The Multimillionaire Who Lives In A Lab

Arokiaswamy Velumani, a landless farmer’s son, ploughed his Rs 1 lakh provident fund money into a pioneering business that is now worth more than Rs 3,000 crore.

- Raju Bist

YOU can take Arokiaswamy Velumani out of Coimbatore but you cannot take Coimbatore out of Arokiaswamy Velumani. Even 34 years after he left the textile town in the south, the 57-year-old CEO of Thyrocare Technologies Ltd retains a thick Tamil accent. As you exchange business cards with him, he asks, “So, does Raju speak Tamil?” and when you reply in the negative, the Rajnikanth fan sheepishly says, “Oh, Raju is a very common name in Tamil Nadu, like Kumar in the north of India.”

Coimbatore’s most famous son is known for such astute observations. Hear him on why he gave up a comfortable 14-year-old government job to jump into the turbulent waters of entrepreneurship: “Everyone looks for one of two things in a vocation – security or prosperity. A government job provides you security while a private one can lead to prosperity. By branching out on my own, I was assured of secured prosperity.”

The government firm was the reputed Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in Mumbai which Velumani had joined in 1982 as a lab assistant. This was after the first company he worked at, Gemini Capsules in Coimbatore, drawing a monthly salary of Rs 150, abruptly shut down. At BARC, he decided to study even while working. He completed his Masters in 1985 and a decade later, enrolled for a Ph.D programme.

“When I joined BARC I did not know what a thyroid gland was,” says Velumani candidly. “Thirteen years later, I was a Ph.D in thyroid chemistry.” But feeling restless, he quit his job in 1996. Thyrocare was born in a 200 sq ft room in the Byculla locality of Mumbai. The seed money of Rs 1 lakh came from Velumani’s provident fund.