Natural rubber was identified in 1860 by C. G. Williams as consisting of three ingredients, "oil, tar and spirit," the latter, the essence of rubber, he named isoprene. In today's terminology natural rubber is "a polyisoprene of very high molecular weight plus naturally occurring anti-oxidants and accelerators." It is commonly obtained from the latex (milk-like fluid) of the Hevea brasiliensis, a tree native to South America.

Columbus, on his second voyage to the New World, saw Indians in Haiti playing with balls "made of the gum of a tree" and brought samples back to Queen Isabella. Others later reported that the Indians waterproofed their cloaks and made footwear and storage jars of this substance. Rubber was thus introduced to Europe at the turn of the 16th century, but, with the exception of being used to "rub out" pencil marks—from which in 1770 a well-known London chemist, Joseph Priestly, coined its name—it was little utilized until several simple but necessary discoveries of the 19th century made it more malleable and more useful.

The first was the discovery by the Scotsman Charles Macintosh in 1823 that he could liquefy rubber by using low-cost coal-tar naptha as a solvent. He placed the liquid substance between two sheets of cloth, thereby effectively sealing and waterproofing them, and gave his name to the new rainwear. In 1839 Charles Goodyear in the United States developed the process of vulcanization. He found that adding sulfur and heat to rubber increased its elasticity, resilience and strength and enabled it to withstand changes in temperature. Overnight rubber became a major industrial material; it was first used for hard tires in 1846.

Rubber estates began to be developed because wild rubber was irregular both as to quality and quantity. An impetus to planting came in 1873 when the India office of the British government took a direct interest. In 1876 an English plant explorer, Henry Wickham, collected some 70,000 seeds of a rubber tree growing wild in the Amazon Basin of Brazil that could be tapped repeatedly and brought them to Kew Gardens outside of London. About four percent of these seeds sprouted in the greenhouse and provided planting material for distribution to Britain's tropical colonies in Africa and Asia. Of the 22 seedlings that reached Singapore's Botanic Gardens the next year, 9 were later sent to the Residency gardens in Kuala Kangsar and became parent trees of many of Malaya's first estates. At this time the industry settled on this Hevea Brasiliensis as the most suitable source of rubber; all trees in South and Southeast Asia today derive from the Kew Gardens seedlings.

The real push to increase commercial planting came after the patenting in 1888 by J. B. Dunlop of the pneumatic (inflatable) tire with air-filled inner tube for bicycles, which made the modern world of the automobile possible. Since 1900 natural rubber and the automotive industry have been intimately involved. Even today 65 percent of the world's supply of natural rubber goes into tire production.

Synthetic rubber was developed during the first part of the 19th century when the nature of rubber was under scientific scrutiny. Production grew rapidly after 1914. As factors leading to World War II became apparent in the 1930s, both Germany and the USSR made a concerted effort to achieve self sufficiency in rubber by developing synthetics. By 1939 they were producing over 70,000 tons annually. In 1942 Southeast Asia, which still produces 90 percent of the world's supply of natural rubber, was occupied by the Japanese and natural rubber became unavailable to the Allied Nations. As a result, development of synthetic rubber was given high priority in the United States which made great strides in producing wartime substitutes and. by the time of Japan's surrender in August 1945 was manufacturing about one million tons a year, chiefly a general purpose styrene-butadiene rubber. By 1946, synthetic rubber, which is commonly created from petroleum, had of necessity replaced natural rubber in almost all fields in most of the industrialized world. However, none of the synthetics contained the precise molecular pattern which gives rubber its singular characteristics. The agents used to induce polymerization—the process causing simple molecules to join together and form long chains—could not control precisely the order of molecules within the chain. A breakthrough occurred in 1953 when two chemists, Ziegler and Natta, discovered a family of catalysts that would cause a nearly exact organization of molecules in repeated patterns. It was this discovery that permitted the production of Cis-1, 4-polyisoprene—the only synthetic in direct competition with natural rubber—and that led to the crisis in natural rubber with which BALACHANDRA CHAKKINGAL SEKHAR has been concerned all his adult life.

Although natural rubber is essential to the economies, and the livelihoods of a large proportion of the peoples, of Southeast Asia, synthetic rubber is a modern day necessity which, except for cispolyisoprene, often fulfills functions that natural rubber cannot fulfill. Moreover, world rubber needs, expected to reach 17 million tons by 1980, are far in excess of the ability of natural rubber to supply. Today, natural rubber production is three million tons, 33 percent of total production. SEKHAR believes that the technico-economic norm is 42 percent—7 million tons by 1980. He maintains that the techniques to achieve this goal are at hand. These include faith in the future of natural rubber, the use of science and technology, and an understanding of the continuously changing needs of the "discriminating, sophisticated consuming industry."

