Kerala Man Who Had Quit IAS, Became India's Biggest Manufacturer Of Blood Bags

In 1983, Balagopal Chandrasekhar had quit the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) to start his own venture Penpol (Peninsula Polymers) Limited. In 1999, Penpol entered into a joint venture with the Terumo Corporation of Japan. Today, Terumo Penpol Ltd is the biggest manufacturer of blood bags in India and one of the world¡¯s biggest makers of high-tech bio-medical devices, The Better India reports.

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Why did he quit?

Balagopal decided to quit when he was on a visit to the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology in Thiruvananthapuram in May of 1983. He was 30-year-old at the time and visited the institute out of curiosity after reading news reports that its research and development (R&D) wing had indigenously developed blood bags to facilitate blood transfers.

Following which, he met Professor AV Ramani, who at the time was heading the institute¡¯s R&D wing. The conversation that followed inspired Balagopal to quit the IAS a few months later and start his own venture. Fortunately, even his parents supported his decision to quit the IAS and start a new venture. In fact, his father even offered his savings to fund this new venture.

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What inspired him to take the plunge?

Speaking to The Better India, Balagopal recollects the passionate arguments Ramani made in favour of local industry leveraging the fruits of Indian science and the conversation that changed it for him.

¡°Professor Ramani believed that Indian industry was missing out on game-changing research of national institutions like the Sree Chitra Institute because of the false notion that Indian scientific and technological capabilities were of inferior quality. This false notion, he believed, prevented many Indian technologists and industrialists from taking their ideas further. Citing the example of the Sree Chitra Institute, he said that it was making bio-medical devices that very few companies in the world could access. He felt that anyone starting a venture based on the technologies they were developing would be able to get into the ground floor of a vast and expanding market of healthcare products,¡± recalls Balagopal.

"I had finally found meaning and purpose in my life,¡± he recalls.

About his venture

Incorporated in 1985, Penpol Limited¡¯s first plant to manufacture blood bags was commissioned in 1987 with the total project cost standing at a little over Rs 1 crore. Apart from Balagopal, the equity to construct this plant came from the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) and the Industrial Development Bank of India¡¯s (IDBI) seed capital scheme. Loans, meanwhile, also came from the KSIDC and the State Bank of Travancore.

Terumo was a global market leader in blood bags before the joint venture. Although their products were of very good quality, they were getting priced out of certain markets because of the high cost of manufacturing. With Penpol¡¯s indigenously developed technology, they could now enter markets that were otherwise closed to them.

terumo penpol

However, what the Japanese brought to the table besides finance was a revolutionary working culture based on the principles of Kaizen, which means continuous improvement, and 5S, a series of steps a manager or employee can pursue to organise the workplace. The English translation of the 5S concept stands for sort, straighten, shine, standardise and sustain.

About his early life

Born on 2 October 1952 in Kollam, Kerala, Balagopal grew up in relative privilege. Balagopal attended boarding school at Lawrence School, Lovedale, before pursuing a Bachelors¡¯ degree in economics from Loyola College, Chennai. He would go on to obtain his Masters¡¯ degree in economics from Madras University before proceeding to a PhD programme at the University of Kerala. While pursuing a PhD, he fulfilled his parents¡¯ wish of passing the UPSC exam in 1976, and by July 1977 he joined the IAS.

Allotted the Manipur cadre, Balagopal was first posted as a trainee in Tamenglong district. This was followed by his first posting as a sub-divisional officer (SD) in Ukhrul district before a similar stint in Imphal West. He quit the IAS just six years into the job when the private sector did not offer many employment opportunities. Moreover, Balagopal was venturing into a market he knew little about.

What is he doing now?

Balagopal and his brother C. Padmakumar, who was the executive director eventually sold their stake in 2011. While Balagopal retired as Managing Director, his younger brother took on the post until his retirement last March. When he started Penpol, Balagopal had 50 employees.

By his retirement, the company had 1200 employees. Since its inception in 1985, the company has grown over 300 times under Balagopal¡¯s tenure and sold blood bags in over 64 countries across the world. What would take the company a year to make in the 1980s, now takes them just two shifts in one day. That¡¯s progress!

terumo penpol

Balagopal has ever since been supporting a plethora of social development initiatives in Kerala and Manipur, where he once served as an IAS officer.