The 1963 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership

BIOGRAPHY of Verghese Kurien

VERGHESE KURIEN was born on November 26, 1921 in Calicut, a seaport now known as Kozhikode, in the State of Kerala in southwestern India. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1941 and his Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with honors in 1944 from Madras University. He completed special studies in engineering at the Tata Iron and Steel Company Institute at Jamshedpur, Bihar, in February 1946. Nine months of specialized training in dairy engineering followed at the National Dairy Research Institute of Bangalore, Mysore. Further study in dairy engineering was undertaken in the U.S. at Michigan State University where he was awarded a degree of Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering with distinction in 1948.

Joining the Dairy Department of the Government of India, he was posted in May 1949 as Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery, a small milk-powder factory, in Anand. Seven months later he resigned to become manager of the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union in the same town. The Anand area, then in Bombay State and now in Gujarat, was being developed as the major outside source of milk for the Bombay Milk Scheme and the Kaira Union was the principal instrument through which the necessary increase of milk production was being achieved.

Bringing technical and administrative competence to the enterprise, KURIEN’s abilities have been complementary to the organizing talents of Tribhuvandas K. Patel, founder and now president of the Union. Christian and Hindu, respectively, they have set an example of fruitful partnership that supersedes barriers of religion and cultural background.

Under the Colombo Plan KURIEN was awarded a Senior Fellowship in October 1952 for advanced training in dairy plan design and dairy engineering in New Zealand and Australia. The study was relevant to the Union's plan to replace its uneconomic and small dairy with a modern plant of much larger capacity.

Already recognized as a leading figure in dairy development in his country, KURIEN was an official Indian delegate to the International Dairy congresses held in Rome in 1956 and Copenhagen in 1962. He is a member of both the Dairy Science and the Dairy Education committees of the Government of India. As a nominee of the Industrial Finance Corporation of India he serves as a Director of Tensile Steel in Baroda and of Air Control and Refrigeration in Ahmedabad, and is a member of the Gujarat State Electricity Board.

The success achieved by the Kaira Union under his management has prompted requests for his advice on dairy projects from the state governments of Kerala, Madras, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat.

August 1963
Manila