BALACHANDRA CHAKKINGAL SEKHAR was the third child of Achath Sekhar Nair and his wife Sithalakshmi Ammal. He was born on November 17, 1929 at Sungei Buloh, Selangor, Malaya (now Malaysia), less than four miles from an experimental station of the Institute he now heads. His father had emigrated here from Kerala, India, at the age of 17 to join a brother who was working as an estate conductor, opening up a rubber plantation. Surviving the hard and dangerous work of clearing the jungle, his father participated in planting 14,000 acres of rubber, including the 3,400 acres which became the experimental state of the Rubber Research Institute of Malaya (changed to Malaysia in 1972) (RRIM). He rose to become an estate assistant but could go no higher; senior positions were reserved for Europeans.

Achath Sekhar Nair determined his children would have an education that would allow them to seek careers where there were no such arbitrary restrictions. As a result he gave up his position on the state and moved his family into Kuala Lumpur where both he and hey would have greater opportunities. Entering the insurance field, he eventually became manager of an Indian agency. It was therefore without parental intent or guidance that two decades later young B. C. SEKHAR found himself deeply involved in the problems of rubber.

SEKHAR was sent to India for his college education and earned Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from the University of Delhi at the age of 19. He planned to work for an advanced degree at Singapore University in chemical engineering. While waiting for the school year to begin, he applied for a job at RRIM. He was informed that there were no jobs available, but was nevertheless invited visit the institution. He did so and made such an impression "with his searching queries" that he was offered a position as Assistant Chemist by the next mail.

Years later when asked why he gave up his plans for chemical engineering and devoted his life to rubber, SEKHAR explained: "after working a few months I felt I must contribute something worthwhile to the rubber industry on which the Malayan economy depended." In helping to improve the production, processing and market acceptability of natural rubber, "I felt I could do something for this country."

In 1953, at the time cis-polyisoprene was being perfected, SEKHAR was given a United States government fellowship to study polymer chemistry at the University of Michigan. Receiving his Master of Science in 1954, he spent the next six months at the Welwyn (near London) Laboratory of the British (now Malaysian) Rubber Producers' Research Association, a sister unit of RRIM.

When he returned to RRIM in early 1955 he was promoted to Research Officer and began working on techniques of "grafting" latex—inducing its extension chemically and improving its processing by inhibiting physiochemical changes, particularly the problems of oxidation and storage-hardening of natural rubber. During those years he kept in close touch with what was happening internationally. He attended rubber conferences in England and the USSR, and made a trip to Britain to contact research bodies and rubber goods manufacturers to learn the problems of marketing natural rubber and to assess the needs of the industrial consumer. Papers he wrote during these early years dealt with the analysis of latex proteins and the concentration and properties of individual protein components. He also published three studies on the aeration of natural rubber latex and vinyl polymerization.

Promoted to Senior Polymer Chemist in 1959, SEKHAR formed the Polymer Chemistry Group at the Institute and continued his work on oxidation of raw rubber, oil extension and rubber modification. In 1964, he was named the first Malaysian head of the Chemical Division. During these years (1959-1966) he was in great demand as a speaker at international conferences, and he authored and coauthored a number of papers and patents. Of the 16 patents he has taken out in his own name or with others, eight were obtained during this period. They dealt with improved processing of natural rubber by stabilization, masterbatching (i.e., adding specifically determined chemical ingredients to latex in its crumbling, drying process to create a particular rubber grade or quality), oil extension and polymerization.

On the basis of his extensive scientific contributions and his qualities of leadership and persuasion, SEKHAR was chosen to become the first Malaysian and Asian director of the Rubber Research Institute in 1966, the position he currently holds. He was only 36.

The work of the Institute is of immense importance to the wellbeing of the Malaysian economy. Some 4.6 million acres of land 60 percent of the total agricultural land, is planted to rubber. Sixty percent of this acreage belongs to smallholders who own five acres or less. Rubber is the largest single export earner, bringing in M$1,260 million (US$508 million; M$2.48 equaled US$1) in 1972, and it is the largest employer, influencing directly or indirectly the lives of nearly one-third of the entire population. Rubber products also lead in the manufacturing field.

