From Earth To Bottle: Avantika Saraogi

While she grew up in a business family, she was keen to first build her own professional foundation. Her career started with hands-on experience in food & beverage sector, where she learnt to build ventures.

“An entrepreneurial mindset is rooted in accountability and execution,” says Avantika Saraogi, executive director, Balrampur Chini Mills (BCML)

Her decision to join BCML was driven by purpose rather than legacy: When she was asked to focus on value addition across products and by-products, she made sure to integrate sustainability, scale, and commercial viability into one cohesive system.

Close on the heels of joining the family business, she found her calling. India generates nearly 20 million tonne of plastic waste annually, growing at seven–eight per cent, while bioplastics account for only about  one per cent of the market. Globally, they make up just one–two per cent of a 650-million-tonne plastics industry. The real gap wasn’t innovation, it was scale.

“While exploring global ideas, I came across a French company that had a clear bottle that looked just like a PET bottle, but it was made from Sugarcane. After seeing that, I knew I had to dive deep into this,” she  continues.

The realization led BCML’s forward integration into industrial-scale PLA biopolymer manufacturing from sugarcane, unlocking far greater value from the same agricultural ecosystem and marking a defining moment in aligning growth with impact.

The year 2025 was truly defining for BCML, 50th year as an organization and a moment of reflection as well as renewal, as it began an important new chapter focused on future-ready growth.

A key milestone was the laying of the foundation stone in Kumbhi, Uttar Pradesh for India’s first PLA bioplastics plant. This was followed by the launch of India’s first PLA bioplastics brand, Bioyug, at Mumbai.

The next phase of growth will be driven by scaling PLA and expanding into higher-value bio-based materials.

With Bioyug, immediate focus is on optimizing the 80,000 TPA PLA facility, broadening applications, improving affordability, and strengthening global partnerships to accelerate adoption across packaging, consumer goods, and industrial segments in India and international markets.

“A key priority is enabling resilience and sustainability by diversifying feedstocks, including second-generation sources. Beyond PLA, we are developing a portfolio of high-value bio-products that position sugarcane as a platform material and anchor a circular bio-economy at scale,” she explains, giving insights into next phase of growth.

Overall, her growth strategy is anchored in purpose-driven innovation, building future-ready businesses that align commercial success with global environmental priorities.

 Name and Designation: Avantika Saraogi, Executive Director

1. Age (as on February 1, 2026): 34
2. Number of Employees:6020 employees as on 31^st March 2025
3. Year of Company Inception: 1975