With ₹1 lakh loan the entrepreneur who built ₹1000 cr empire
Industrial Consultant in Hyderabad
Suresh Vazirani was just 21 years old when he gave up corporate career only to work for social causes inspired by the Sarvodaya Movement. The movement contained the collective efforts of Mahatma Gandhi’s followers who worked hard to create a democratic society. Suresh was also associated with Navnirman Andolan, a 1974 socio-political movement that was started in Gujarat which fought against economic crisis and infamous corruption.
One day, an incident at a hospital changed Suresh’s life and it inspired him to become a healthcare entrepreneur. Navnirman Andolan’s Bihar leader Jayaprakash Narayan suffered kidney failure, and he was rushed to a hospital. At the hospital, the imported dialysis machine broke down and the service engineer was unavailable.Since he was a graduate in electrical engineering, he worked on the machine and made it functional at the right moment.
This particular incident made him realise the lives lost each day due to a lack of technical service for medical devices. He also felt the creation of an affordable and easily-accessible medical technology provider was mandatory. The creation of such an organisation was more of a clarion call for service to society rather than the object of a business enterprise. He was already 29, and looking at something to devote his life to, he developed a conviction of improving the healthcare in India thus started Transasia Biomedicals in Mumbai in 1979
Suresh added that he started In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) company Transasia with just Rs 250 from his own pocket and Rs 1 lakh loan which he borrowed from a friend. All those important funds went into starting operations as the distributor for a Japanese-automated cell counter machines.
In the early 1990s, Suresh set up his own Research and Development and production facilities to manufacture medical equipment like blood analysers. Over the years, Transasia has evolved into a Rs 1,000 crore company. The company offers products and solutions in the fields of biochemistry, haematology, coagulation, ESR, immunology, urinalysis, critical care, diabetes management, microbiology and molecular diagnostics.