It takes only ONE man to start a revolution. Mr. J. M. Nadkarni was that man who revolutionized the Paint Industry in India with his technology-driven approach. In appreciation of his contributions to the industry, The Colour Society of India, in 2004, bestowed upon him the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Back in 1950’s most of the British-owned companies were either complacent or not in touch with the ground realities of the newly independent India. Paint companies then were simply paint processors without an R&D department since all the formulations and technical support were relayed from the United Kingdom. Consequently, resins were imported into India and thus the cost to manufacture paints was exorbitant.

In 1952, a young 26-year-old chemist, J. M. Nadkarni (JMN) had recently returned from Germany to India. He was on a British-India scholarship for PhD at the Technische Universität Berlin in 1950, which he decided to drop out of because of his father’s health issues. After returning from Germany, he had started a small factory for making leather finishes. However, one of his friends dragged him for an interview at Asian Oil and Paints Company (now Asian Paints) with its founder members – Mr. Champaklal Choksey, Mr. Chimanlal Choksi, Mr. Suryakant Dani and Mr. Arvind Vakil. Impressed by JMN’s technical prowess, he was appointed as the Chief Chemist of the company.

With JMN’s vision to develop technology-driven products to compete in the market, he established India’s first Paint R&D laboratory in Asian Paints in 1953. He completely transformed the product line-up of Asian Paints from stiff paints, double boiled linseed oil, copal varnish, stand oil, blown oil to innovative products such as Apcolite synthetic enamel, Tractor oil-bound distemper, stoving finish, wrinkle finish, hammertone finish, silver stoving varnish and so on. Some of these still stand the test of time and are a part of Asian Paints’s current catalogue.

JMN incorporated biomass in his technology as early as 1953, with a vision to utilize natural and renewable materials to produce high-performance coatings. He was the pioneer of Rosinated Alkyd resins in the Indian market. Under his vision and direction as the first Technical Director of Asian Paints, the company dominated the market with technology-driven products. With his dedication and hard work in R&D, JMN established a robust technological foundation in the company, which along with the brilliant vision of Mr. Champaklal Choksey, enabled Asian Paints to succeed and grow rapidly and define its position as the market leader. In the very words of Mr. Champaklal Choksey during an interview with Mr. Raghavan for Paint India Magazine – “The moment Nadkarni took over, everything changed for Asian Paints”.

In 1960, JMN parted with Asian Paints and started a new endeavor in partnership with his college friend, Mr. J. M. Chudasama, with the company Bombay Paints. There, JMN was a major shareholder and served as the Technical Director for the company. In this role, he established Bombay Paints’s research laboratory with Resin and Paint divisions, which was the first of its kind R&D laboratory with Indian government’s recognition to obey all benefits.

At Bombay Paints, JMN worked on diverse fields of paint application and polymer technology. One such initiative by JMN in 1961 was an international collaboration between Bombay Paints and Hempel Marine Paints of Denmark. The mutual experience gained from conceptualising and developing new marine coating technologies over the 34 years of collaboration created a strong bond between the two companies.

JMN’s son Prasad Nadkarni (PJN), after completing his M.S. in Polymers & Coating in the US followed by working at Hempel USA, joined Bombay Paints in 1986 to strengthen the Company’s operations.

In 1985, JMN started Vanaprabha, now Paladin Paints, as a sister company of Bombay Paints. After terminating his holdings in Bombay Paints in 1994, JMN shifted all his focus onto Paladin Paints. Under the technical prowess of JMN and the business acumen of PJN, Paladin evolved into a successful resin manufacturer and exporter.

Now, NSPC carries forward the vision of JMN – A coatings world that relies strictly on renewable natural resources (locally sourced) with zero VOC’s, to support local industries and preserve mother earth for future generations to inherit.

Moreover, with PJN’s insight into Domestic and International Marketing coupled with his expertise to scale-up a business, NSPC is poised to reach great heights.

To carry forward the baton, PJN’s son – Shikhin Nadkarni (SPN) has joined us in this journey. He has received his Masters of Engineering in Materials Science from Cornell University and is currently pursuing his PhD in Coatings and Polymeric Materials from North Dakota State University, the same place where PJN received his Masters of Science in 1983.

At NSPC, we continue to live by JMN’s mantra for innovation – Simple, Novel and Interesting – to strengthen and extend our core technologies and explore new ones.

With the vision of JMN, acuity of PJN and the grit of SPN, we at NSPC are excited for the future as the legacy continues!