New Delhi, Oct. 11 -- How important is it for visionary scientists and administrators to have the ear of their political masters? In the history of post-independent India, two events which played out over several years provide an answer. Verghese Kurien, a dairy engineer who crafted the white revolution from Gujarat and made India the largest producer of milk, could do so because he was able to sway policy in favour of cooperative dairy farmers. Kurien had unbridled access to successive prime ministers and could get what he needed promptly, bypassing the maze of bureaucracy.

In his autobiography, I Too Had a Dream (2005), Kurien recalls an incident from 1970: Jagjivan Ram, the minister of agriculture and irrigation, wanted Kurien's help ...