SEKHAR’s appointment as Director not only confirmed his position in the scientific forefront of the rubber industry, but cast him as well as senior educator, administrator and salesman of Malaysian rubber. His speeches and papers reflect these added responsibilities. Since 1966, they have dealt most often with problems of marketing competition with synthetics, the need to meet consumer requirements and to develop international cooperation, and with the overall activities and goals of RRIM. He has found time to continue his research, however, and has taken out seven patents concerned with new methods of rubber processing.

RRIM, established in 1925, is the largest research organization in the world devoted to one product. Located in Kuala Lumpur, it has a senior staff of 160 and a general staff of 1,200. These include personnel located at the two experimental stations—Sungei Buloh (3,400 acres) and Kota Tinggi, Johore (3,000 acres). Its original task was to undertake agricultural research—research concerned with planting, grafting, fertilization, yield, disease and pest control. Its goal was to maximize production to meet the demands of western industries Only in the postwar period, particularly in the years that SEKHAR has been associated with it, has its emphasis changed to include the industrial aspects of rubber production. As SEKHAR is fond of saying, the agricultural attitude toward rubber production should end with tapping, from then on an industrial outlook should prevail. His influence in creating this changed attitude is profound.

Today, the parent body of RRIM is the Malaysian Rubber Research and Development Board (MRRDB) whose headquarters were opened in Kuala Lumpur in 1964. It finances RRIM in Malaysia and the Malaysian Rubber Producers' Research Association (MRPRA) in the United Kingdom, the former being the main research and development center, the latter an auxiliary lab and concerned primarily with consumer problems. The MRRDB also operates the Malaysian Rubber Bureau which has representatives in the 10 largest consuming countries. The Board's budget is M$30 million (US$12 million) yearly. The money comes from the one cent cess (tax) per pound on exported rubber. Therefore as the amount of rubber produced and exported increases, the amount available for research on production and marketing increases as well.

The rubber tree requires 70 to 100 inches of rain annually and a warm climate. It is ideally suited to Malaysia, the Indonesian archipelago, Thailand, Ceylon, Vietnam and Cambodia—the world's major rubber exporters in that order. The traditional tree grows to be 40 to 50 feet tall, can be tapped after the fifth or sixth year and has an economic life of 30 years or more. It is normally tapped alternate days, usually by cutting a diagonal strip of bark—about 1/3 to 1/2 way around the tree at an angle of 25°—through the cork and stone cell layers into the latex-bearing cortex. The tapper must be careful not to cut through the cambium into the wood which would damage the tree. Since the liquid latex flows up from the ground portion of the tree—not down from the top—each succeeding tap must be lower or on another part of the tree. It is several years before the same spot can be retapped.

The latex is caught in a cup which is emptied into a larger container and taken to a processing center where it is coagulated by adding formic acid to make the rubber particles clot. This must be done within 24 hours or the latex will turn sour and decompose. Pressed into sheets it is traditionally dried and smoked to preserve it, then baled in 250-pound self-wrapped units. The quality of the rubber is judged visually on color and lack of bubbles, criteria which have proved meaningless as color and texture-have no bearing on content quality. Alternatively, the latex is partially evaporated and shipped by bulk in tankers direct to the consuming country; this can be done only by large estates which handle sufficient quantities of latex. The customary system of tapping, sheet drying and visual grading has existed relatively unchanged from the beginning of controlled planting until recent years. The changes that have been and are currently taking place in these and other aspects of the natural rubber industry have, for the most part, been researched and introduced by RRIM, spurred by the need to meet the competition of synthetics in the areas of price and quality.

An obvious way to meet price competition is to lower costs by increasing yield per acre. One way this can be done is by improving the stock. RRIM has approached the problem of quality upgrading in three ways.

The first has been by gene selection. Although selective breeding had increased yield per acre from its 1925 average of 250 pounds to 500 pounds by 1956, RRIM was able to almost double that figure by 1960. Today the new trees developed at the Institute produce 2,000 pounds per acre consistently. One experimental plot has produced 4,000 pounds for the past eight years with no discernable damage to the trees. (Tapping must continue for 12 years before a new tree can be recommended.) SEKHAR considers 9,000 pounds a possibility, but this will probably occur as a result of tissue culture rather than genetic breeding.

Genetic manipulation has succeeded in changing the architecture of the rubber tree. Dwarf stock has been developed which is only 20 feet high instead of 40 to 50 feet; less energy is required for tree growth, therefore more goes into making rubber. Work is also being done on accelerating maturation. SEKHAR believes that it will be possible to create trees that mature in three years instead of the present four to six.

