, World Food Prize, Wateler Peace Prize and the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award of India.

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Native Name: വർഗ്ഗീസ് കുര്യൻ

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I had the benefit of background and infrastructure, success would have come rather easily and my independent contribution would not have been easily measurable. Here there was so much to be done - how could I not try? I had a trained butler. Mumbai was close. The Mathais were there but I would stay at the Taj for Rs 50 per night. I could afford it because in Anand I had no expenses at all. **When asked why with aristocratic background how reconciled to stay in a garage.

While II was looking for a good enough excuse to run away from Anand; I was befriended by Tribhuvandas Patel, the young cooperative chairman and almost without realizing it I began to share his dream of building a strong organization that would free the farmers from clutches of the middle man. In one of my weaker moments I accepted |w:Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel|Tribhuvandas’s]] suggestion that I work for the nascent Kaira Cooperative. I have never regretted that decision in my 33-year career as an employee of the farmers.

So, Mr Kreeber, what do you think of the natives now?" Kurien told a Nestle official who had come to do business with farmers of Anand. The company had earlier refused technology help to India as it could not let "natives handle a sensitive commodity like milk".

I am a servant to the farmers.

We must build on the resources represented by our young professionals and by our nation’s farmers. Without their involvement, we cannot succeed. With their involvement we can not fail.

With liberalisation and globalisation, it seems to me, India's national boundaries have ceased to exist.

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.

I am glad that there are people like you in this country to do things that you

Over the last 20 years India’s milk production has tripled; it has increased from 20 million tonnes per annum to 60 million tonnes per annum.... Dairying has become the largest rural employment scheme in this country. And the government has had very little to do with it, even though we are a government institution.

Is the democratic form of government successful in all parts of India? But the solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy. There can be no democracy in India unless you erect a plurality of democratic structures to underpin democracy, like the village cooperative which is a people’s institution.

The idea of setting up the NDDB was to replicate the Anand pattern in very state, in order to promote to genuinely farmer-owned cooperatives that would procure, process and markethis prime produce.

Through Operation Flood, milk has been transformed from a commodity into a brand, from insufficient production to sufficient production, from rationing to plentiful availability; from loose unhygienic milk to milk that is pure and sure, from subjugation to as symbol of farmer’s economic independence, to being the consumer’s greatest insurance policy for good health.

Gifts can be dangerous and make a nation dependent on foreign aid. They can scuttle dairy development here.

Dairying as Instrument of Change Kurien said. True development must be such that it brings the modernization process to the service of our majority, namely the rural poor. It must bring to these people not only the pittance which they need for their humble diet but also the means where by they can act together to obtain for themselves the benefits of modern science and organization and in that process the means whereby they can build for themselves, in every village, a society which is at peace with itself, concerned with its neighbours and able to see a bright for all its children.

Our laws have our mindset negative, dishonest, unproductive, obstructionist and indisciplined. [Kurien says] we must liberate our resources. Economic liberalization is aimed at liberating our material resources. Economic liberalization is aimed at liberating our material resources. We need to liberate our mental resources, viz. the mindset, from our anti-national and anti-work ethic labour laws.