Karsanbhai Patel worked as a lab technician by day and made detergent powder in his backyard by night. He packed it in polythene bags and sold it locally for ₹3/kg—when multinationals were selling theirs at triple the price. With no advertising budget but strong word-of-mouth and an unbeatable price point, Nirma exploded across Indian households. What began as a kitchen experiment turned into one of India’s biggest homegrown FMCG empires, giving stiff competition to global giants.