Verghese Kurien and the power of social entrepreneurship

Amul and for India’s self-reliance in dairy.The impact was transformative. Buffalo milk was abundant in India, and millions of small farmers depended on it for income. By giving producers direct access to markets through cooperatives, the Amul model ensured fair prices and regular payments.

Milk, already a crucial source of nutrition, became the backbone of a self-sustaining rural industry.Kurien’s ambitions, however, extended beyond dairy (maybe because, as he often joked, he was not particularly fond of drinking milk). Beginning 1979, he applied cooperative principles to oilseeds, challenging entrenched trading networks that had long dominated the sector. This effort later became part of what is often called the Yellow Revolution.

The Dhara brand, launched in the late 1980s, connected farmers directly to consumers and helped drive a sharp rise in domestic oilseed production.Of the institutions Kurien built, the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), founded in 1979, was especially close to his heart. When some people suggested a rustic campus designed to resemble a village, Kurien famously dismissed the idea. Rural India, he believed, needed professionals trained to think big and act at scale.Kurien also understood the power of narrative.

When filmmaker Shyam Benegal proposed a film on the cooperative movement, the Milkman helped organize India’s first large-scale experiment in crowdfunding. Farmers were asked if they would accept a small, one-time reduction in the price paid for their milk so they could fund a film about their own lives. Thousands of them agreed.