“I was told I could not be a brewer because I was a woman. So I did something else.”
• The story she has told many times about how Biocon began
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the founder of Biocon, one of India's largest biotechnology companies, and she started it in Bengaluru in 1978 in a rented garage with Rs 10,000. Born in Bengaluru in 1953, she studied at Bishop Cotton Girls' School and Mount Carmel College, trained as a master brewer in Australia, and turned to enzymes and then biopharmaceuticals when the brewing industry would not hire a woman. She received the Padma Shri in 1989 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005. She is Biocon's executive chairperson.
When people list the reasons Bengaluru became India's biotech capital, they mention IISc, the research labs and the talent pool. All true. But it also helps that one of the first people to try it was a Bangalorean who refused to leave. Biocon's campus near Electronics City is now enormous, but the company's origin story, a garage, a woman nobody would hire and an Irish partner, is pure Bengaluru grit.
This profile sticks to her well-established story. It is her Bangalore story: the schools, the garage, the company and the city she has spent decades arguing on behalf of.
Quick Information
A brewer without a brewery who built a biotech empire instead. The garage is gone, but the city still talks about it.
Who Is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw?
She is a Bengaluru-born entrepreneur who founded Biocon and helped create India's biotechnology industry. She grew up in the city, the daughter of a brewer at United Breweries, and followed her father into brewing science before a series of rejections sent her in a very different direction.
- Bishop Cotton Girls' School. Her school in central Bengaluru.
- Mount Carmel College. Where she studied before completing a zoology degree from Bangalore University in 1973.
- Ballarat. She trained in malting and brewing in Australia, graduating at the top of her class.
- The rejection. Back in India, breweries were unwilling to hire a woman as a master brewer.
How Did Biocon Start in a Garage?
In 1978 she partnered with an Irish firm, Biocon Biochemicals, to set up an Indian company making enzymes. With Rs 10,000 in capital she started it in the garage of a rented house in Bengaluru, with a couple of employees and very little equipment. Banks were reluctant to lend to a young woman in a field nobody in India understood, which made the early years hard work.
The first products were industrial enzymes, including those used in brewing and food processing, which linked neatly to her training. Over the following decades Biocon moved into biopharmaceuticals, including insulin, biosimilars and research services, and built a large campus on the outskirts of the city near Electronics City.
“The garage matters because it makes the rest believable. If it started there, it could start anywhere.”
• On Biocon's origin story
How Did Biocon Grow From Enzymes to Medicines?
Gradually, and by reinvesting in science. The enzyme business gave Biocon revenue and fermentation expertise. The company then moved into biopharmaceuticals, including recombinant human insulin, and later into biosimilars, which are lower cost versions of complex biological drugs. It also built a research services arm that took on work for global pharmaceutical companies from Bengaluru.
- Enzymes. The original business, built on the same fermentation science used in brewing.
- Insulin. A move into medicines for diabetes, a condition affecting millions of Indians.
- Biosimilars. Complex biological drugs made more affordable, sold in many countries.
- Research services. Contract research for international companies, run from the city.
What Was Her Family's Connection to Brewing?
Her father, R I Mazumdar, was a head brewer at United Breweries, the Bengaluru company behind Kingfisher. He encouraged her to study brewing, which was an unusual path for a young woman in the 1970s. The Bengaluru brewing connection explains a great deal: she grew up around fermentation science, and built a biotech company on it.
“She followed her father into brewing, and then took the science somewhere nobody expected.”
• On the United Breweries link
What Did Biocon Mean for Bengaluru?
It helped establish the city as India's centre for biotechnology. Biocon's growth drew scientists, investors and other companies, and its public listing in 2004 was one of the most successful Indian IPOs of its time. Today Bengaluru has a large biotech and life sciences ecosystem, and Biocon is one of the reasons it happened here first.
- Jobs and skills. Thousands of scientists and technicians trained at Biocon and its subsidiaries.
- Affordable medicines. The company's work on insulin and biosimilars aimed to make important treatments cheaper.
- The cluster effect. Biotech startups and research companies followed, drawn by talent and by Biocon's example.
What Has Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Done for Bengaluru Beyond Biocon?
She has been one of the most prominent voices on the city's governance and infrastructure for more than two decades. She was part of the Bangalore Agenda Task Force set up in 1999 to improve civic services, and has been involved in citizen efforts on urban governance since. She is also known for healthcare philanthropy, including the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre, a cancer care centre in the city.
She has often used her public profile to complain loudly about potholes, traffic and civic planning, which endears her to a lot of Bangaloreans who feel the same way but do not have quite as many followers.
She is one of the few biotech founders in the world who started with a degree in brewing. The link between beer and biotechnology is fermentation, and she has often said her brewing training taught her exactly the science Biocon needed.
Where Can You See Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw's Legacy in Bengaluru?
Mainly at Biocon Park on Hosur Road near Electronics City, at the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre, and in the city's wider biotech industry. The garage itself is long gone, but its story is told at nearly every Bengaluru startup event sooner or later.
- Biocon Park. The company's large campus on Hosur Road, near Electronics City.
- Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre. A cancer care centre in the Narayana Health campus in south Bengaluru.
- Bishop Cotton and Mount Carmel. Her school and college, both still central Bengaluru institutions.
- The biotech cluster. Research parks and startups across the city that followed where Biocon led.
What Can Bangaloreans Learn From Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw?
That rejection can point you somewhere better, and that you can build something world class without leaving home. She could have moved abroad, where her qualifications were in demand. She stayed, and built an industry. For every young founder in this city renting a small room and hoping, her garage is a useful story.
Why Does Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw Belong in People of Bangalore?
Born in Bengaluru, schooled in Bengaluru, and the founder of a company that started in a Bengaluru garage and helped make the city India's biotech capital. She has also spent decades loudly demanding that the city be better run, which is about as Bangalorean as it gets.
FAQs
Who is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw?
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a Bengaluru-born entrepreneur who founded Biocon, one of India's largest biotechnology companies, in 1978. She received the Padma Shri in 1989 and the Padma Bhushan in 2005.
How did Biocon start?
Biocon started in 1978 in the garage of a rented house in Bengaluru, with Rs 10,000 in capital, as a partnership with the Irish company Biocon Biochemicals. Its first products were industrial enzymes.
Where did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw study?
She studied at Bishop Cotton Girls' School and Mount Carmel College in Bengaluru, completed a BSc in zoology from Bangalore University in 1973, and trained in malting and brewing in Ballarat, Australia.
Why did Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw not become a brewer?
After qualifying as a master brewer in Australia, she found Indian breweries unwilling to hire a woman in that role. That led her to start Biocon instead.
Where is Biocon's headquarters?
Biocon is headquartered at Biocon Park on Hosur Road, near Electronics City in Bengaluru.
When did Biocon go public?
Biocon listed on Indian stock exchanges in 2004, in one of the most heavily subscribed IPOs of its time.
What is the Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre?
It is a cancer care centre in Bengaluru, located in the Narayana Health campus in the south of the city, associated with her healthcare philanthropy.
Is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw from Bengaluru?
Yes. She was born in Bengaluru on March 23, 1953, grew up and studied in the city, and has based her company and much of her civic work here.
Contact Details
The Bengaluru institutions connected to her story.
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