Dr V Kurien helped to establish the world's largest dairy cooperative movement on the Amul-model which today has a collective membership of 14 million small and marginal dairy farmers and landless labourers across 23 States of India. As the founder-Chairman of NDDB, during his tenure (1965-1998), he conceived and implemented the world's largest dairy development programme 'Operation Flood' with the help from FAO/World Bank and others, and helped India surpass the United States of America as the top milk producing nation in the world. Thanks to the Amul-model dairy cooperatives in India, millions of poor dairy farmers are earning their livelihoods, besides having been empowered socially, politically and most importantly economically. He is the recipient of enormous number of awards and recognitions from around the world, including the World Food Prize, Merit d' Agricole from the Govt of France, and Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan from the Government of India, besides so many other awards and honorary degrees. He deserves to be conferred with the Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian Award of India. Dr Kurien passed away on 9th September, 2012 at the age of 90.