Second, a faster method of breeding than by isolating desired genes is the tissue culture process developed in the RRIM botany division. By putting the selected cells in a proper medium in a test tube, tissues from different parts of the tree are allowed to differentiate into plantlets. Shoots can thus be distributed instead of seeds. More importantly the exact qualities desired can be selected and grown in this manner. It may even be possible in the future, SEKHAR speculates, to introduce cells from other plants to create wholly new or highly improved characteristics in rubber trees.

A third way to improve the stock is through tree surgery. RRIM has developed the three-part tree by grafting onto a vigorous root seedling a high-latex yielding trunk and onto the trunk a cone-shaped crown that is both wind and disease resistant.

These methods of improved breeding all require replanting. This is being done on the larger estates. It is not feasible, however, for most smallholders to replace bearing trees. Therefore, SEKHAR and others began to study methods of improving the yield of old trees by increasing the flow of latex. In three papers published in 1971 they presented "Novel Stimulants . . . in the Exploitation of Hevea." Ethrel (a derivative of ethylene gas) was found to be very effective in prolonging flow when painted in a 1/2 inch strip just below the tap cut. This is being done presently only on trees 15 or more years old and the trees must receive prior fertilization. A five year study shows an almost doubled yield with no detrimental effect to the trees. SEKHAR refers to this process as "controlled hemophelia." The chemical delays the action of the clotting mechanism to 6-10 hours instead of the normal three. The technique can be used on "modern" as well as traditional trees.

Yield increase by stimulation is of great importance to small growers since it eliminates replanting and allows them to elect either to double their yield or, by tapping only every other day and maintaining the same yield, halve their labor costs. In either case they increase their profits almost two-fold.

It is as important to meet synthetic competition in quality as in cost. SEKHAR’s research from the beginning has been to seek ways to upgrade the quality of natural rubber by stabilizing its viscosity, improving its storage qualities and developing a process whereby its quality can be standardized and the standards assured.

A result was the Heveacrumb process, a mechano-chemical process which reduces latex to crumbs for cleaning, drying and shipping. This crumbling—and similar processes using shredders, hammermills, pelletizers and granulators—produces a uniform, technically gradable rubber. Extraneous matter (bark, dirt) is eliminated. Drying is controlled by maintaining the humidity necessary to prevent oxidization and by adding castor oil which also reduces the tendency of the rubber to crystallize at low temperatures. (The oil has been found to have the added advantage of eliminating two of three processing steps for the consumer and reducing the length of the third, thus increasing its cost attractiveness.) The crumbs are pressed into 75 pound units, wrapped in polyethelene to maintain cleanliness and loaded on oneton pallets to assure easy transit handling. Heveacrumb can be ready for shipment in 8-24 hours instead of 7-10 days as for traditional sheet rubber."

The development of Heveacrumb and new processing methods led to the establishment in 1965 of the Standard Malaysian Rubber (SMR) Scheme which "revolutionized processing and presentation of Malaysian rubber." SMR rubbers come in several recognized grades depending upon purity, but all SMRs are government guaranteed and backed by RRIM testing and inspection. SMR 5L and 5 have the lowest amount of contaminants, SMR 20 and 50 progressively more. For example, there can be 10 times as much dirt in SMR 50 as in SMR 5.

In five ways, then, the new standards and processes make natural rubber more competitive with synthetics: technical grading, uniformity, cleanliness, improved quality and ease in handling. In 1973 over 400,000 out of the 1,400,000 tons of rubber shipped from Malaysia were SMR graded. The target for 1975 is one million.

Crumbled and scientifically mixed rubbers can also be designed to meet specific consumer needs. SEKHAR recognized that tire manufacturers buy 65 percent of the world's supply of natural rubber and that most SMR rubbers are cleaner and of higher quality than they require. Therefore he took the step of creating a special SMR-tire rubber which utilizes 30 percent latex (SMR 5), 30 percent field grade rubber (SMR 10-50) and 10 percent plasticiser. The plasticiser—processing oil—offsets the cost of the large proportion of high quality latex and creates a rubber that is easier to use, does not harden on storage or readily freeze, is easy to process and has a low heat buildup. SEKHAR anticipates future "masterbatching" with carbon black, oil and even synthetics.

SMR tire rubber has another plus. It is easy to produce and can be mixed in the average SMR factory, thereby coming within the production capabilities of the smallholder and the small estate. Thus the consumer gets a rubber mixed to his needs which not only allows him to cut down on his rubber inventory but also eliminates two or three costly manufacturing steps, and the small producer moves into the industrialization process.

