BENGALURU: TPG Nambiar, founder of BPL and pioneer of India’s consumer electronics brand in the 1990s, passed away on Thursday at 95.
Nambiar, who established BPL (earlier known as British Physical Laboratories) in 1963 in Kerala, wanted to create high-quality electronic products after he returned from his stints in the UK and the US. He is survived by his wife Thankam, son Ajit Nambiar, daughter Anju, and son-in-law Rajeev Chandrasekhar, former Union minister who had built the BPL Mobile brand.
The company’s first products included precision measuring instruments such as hermetic sealed panel meters for Bharat Electronics as a subcontract for the Indian Army. It then expanded into medical products such as electrocardiographs and patient-monitoring systems.
“He implemented Make in India way back in the 80s. The factories that produced BPL products were state-of-the-art, as good as the factories in Japan. BPL was exporting its products to western countries under its own brand… A truly visionary and a patriotic business leader,” a close associate of the family told TOI.
Given his desire to build quality products, Nambiar at different points had collaborations with Japanese companies for electrocardiographs, patient-monitoring systems and paper copiers. The Asian Games of 1982 motivated Nambiar to expand the business from the medical equipment sector to consumer electronics. The company entered into a partnership with Japan’s Sanyo. Over the years, BPL became a household name in TVs and other electronic products. The company roped in Amitabh Bachchan for a campaign called ‘Believe in the best’ that further solidified the brand.
However, by the early 2000s, BPL was on a declining track, partly on account of the aggressive investments by LG and Samsung, and BPL’s investments in areas unrelated to its core business that just weren’t paying off. By then, Nambiar had handed over the reins to Ajit. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, meanwhile, had succeeded separately in building the BPL Mobile brand, and he sold that to Hutchison Essar in 2005 for over $1 billion.
“Shri TPG Nambiar Ji was a pioneering innovator and industrialist, who was a strong votary of making India economically strong. Pained by his passing away. Condolences to his family and admirers,” PM Narendra Modi posted on X.