Dara Nusserwanji Khurody | |
---|---|
Born | Mhow, British India | 2 January 1906
Died | 30 March 1983 77) Madhya Pradesh, India | (aged
Occupation | Civil servant |
Known for | Aarey Milk Colony Toned milk |
Awards | Ramon Magsaysay Award Padma Bhushan |
Dara Nusserwanji Khurody (2 January 1906 – 1 January 1983) was an Indian entrepreneur known for his contributions to the dairy industry of India. He worked in various private and government organization at the start of his career and also held government official positions later on. He was the Milk Commissioner of Bombay (now Mumbai) from 1946 to 1952. [1] His name was considered "synonymous with dairying" in India in the 1950s. [2] He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award jointly with Verghese Kurien and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel in 1963 and the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India in 1964.
Dara Khurody was born on 2 January 1906 in Mhow town of now Madhya Pradesh state of India. His father and grandfather were both employees in government and his family wished he be one too. His interest in dairy developed in childhood while he assisted his uncle who supplied dairy products to the military establishments in Mhow. Thereupon he took admission in the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry at Bangalore (now National Dairy Research Institute) in 1923. He received training at the Government Creamery at Anand, Gujarat and in 1925 received gold medal from the government for proclaiming the first position in the All India Dairy Diploma Examination. For the next ten years he worked as the dairy farm superintendent at Tata Iron & Steel Co. at Jamshedpur. During this tenure he visited Denmark and the Netherlands for various trainings. [3]
On his family's persistence, Khurody joined the Agricultural Marketing Department of the government in 1935. In this newly formed department he worked as the marketing officer for the dairy and animal husbandry products. During this tenure, he was an active member in formalizing the Agmark grading system. He wrote various reports on milk marketing in India and Burma and his 1941 report is considered an important work in the field. This report conceived the preliminary idea of the Aarey Milk Colony of Mumbai. [3] In this report he also proposed the concept of toned milk. [4]
Produced by mixing natural buffalo milk with water and skimmed milk powder, toned milk maintained the nutritious quality while reducing the cost considerably. He proposed that to meet the demand of the Indian market toned milk of 2 percent fat and double toned milk of 1 percent fat and 10 percent solids not-fat should be brought in market and promoted. [4] On 13 February 1946, this theory of toned milk was brought into practice for the first time and introduced in Bombay region. Toned milk brought the buffalo-milk down to 3 percent fat. This fat was comparable with the cow-milk but at the same time was at half price of buffalo-milk making it affordable to general masses. The Bombay Government purchased this toned milk to cater to 40,000 school children. [5] The product saw initial resistance in market but by 1975 market demand had increased above the production plant capacities. [6]
Due to the World War II, demand for ghee in military establishments had increased. Khurody had joined the Government of Bombay State as the Deputy Milk Commissioner to serve the state which was still struggling to cope up with the pressures of subsidized milk supplies during the war period. He implemented a Safe Milk Policy and new laws which stipulated that commercial establishments like hotels should use only skimmed milk, which was imported and supplied by the government at an enhanced price. The Safe Milk Policy would, years later, be promoted by UNICEF in Europe. The profits generated by the sale of imported skimmed milk helped to accumulate a corpus that was put in use to establish a buffalo colony at Aarey, a suburb on the eastern side of Bombay, which came to be known as Aarey Milk Colony. Before that, he had undertaken a study of the Kaira Model where almost 80 percent of the total daily production of 400 MT of milk was being converted into ghee or skimmed milk. He arranged for the procurement of milk from Polson's Dairy in Anand in large quantities for supply in Bombay, under a scheme named as Bombay Milk Scheme. [7] The Aarey Milk Colony was established in 1949 and officially inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1951. [8] The Colony engaged modern technologies of milk processing, toning, sterilizing, large-scale cheese production and logistics. [9] In 1953, UNICEF coordinated with Khurody, inspired by his Aarey Colony, on various other projects. The Colony at that time had about 15000 buffalos and was also a tourist spot for foreigners. [10] As of 2015 [update] , the colony spread over 1,287 hectares (3,180 acres) [11] with numerous cattle sheds where owners could entrust their buffaloes to be accommodated and tended to, at a nominal fee. UNICEF provided for technology and finances to develop the dairy industry in India. It financed US$ 1.5 million towards construction of dairy at Worli in Mumbai. In May 1963, Worli dairy was inaugurated after efforts of Khurody and UNICEF. The dairy was then the world's largest milk processing unit with a daily capacity of 300,000 litres (66,000 imp gal; 79,000 US gal). [10] [5]
Khurody married Persis and had two children. His son Nawshir Khurody graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, and was managing director of Voltas and chairman of Tata Infomedia. Nawshir's daughter Khursheed Khurody studied Indology and South Asian Studies and Civilization at Harvard University and also acted in the 2005 Bollywood film Mr Prime Minister . [12]
In 1963, Khurody, along with Verghese Kurien and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel was presented with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for "Community Leadership". [13] [14] In 1964, the Government of India honoured Khurody and Patel with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour of the country. [15]
Amul is an acronym of the Indian cooperative society named Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation based in Anand, Gujarat. It is under the ownership of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited, Department of Cooperation, Government of Gujarat. It is controlled by 3.6 million milk producers.
