Kurien

"Meanwhile, while the struggle for the import licenses continued, Kurien became a well-known man in India. Through his ideas, he had improved the standard of living of the cooperative. And rumors of his achievements also reached the government. After a visit to Anand in 1965, Prime Minister Shastri was impressed by what he had seen. With great speed, he pushed through the government that Kurien should also have the chance to develop his ideas on a national level. The government appointed him head of the newly formed National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). If Kurien had wanted to pursue a career, he would undoubtedly have felt flattered by the appointment. But he was mostly happy and satisfied to have the chance to spread his message across all of India. It was a gigantic challenge: his mission was to reform the entire country’s milk production. ⁠"

"An example of the latter occurred in 1978 when the Indians suddenly demanded the top modern Tetra Brik machines for aseptic instead of the ordered tetrahedron machines. Naturally, they requested the Brik machines at the same price as the tetrahedron machines. Since Kurien had been promised the tetrahedron machines at the 1970 price, this was obviously an impossibility."

"According to Ruben’s unpublished memoirs, there was only one man within the FAO whom he “would dare entrust with a significant and complicated matter: a Polish communist named H A Jasiorowski who was a professor of genetics. He was a man of the same caliber as Kurien and the only one within the FAO who understood what execution meant. Within the organization, there were many talented people, but their talent and experience were not in the field of execution but in formulating. They could write. After a meeting, one often got exquisite minutes, really skillfully written, but then nothing more.” That it was not their task to execute anything never occurred to Ruben."