New Delhi, July 31 -- Himanshu Chadha, founder of Nimson International, grew up watching his mother struggle with oily skin and imported creams that promised to fix it. Those products cost more than her family could spare. His father spent 25 years at Godrej before taking voluntary retirement, and the household was supported by his mother's salary as a government school teacher. That gap between what people needed and what they could afford stayed with him through school.

He studied chemical engineering at IIT Delhi, getting in on his second attempt. While classmates planned careers leading to graduate school in America, Chadha considered what his parents had sacrificed. Watching friends enter well-paid jobs while he had nothing to show ...