KRISHNA ELLA - THE MAN BEHIND COVAXIN

This whole article is written by Dev Kumar Sir.

On the border between Tamilnadu and erstwhile Andhra , lies the temple town of Thiruthani, one of the six famed abodes of Lord Muruga. Krishnamurthy Ella was born in 1969,

in an agricultural family to middle class parents. No one could have imagined his trajectory.

Perhaps because of his background, Krishna wanted to study agriculture. His father wasn’t pleased - he told his son “Nobody becomes a farmer by just studying agriculture” .

Unfazed, Krishna joined University of Agricultural sciences in Bangalore. His passion and hardwork earned him a gold medal. Unlike “ordinary” gold medalists, he wasn’t content to get a job.

Nevertheless he supported himself after undergrad by working briefly in the agricultural division of Bayer Pharma. He longed for more. He got a rotary scholarship which enabled him to move to the US, to do his PhD in University of Wisconsin.

The scholarship was the wind under his wings. There was no looking back.

His speciality was molecular biology.

While in the US, he met Suchitra, an economics graduate and married her.

Average Indians in US would dream of a green card for themselves.