Core Strength: How one family's tenacity, resilience and quiet faith built India's largest tyre valve company

Roopa Pai

“Core Strength is a deep dive into a family-run company’s remarkable half-century of contributing to nation building. Roopa Pai tells a deeply human story of the successful entrepreneur’s journey…”– Nandan Nilekani, co-founder and chairman, Infosys, and founding chairman, UIDAI (Aadhaar)

“Roopa Pai tells the 50-year story of Triton Valves, and how it unfolds with the quiet and exemplary heroism of a woman who commits herself to realize the dream of her late husband, to make it a leader in its sector.” – Prakash Belawadi, actor, director, writer, journalist, theatre teacher, and activist

MOVING INDIA: THE TRITON VALVES LEGACY

Way back in 1975, when the Indian middle class did not allow itself big dreams, mechanical–electrical engineer Maruti Vinayak Gokarn bet his life savings on an audacious one – to build a world-class automotive tyre valve company right here in India. Fifty years later, with a whopping 70 per cent share of the domestic market, the 500-crore Triton Valves Limited stands as testimony to the power of human resolve.

Yet, an idea amounts to little unless it is backed by courage, conviction, and consistency. Those were provided, in ample measure, not only by Triton's visionary founder, but also by his wife, Anuradha M Gokarn, a post-graduate in English literature who took the wheel in the face of singular tragedy, and their son, Aditya M Gokarn, the disruptive changemaker who leads Triton today.

This deeply Indian story unfolds on a global, political, and economic canvas, spanning the Emergency, the Licence Raj, the Japanese automotive revolution, the Chinese industrial boom, the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Indian liberalization, the 2008 financial crisis, and most recently, the pandemic. Brimming with an extraordinary pioneering spirit and narrated with verve and warmth by award-winning author Roopa Pai, Core Strength documents the resolute rise of a remarkable Mysuru-based company, and the inspiring family at its core.