Michael Halse came to IIMA in January 1963 as a doctoral student of Professor Henry Arthur of the Harvard Business School to work on developing an agriculture management mandate for the institute. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai had earlier approached Professor Arthur, an established authority on agribusiness, for assistance. Halse quickly established a good rapport with people, including Dr. Varghese Kurien, at Amul, and launched a series of case studies on dairying and milk production. Beginning April 1964, Halse headed a Ministry of Agriculture-supported project on community development blocks. The group of five faculty members recruited for this project, and Halse, came to be known as the AgCo (agriculture-cooperatives) Group. Halse left IIMA in 1967 and worked as FAO Advisor till 1983 at the National Dairy Development Board, contributing significantly to 'Operation Flood'.