[1] Born on 2 July 1931,[2] Kurien attended Madras Christian College, graduating in 1953 with a master's degree in economics.
In 1978 he was appointed director of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, a national centre for social science research, holding this position for ten years.
[3] Kurien received the University Grants Commission's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
[3] In 2003 he delivered the Dr Stanley Samartha Memorial lecture to the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue, speaking on the topic: "Communal harmony – A societal perspective".
[5] His most recent book "WEALTH AND ILLFARE — An Expedition into Real Life Economics" was published in 2012, when the author was 80.