Verghese Kurien, Social Entrepreneur

Popularly known as the “Father of the White Revolution” in India, Kurien was a social entrepreneur whose “billion-litre idea”, Operation Flood, made dairy farming India’s largest self-sustaining industry and the largest rural employment sector providing a third of all rural income. He pioneered the Anand model of dairy cooperatives and replicated it nationwide. Now famous as Amul, the dairy was noted for its invention of milk powder production from buffalo milk instead of cow milk.