Photo Credits: AMUL

75 Years of Amul and 100 Years of Dr. Kurien – what can India’s youth learn from it?

Amul, Milk Cooperatives, Verghese Kurien, Youth, Social Engineering, Growth Mindset

On 19 December 2021, Amul celebrated its 75th birth anniversary; on 26 November 2021, it was Dr Verghese Kurien’s 100th birth anniversary. To offer a perspective through numbers, just in the last decade, Amul has grown more than four times. Today, it is the largest FMCG brand in India with an annual turnover of ₹53,000 crore, and targets ₹1 lakh crore turnover by 2025. Needless to say, this ‘big money’ goes right to rural India, the rightful owners of Amul – the members of its cooperative society.

Amul’s Creative Toon-y take on the eventful year.

Now, let's go back 100 years to when India was a British Colony. It didn’t have a single laboratory to test milk. A report from a British lab said: ‘The milk of Bombay is more polluted than gutters of London.’ But some 500 km away from Bombay, a man was readying the ground for a revolution to come, which gave birth to the world’s biggest dairy development program named Operation Flood. The ground was the quaint town of Anand, and the man was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. After 15 days of milk satyagraha, where the farmers protested by flooding roads with milk, the Bombay Commissioner agreed to the demands of farmers to form a milk cooperative.

The erstwhile Bombay Commissioner apparently agreed to allow the formation of a milk cooperative because he thought it would never succeed in India. At the cusp of India’s independence, a 26-year-old Verghese Kurien set off to Michigan State University, USA, to study dairy engineering on a government scholarship. As part of his scholarship contract, he was deputed to Anand in Gujarat. He was welcomed by the newly born cooperative, which was then headed by a staunch Gandhian, Tribhuvandas Patel. The duo imbibed the perfect combination of technical expertise and social engineering. The foundation for many successes to come was laid in Anand, under the commonest name of Indian households in time to come, AMUL.

Shyam Benegal beautifully captured the story in the movie ‘Manthan’, and a recent video by Amul gives the best sneak peek into the journey: https://youtu.be/75lhFQN-yLI.

So, what can the youth learn from the man responsible for India's evolution as the world's largest milk producer? What would a young Kurien do today?

1. Quality is Everything – Amul is one of India’s most TRUSTED brands because quality is at the company’s core ethos. For a person or a company, quality should be ingrained innately. 

2. Go where you are needed – India’s aspirational youth also needs to aspire beyond self. Dr Kurien was denied even a household in Anand, given his Christian and thus non-vegetarian roots. He used to live in the garage of the dairy – very uncannily similar to Silicon Valley giants of today. 

3. Value Integrity – Dr. Kurien was known for his brutal honesty. His integrity took him places. Often one hears the argument that honesty doesn’t pay in a practical world. Dr. Kurien was the recipient of Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the World Food Prize, just to name a few of the laurels that came his way. 

4. Focus on Grassroots – Ratan Tata once said, “One can only wonder if 100 such Kuriens were born in India”. On the flip side, to every person visiting Anand and wishing, “We also need one Kurien”, Dr. Kurien humbly replied, “Give me one Tribhuvandas, I will give you 100 Kuriens”. 

5. Optimistic Growth Mindset – Often, the young lose hope citing a dearth of good people. Dr. Kurien said, “The organizations which I have the privilege to head have developed only because of exceptional men.” He was a firm believer in bringing about a change in society, even if a small exceptional number of people supported the change.

As the founder of the Indian Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), a world-class institute in Anand, Dr. Kurien directly impacted the lives of thousands of students. He enjoyed interacting with students. A compilation of his lectures is available on drkurien.com; to begin with, Dr. Kurien’s ‘Sarabhai Memorial Lecture’ at IIM Ahmedabad https://drkurien.com/march-7-1978/ is a guiding star. 

Reference

AMUL, R. O. (2021, December 19). Retrieved from Vrikshamandir:
https://vrikshamandir.com/

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. (2021, December 19). Retrieved from Dr V Kurien: drkurien.com

Kurien, D. V. (2021). I too had a dream. Anand: Roli Books.

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  Gaurav Gupta

  Gaurav Gupta is the Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow (2020-2022 IIM Bangalore) posted in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat. His areas of interest in Public Policy are Sustainable Development and Youth Empowerment.