Inking money

When you step into the polling booth to caste your vote this time, the polling officer will draw a line on your nail starting from the skin. Five years ago, they applied a simple dot. The difference may be insignificant for a voter. But not so for Mysore Paints & Varnish Ltd., the world’s oldest maker of indelible ink and the only one in India. The change from a dot to an extended line means a two-and-a-half time increase in orders compared to the 2004 elections. The company will supply 20-lakh bottles of 10 ml each to states this time, as against 16-lakh bottles of 5 ml each in 2004.

The little-known PSU based in Mysore is burning the midnight oil to meet this incremental demand. The 72-year-old company, set up by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, the ruler of the then princely state of Mysore and taken over by the State in 1947, entered the indelible ink business in 1962. Forty-seven years on, its bond with the Election Commission is getting stronger.

The oldest-serving employee, K.S. Muralidhar, 58, now Manager (materials), recalls how difficult it was when glass phials were used to store the ink in the early days. It invariably led to an estimated 15 per cent loss of ink due to breakage and leaks. The wastage has come down to about 1 per cent since the company shifted to plastic containers in 1979. Mysore Paints has reported profits for the last nine years.

What goes into the making of this ink? “We cannot reveal the ink’s chemical composition,” says Managing Director K.J. Suresh of the ink that was developed by the National Physical Laboratory, Delhi, and patented by the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC)—an arm of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). The ink is photo-sensitive and is, hence, protected from exposure to direct sun rays. “Even during the times we used glass phials to store them, we used brown-coloured bottles. Now, we use amber-coloured plastic containers,’’ says Muralidhar.

The company is understandably proud about making this ink. “The violet ink turns black when applied and remains on the finger for at least two days, sometimes up to a month. How long the ink sticks depends on a voter’s body temperature and the environment,” says C. Hara Kumar, the Marketing Manager. The company, he claims, has not received complaints about the ink’s quality from any state so far because the samples pass through stringent quality control tests before they are dispatched. Mysore Paints, however, did draw the attention of the international media in October 2004, when its ink, used in elections in Afghanistan that year, was said to have been far from being indelible. Kumar rubbishes the allegations.

“If the ink disappeared fast, it was because the election staff used the wrong ink. They used marker pens meant for paper, instead of using marker pens loaded with indelible ink,” he says. It was for the first time that Mysore Paints manufactured indelible marker pens at the request of the United Nations, which supervised the election in Afghanistan. The brief spell of controversy, though, has not affected business. The list of countries that buy ink from the company is only growing. This year, it exported the ink to Ghana, Mongolia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Africa and the Maldives.

“Some countries holding elections invite global tenders for ink and we participate in all of them. Others approach us through their embassies. Our ink has already been used in 25 countries,” says Suresh.

Interestingly, not all countries apply the ink in the same way as Indian election personnel do—using a stick. In Cambodia and the Maldives, a voter is required to dip his finger into the ink; In Burkina Faso, the ink is applied with a brush, while it is applied through nozzles in Turkey. “We supply the ink according to customer specifications,” says Kumar. 

 

K. J. Suresh Money spinner Mysore Paints & Varnish’s profits. The company is supplying 20-lakh bottles of 10 ml each for elections this time, a 150 per cent increase from 2004 elections Changing to plastic phials from glass since 1979 has reduced wastage from 15 per cent to less than 1 per cent This year, the company exported its product to Ghana, Mongolia, Malaysia, Nepal, South Africa and the Maldives Of the Rs 26.5 crore business that the company did in 2008-09, Rs 15.5 crore came from selling ink

For the current election season, the company has already dispatched ink to 23 states while 12 states and union territories are waiting for the bottles. Uttar Pradesh has placed the largest order for 2.86-lakh bottles, while the Lakshadweep administration has requested a mere 120 bottles. “The orders are not placed by the Election Commission of India, but by the Chief Electoral Officers of individual states. The bills, too, are settled by individual states,” says Suresh.

Elections are not the only time the ink is used. Some hospitals use it to mark out cancer-affected areas in the body. This use, however, is limited and not all hospitals have taken to it yet.

Interestingly, though, the main product of Mysore Paints is not its ink, but as the company’s name itself suggests—decorative coatings, industrial paints, wood polishes, primers, varnish and thinners. But in election years, the company’s revenue from the sale of ink far outstrips revenue from other products.

While it did business worth Rs 11 crore in 2008-09 (till February 28) by selling non-ink products, the domestic orders for indelible ink during the same period was Rs 13 crore, not to speak of another Rs 2.5 crore it earned from exports. In the business of electoral democracy, Mysore Paints has definitely left an indelible footprint.