An indelible ink maker looks to make a mark beyond the poll booth
Mint with a rueful smile. She may be playing a huge role behind the scenes of India’s national election, the largest democratic exercise in the world, but for all that, 42-year-old Vishalakshi is a simple, unassuming person. The post-graduate in organic chemistry, who also heads the quality department of the company, is responsible for ensuring that the ink leaves an indelible mark on the voter, one that will remain for at least 72 hours.
A voter’s finger is marked with indelible ink in the polling booth to prevent bogus voting—the casting of multiple votes. It was introduced in 1962 after rising instances of voting fraud in the first two general elections (1951-52 and 1957). Back then, indelible ink was the single most important instrument to prevent the malaise—voter identity cards were introduced only in 1993.
MPVL has been the sole supplier of the indelible ink to the Election Commission ever since it was first used. The company was founded in 1937 by Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, maharaja of the kingdom of Mysore. The ink remains its flagship product and accounts for the bulk of its revenue even today.
It is not just the Indian elections that MPVL supplies and protects. The state public sector unit exports its indelible ink to over 30 democracies around the world, including Malaysia, Cambodia, Mongolia, South Africa, Nepal, Ghana and Denmark. It even supplied the ink to Pakistan and Afghanistan back in 2004-05.
But the winds of change are now blowing across the company. It is modernizing operations and entering newer product segments to reduce its lopsided dependence on indelible ink for revenue. While it plays an outsized role in India’s national and state elections, MPVL is actually a small-scale operation comprising a
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