Verghese Kurien was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur who led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production termed the White Revolution.
Anand is the administrative centre of Anand District in the state of Gujarat, India. It is administered by Anand Municipality. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Anand and Kheda districts.
Aarey Milk Colony is within Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP). It is classified as mixed moist deciduous type forest. It acts as a buffer between SGNP and the city, being one of the few green spaces left in Mumbai. On 3 September 2020, the Maharashtra government declared one fifth of the Aarey Colony, an area of approximately 600 acres, as a reserved forest.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is a statutory body set up by an Act of the Parliament of India. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Government of India. The main office is in Anand, Gujarat with regional offices throughout the country. NDDB's subsidiaries include Indian Dairy Machinery Company Ltd (IDMC), Mother Dairy and Indian Immunologicals Limited, Hyderabad. The Board was created to finance and support producer-owned and controlled organisations. Its programmes and activities seek to strengthen farmer cooperatives and support national policies that are favourable to the growth of such institutions. Cooperative principles and cooperative strategies are fundamental to the board's efforts.
Manthan, also released under the translated title The Churning, is a 1976 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal, inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, and is written jointly by him and Vijay Tendulkar. It is set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India. Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated the power of "collective might" as it was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each. Manthan is the first crowdfunded Indian film.
White Revolution or Operation Flood, launched on 13 January 1970, was the world's largest dairy development program and a landmark project of India's National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer, surpassing the United States of America in 1998 with about 22.29 percent of global output in 2018. Within 30 years, it doubled the milk available per person in India and made dairy farming India's largest self-sustainable rural employment generator. The program was launched to help farmers direct their own development, and to give them control of the resources they create.
Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and politician. A follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he is regarded as the father of the cooperative movement in India, most notably in the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union in 1946, and the Anand Co-operative movement.
Many farmers in India depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and dairies. Thus, animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy. The gross value of output from this sector was 8,123 billion Rupees in FY 2015–16.
Tribhuvandas Foundation is a public Charitable trust working with the AMUL milk cooperatives in and around Kheda district of Gujarat. Its mission is to work for betterment of health in rural communities of Central Gujarat.
Amrita Patel is an Indian businessperson associated with cooperative dairy sector as well as environmentalist. She headed National Dairy Development Board from 1998 to 2014 which led the world's biggest dairy development program Operation Flood. She chaired several other institutes and has been a member of board of banks. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2001.
Polson is the name of a dairy products brand that was started in India by Pestonjee Eduljee in 1915 in Mumbai. Polson's first dairy was set up in Anand, Gujarat at the cost of ₹7 lakh (US$8,800) in 1930.
Toned milk is a method, developed in India, of treating buffalo milk by adding skim milk, powdered skim milk and water to buffalo milk. This process decreases the fat content, increases the quantity of available milk, and 'tones up' the non-fat solids level to the original amount. The cost of milk is reduced, making it more widely available and not a luxury purchase.
The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy, is a division of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation which is under the ownership of Ministry of Cooperation of the Government of Gujarat.
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Dairy plays a significant part in numerous aspects of Indian society, including cuisine, religion, culture, and the economy.
Harichand Megha Dalaya was the inventor of the first spray-dryer for buffalo milk in the world. His invention revolutionized India's dairy farming industry and laid the foundation for Amul cooperative's immense success.
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Sylvester da Cunha was an Indian advertising professional and theatre personality. He was most famously known for creating the Utterly Butterly advertising campaign and the Amul girl mascot for the Indian dairy cooperative Amul. He also served as a consultant to multinational agencies including the World Bank, UNICEF, and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development on various projects linked to food and nutrition.