While hogging the dairy products, licking the last scoop of ice cream gluttonously and even drinking the milk twice a day after your mom’s constant nagging, how many times have you thought about the person behind such free flowing (even flooding) supplies of milk in India? Have you ever wondered about the introduction of powder milk and Mother Dairy products in India? Possibly not.

Letsdiskuss

(Source: catchnews.com)

The answer to all these questions is one man, Dr. Verghese Kurien, a Syrian Christian, born today in 1921 in Calicut. He’s more popularly known as the Milkman of India. Dr. Kurien was the main force behind the Operation Flood which was conceptualized in order to make India self-sufficient in dairy products and which led to the White Revolution.

(Source: news mobile.in)

The most amazing thing that he did was the inauguration of Amul.

Some more amazing facts that everyone must know about this thoughtful Indian are given below:

1. He started the White Revolution in India and its result was the development of Farmer’s first, Mother Dairy.

2. He also laid the foundations of NDDB (National Dairy Development Board) and GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd).

3. Among the greatest honors he received, the major ones were Padmashri (1965), Padmabhushan (1966), and Padmavibhushan (1999). He also received an honorary degree for his works in 1965 from Michigan State University.

4. He is the author of I Too Had A Dream, which is about the production of milk cooperatives in India, along with the empowerment of farmers. Its foreword was written by Dr Ratan Tata.

5. His birthday is celebrated as the National Milk Day.

6. His experiments to produce powder milk from the milk of buffalo led to the commencement of India’s first milk powder plant.

7. Farmers working for him collected 2 Rs each to fund Shyam Benegal’s film Manthan, which was lacking funds.

8. One of his most famous quotes is, “Eight hours for dairy, eight hours for family and eight hours for sleep".

9. The name of the cooperative he started was initially a sanskrit word –Amulya –meaning priceless. Later on, it was changed to AMUL, which stands for Anand Milk Union Limited.

10. Dr. Verghese Kurien, was initially reluctant to join Anand, which is now the Milk Capital of India.