Founder(s) | Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV |
---|---|
Established | 1937 |
Mission | Preparation of Indelible ink for the Elections in India and in some foreign countries. |
Owner | Government of Karnataka |
Formerly called | Mysore Lac and Paints Limited |
Location | , , |
Website | mysorepaints |
The company also manufactures other products such as chemical-resistant paints, enamels, primers, distempers, sealing wax, postage stamp cancellation, and polishes. |
Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited, formerly Mysore Lac and Paints Limited, is a company located in the southern Indian city of Mysore, Karnataka. It is the only company in India authorised to produce indelible ink, which is used in elections to prevent people from voting multiple times. [1] [2] [3] The company is currently owned and operated by the Government of Karnataka.
Mysore Lac and Paints Limited was founded by Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV in 1937 for manufacturing paints and related products. [3] It became a public sector company when India gained independence in 1947. In 1962, it was selected to manufacture indelible ink, which was first used in the third general election of India. [1] The manufacturing process is a closely guarded secret and is based on a chemical formula devised by the National Physical Laboratory of India.
Indelible black ink was initially manufactured by the company to meet the needs of the Indian elections. It is usually applied on the finger nail of the voter and leaves an indelible mark which is not easy to erase. The mark stays on the finger for nearly 20 days. This prevents the voter from exercising the franchise again and hence checks fraud. [1] The indelible ink is supplied in vials having volumes of 5 ml, 7.5 ml, 20 ml, 50 ml and 80 ml. A 5 ml vial can be used for about 300 voters.
One of the major customers for this ink is the Election Commission of India which places orders based on the number of voters involved in the election. The ink is then supplied to Chief Electoral Officers who further distribute it to individual voting centres. [2] It is estimated that around 300 million people have had this ink applied over a period of 45 years. [2]
The ink is also exported to countries like Thailand, Singapore, Nigeria, Malaysia and South Africa. [1] It has also started manufacturing marker pens containing this ink for easy usage and this has also been used in elections held in Afghanistan. [3] The company also manufactured indelible ink for Cambodian election in 2008 and 2013. [4]
The company also manufactures other products such as chemical-resistant paints, enamels, primers, distempers, sealing wax, postage stamp cancellation, and polishes. [5] The sealing wax manufactured by the MVPL is used by India Post, and the Election Commission to seal ballot boxes was the first product to be manufactured by them. [4]
The company's business is highly dependent on the Indian general election (held once in five years) and in a year when the elections are held, significant increase in the revenue is observed. [6] In the financial year 2006–2007, the company earned profits of ₹18 million (about $450K). [7] For the 2004 general election of India, the company supplied orders worth ₹40 million (about $1 million). It earned ₹12.8 million (about $320K) when it supplied ink to the 2008 Cambodian general election. [8]
Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. Thicker inks, in paste form, are used extensively in letterpress and lithographic printing.
Lac is the resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated is Kerria lacca.
Shellac is a resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees in the forests of India and Thailand. Chemically, it is mainly composed of aleuritic acid, jalaric acid, shellolic acid, and other natural waxes. It is processed and sold as dry flakes and dissolved in alcohol to make liquid shellac, which is used as a brush-on colorant, food glaze and wood finish. Shellac functions as a tough natural primer, sanding sealant, tannin-blocker, odour-blocker, stain, and high-gloss varnish. Shellac was once used in electrical applications as it possesses good insulation qualities and seals out moisture. Phonograph and 78 rpm gramophone records were made of shellac until they were replaced by vinyl long-playing records from 1948 onwards.
Mysore, officially Mysuru, is the second-most populous city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore for almost six centuries. Known for its heritage structures, palaces, and its culture, Mysore has been called the "City of Palaces", the "Heritage City", and the "Cultural Capital of Karnataka". It is one of the cleanest cities in India according to the Swachh Survekshan.
Dammar, also called dammar gum, or damar gum, is a resin obtained from the tree family Dipterocarpaceae in India and Southeast Asia, principally those of the genera Shorea or Hopea. The resin of some species of Canarium may also called dammar. Most is produced by tapping trees; however, some is collected in fossilised form on the ground. The gum varies in colour from clear to pale yellow, while the fossilised form is grey-brown. Dammar gum is a triterpenoid resin, containing many triterpenes and their oxidation products. Many of them are low molecular weight compounds, which easily oxidizes and photoxidizes.
Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) is a local government for the City of Chennai in the Chennai Metropolitan Area of Tamil Nadu, India. Inaugurated on 29 September 1688, under a royal charter issued by King James II of England on 30 December 1687 as the Corporation of Madras, it is the oldest municipal body of the Commonwealth of Nations outside Great Britain. It is the largest municipal corporation in Tamil Nadu with an area of 426 km2. It is headed by a mayor, who presides over 200 councillors, each of whom represents one of the 200 wards of the city. It is the second oldest corporation in the world after the City of London. The city limits, which had been expanded several times over the years, is currently coterminous with the Chennai district. It is one of the four municipal corporations located within the Chennai Metropolitan Area, the other three being the Tambaram Corporation, Avadi City Municipal Corporation and Kanchipuram Municipal Corporation.
Mysore division, officially Mysuru division, is an administrative division in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of four administrative divisions in Karnataka, the others being Bangalore division, Belagavi division, and Kalaburagi division. Mysore division comprises eight districts of Karnataka, namely, Chamarajanagar, Chikmagalur, Dakshina Kannada, Hassan, Kodagu, Mandya, Mysore and Udupi district. The city of Mysore is the administrative headquarters of the division. Mysore division covers parts of historical Old Mysore region and southern part of Coastal Karnataka.The total area of the division is 43,503 sq.km. The total population as of 2011 census is 12,563,598.
Srikanthadattā Narasimharājā Wadiyar was an Indian royal, politician, and fashion designer, who served as Member of Parliament from Mysore. He was the son of Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the last king of Mysore.
The CSIR- National Physical Laboratory of India, situated in New Delhi, is the measurement standards laboratory of India. It maintains standards of SI units in India and calibrates the national standards of weights and measures.
Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL), formerly known as Madras Refineries Limited (MRL), is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation Limited which is under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Government of India. It is headquartered in Chennai, India. It was formed as a joint venture in 1965 between the Government of India (GOI), Amoco and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), having a shareholding in the ratio 74%: 13%: 13% respectively. From the grassroots stage CPCL Refinery was set up with an installed capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per year in a record time of 27 months at a cost of ₹430 million (US$5.4 million) without any time or cost overrun.
Channapatana is a city and taluk headquarters in Ramanagara District, Karnataka, India. Channapatna is approximately 60 km from Bangalore and 80 km from Mysore. The Kannadiga film actor Kishore was born here in 1974.
Karnataka is one of the highest economic growth states in India with an expected GSDP growth of 9.5% in the 2021–22 fiscal year. The total expected GSDP of Karnataka in 2022–2023 is about $240 billion. Karnataka recorded the highest growth rates in terms of GDP and per capita GDP in the last decade compared to other states. In 2008–09, the tertiary sector contributed the most to GSDP, followed by the secondary sector, and the primary sector.
Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is an Indian Government-owned aerospace and defence electronics company. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications. BEL is one of sixteen PSUs under the Ministry of Defence of India. It has been granted Navratna status by the Government of India.
Mysore Sandal Soap is a brand of soap manufactured by the Karnataka Soaps and Detergents Limited (KSDL), a company owned by the government of Karnataka in India. This soap has been manufactured since 1916, when Krishna Raja Wadiyar IV, the king of Mysore, set up the Government Soap Factory in Bangalore. The main motivation for setting up the factory was the excessive sandalwood reserves that the Mysore Kingdom had, which could not be exported to Europe because of the First World War. In 1980, KSDL was incorporated as a company by merging the Government Soap Factory with the sandalwood oil factories at Shimoga and Mysore. Mysore Sandal Soap is the only soap in the world made from 100% pure sandalwood oil. KSDL owns a proprietary geographical indication tag on the soap, which gives it intellectual property rights to use the brand name, to ensure quality, and to prevent piracy and unauthorised use by other manufacturers. In 2006, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian cricketer was selected as the first brand ambassador of the Mysore Sandal Soap.
Mander Brothers was a major employer in the city of Wolverhampton, in the English Midlands, a progressive company founded in 1773. In the 19th century the firm became the number one manufacturers of varnishes, paints and later printing inks in the British Empire. In the twentieth century it developed its product range in industrial coatings and inks, as well as commercial property.
Electoral ink, indelibleink, electoral stain or phosphoric ink is a semi-permanent ink or dye that is applied to the forefinger (usually) of voters during elections in order to prevent electoral fraud such as double voting. It is an effective method for countries where identification documents for citizens are not always standardised or institutionalised. One of the more common election ink compositions is based on silver nitrate, which can produce a stain lasting several weeks. It was first used during the 1962 Indian general election in India. The ink was developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Physical Laboratory (CSIR-NPL), a research institute of CSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and manufactured by Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. It is exported to more than 30 countries.
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