He was sent to the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry in Bangalore (now, National Dairy Research Institute, southern station, Bengaluru) where he spent nine months before being sent to America to study at Michigan State University, on a government scholarship. He returned with a master's degree in mechanical engineering (metallurgy) with a minor in nuclear physics in 1948. Later, he would say, "I was sent to study dairy engineering (on the only government scholarship left). I cheated a bit though," and "studied metallurgical and nuclear engineering, disciplines likely to be of far greater use to my soon-to-be independent country and, quite frankly, to me." dairying then, and to Australia, when he learned to set up the Amul dairy. Turning point In 1949, Kurien was sent by the government of India to its run-down, experimental creamery at Anand, Bombay province (later Bombay state and now part of Gujarat state since 1960) to serve five years as an officer in the dairy division. He spent time going to Bombay city on weekends and under the pretext of work, volunteered to tinker with the primitive dairy equipment of Tribhuvandas Patel, who sought his help to process the milk of farmers he had brought together after a strike in 1946, and formed a cooperative to purchase their milk at nearby Kaira (now Kheda). Kurien decided to quit the government job mid-way and leave Anand but was persuaded by Patel to stay with him after quitting them, and help him set up his dairy cooperative. Kurien established the dairy cooperative, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited (KDCMPUL) (popularly known as Amul - Anand Milk Utpadak Ltd Dairy), at Anand, in the year 1950. Work Foundation of the dairy and its structure The farmers faced a problem of fluctuating milk production as surplus milk found no buyers in the flush season (when animals produce more milk) and turned to the cooperative for help, where a proposal to convert the surplus into milk powder was made. Kurien's batchmate from America and dairy engineer H. M. Dalaya, who he persuaded to stay back at Anand after a visit, invented the process of making skim milk powder and condensed milk from buffalo milk instead of from cow milk. In India, buffalo milk was plentiful, while cow milk was in short supply, unlike Europe. For this reason, Amul competed successfully against Nestle, the leading competitor for milk, and later