"We didn't chase scale, we built systems first”

Manish Jain, founder of Cilicant on how they built India's active packaging backbone from the shop floor up.

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If India's manufacturing ambitions are to scale globally, packaging integrity is no longer a peripheral concern, it is core infrastructure. From pharmaceuticals and food to exports and healthcare, shelf life, compliance, and product stability increasingly define competitiveness. At the heart of this quiet but critical space is Cilicant Pvt Ltd, a Pune-based MSME that has grown from a one-man operation into a ₹170+ crore active packaging company serving regulated global markets.

Founded in 2011 by Manish Jain, Cilicant today operates four cGMP-certified facilities, holds USFDA and Health Canada DMF approvals, and commands over 10 percent of India's pharma active packaging market—challenging multinational dominance through process rigour, science-led innovation, and manufacturing discipline. In this interview, Jain discusses scaling without external funding, building compliance-first manufacturing, and why true self-reliance begins on the shop floor, not in slogans.

You started Cilicant as a one-man MSME in 2011. Looking back, what key decisions or turning points helped you scale from a small startup to a ₹200 crore company?

When we started in 2011, the focus was very clear. We wanted to serve the pharmaceutical market. At that time, desiccants were available, but most of them were not suitable for pharma use. And whatever was approved for pharmaceutical applications was largely imported. I saw a clear gap there. So the first big step was to get all the required certifications and compliances in place to genuinely cater to pharma companies. That was not easy or fast, but it was necessary.

Once we started working closely with customers, more gaps became visible. Moisture was not the only issue. Oxygen was also impacting formulation stability. That is how we slowly expanded into oxygen protection solutions and built a wider portfolio around product stability.