The Unfinished Dream: V Kurien
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"I consider Verghese Kurien to be one of the world's great agricultural leaders of this century. This collection of his speeches, so aptly entitled An Unfinished Dream, can help to light the way for those who must carry on the battle to ensure greater food security, prosperity, and peace to the world. I am honoured to commend this book to those future hunger fighters..." 1970 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate |
Dr. Verghese Kurien is the Chairman of India's National Dairy Development Board, the National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India and the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation. His professional life has been dedicated to empowering the Indian farmer through cooperatives. The architect of India's White Revolution, "Operation Flood", his work has been recognised by the award of a Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Prize for Community Leadership, the Carnegie-Wateler World Peace Prize, and the World Food Prize.
"We must build on the resources represented by our young professionals and by our nation's farmers. Without their involvement, we cannot succeed. With their involvement, we cannot fail...
Those of us who are of our country's urban elite often fail to recognise the tremendous resource that our nation's farmers represent. It is that resource, linked with the professional manager, that can return India to its position as a surplus producer...
True development involves building the institutional capacity to respond to new and diverse challenges; to adapt, to innovate and to create newer institutional forms ..."
Verghese Kurien
This book is the story of the pursuit of a dream. A dream in which regardless of origin, place of birth, occupation, or of language, each Indian has an equal opportunity to share in the nation's blessings, and to contribute to the nation's progress.
Spanning nearly 40 years from 1955 to 1994, An Unfinished Dream contains speeches of Dr Verghese Kurien, Chairman of National Dairy Development Board. The speeches are rich in their arguments, incisive in their views and contain anecdotes that illuminate, inspire and sometimes amuse. They rise above the din of ideology and partisan rhetoric to provide clear and refreshing insights on varied subjects - Development, Technology, Operation Flood, Marketing, and Empowerment of India's Rural Producers.
An Unfinished Dream has three sections:
A Dream, Defending the Dream, and A Dream Renewed.
Each section, while joined by a theme, draws on the past and looks towards the future.