Verghese Kurien

1963 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership from India. Verghese Kurien, together with another Magsaysay Awardee T. K. Patel, developed the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union. It was organized in 1948 by combining two village milk producers' societies and a dairy processing 500 pounds of milk daily. Patel was the organizing genius in building this cooperative effort. As Manager, Kurien provided the necessary administrative and scientific direction to a hardworking staff of specialists, laborers and villager-aides. Rapid expansion had brought into the Milk Producers' Union more than 200 farmer societies with 46,400 members. Milk processed in that year grossed over US$6 million. Kurien and his team were pioneers in inventing the process of making milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo's milk instead of cow's milk.

Kurien is also the founder of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), an apex cooperative organization that manages the Amul food brand. He is recognized as the man behind the success of the Amul brand.

He is credited with being the architect of Operation Flood – the largest dairy development program in the world. Kurien helped modernize the Anand model of cooperative dairy development and thus engineered the White Revolution in India, and made India the largest milk producer in the world.