SEKHAR has long been concerned with the fact that smallholders own 60 percent of the rubber land in Malaysia but produce only 45 percent of the rubber. He was therefore philosophically and administratively involved in establishment in 1972 by the government of the Rubber Industry Smallholders Development Authority (RISDA) which replaced the Rubber Industry Replanting Board and the Smallholders Advisory Service of RRIM. This has resulted in both a divisional reorganization of RRIM and a new orientation. Emphasis is now on the problems and capabilities for change of the smallholders— rather than of the large estates to which RRIM had previously addressed itself since they were financially and managerially more receptive to change. The Smallholders Project Research Division has been set up whose role is to investigate the feasibility of the adoption of various techniques and projects by the smallholder sector. It reports its findings to RISDA which is responsible for the implementation of any agreed-to project for recommendation. One proposal of the division is that smallholders, when they replant, intercrop with corn, bananas, peanuts and vegetables in order to insure themselves an income crop during the time between planting and tapping.

All RRIM training functions have been placed under the Training Division. This division has two schools offering five-week courses in planting and production to smallholders and rural youth. Two more are planned for the immediate future. Courses will continue to be offered to estate personnel.

The Advisory Services Division, whose activities were previously confined to estates, now offers services to all sectors of the industry. It is making a concerted effort to enable smallholders "to take advantage of proper stimulation/fertilizer usage, crown budding techniques, discriminate choice of clones and other horticultural practices. " It also offers advice on SMR processing and factory management.

A major scheme under government consideration—with which RRIM is cooperating in its present experimental stage—is the organization of smallholders into a plantation system. Most holdings, SEKHAR notes, are from three to five acres, an uneconomic size even when yields are improved and rubber prices are high. He estimates that 10 acres are needed to produce a minimum living wage of US$100-US$110 per family per month. In the plantation scheme the smallholder will be asked to give up his right of land ownership in return for proportional shares in an estate. He will continue to work his land under central management and will be assured a steady income unlinked from the immediate price of rubber. The experimental program being run by RRIM involves 20 families and 300 acres. An evaluation of the project will be published at the end of the year. If it is favorable, government plans include plantations of up to 15,000 acres.

Besides providing for joint planting, the plantation scheme provides for joint processing. At present, there are a number of collection centers for smallholders and six large central factories all initially established by the RRIM; by 1975 the government hopes to have completed 21 more. These factories are now owned by the government Malaysian Rubber Development Corporation Berhad (MARDEC) but RRIM maintains control over them through inspection and product testing and SEKHAR has been a director of MARDEC from its inception. All rubbers with SMR grading are tested at the RRIM Control Center at Bangunan—which operates a control laboratory, a commercial laboratory and inspection and servicing units—or at laboratories approved and supervised by this center.

In all the changes at the Institute SEKHAR has played a leading role, not only because he is chief administrator, but because these changes are compatible with his basic concerns. He believes that natural rubber must move with strength and assurance into the future, using all the modern techniques available to it, improving the lot of the producer, as well as marketing a quality product. It must be thought of and sold as an industrial commodity, not as an agricultural raw material. It must shorten its marketing chain. Whereas synthetics go directly from producer to consumer, most natural rubber still "goes from small producer to village dealer to town dealer to city to consuming country to distributor" before reaching the consumer. Not only must this chain be shortened, he exhorts, but small growers must learn to cooperate with each other and with the estates to create one marketing entity. Producing countries must also cooperate with one another, agree to marketing standards and price, and offer the world market a standard quality product.

Natural rubber, SEKHAR points out, has intrinsic advantages over synthetics in this environmentally conscious age; it is nonpolluting and renewable. Rubber trees improve rather than pollute the atmosphere and, unlike petroleum, the main source of synthetics, mature in a few years, not in a few geologic eras. A further advantage is that they can become a major source of wood pulp, or the wood can be treated with steam under pressure and hardened and be used for furniture and building. In the future, he muses, rubber may become thought of as a by-product of the timber industry.

SEKHAR views his own life as optimistically as he views the future of natural rubber. He recognizes that he has had "more ups than downs," and that he possesses an intuitive gift for sensing when an invention or line of work is "going right." This intuition has saved him from much wasted time and effort and has enabled him to achieve much in a relatively short time.

His wife shares his positive outlook. At 21 he married Sukumari Nair, a childhood sweetheart, and they have four children: Jayakumar (15), Gopinath (12), Sujatha (10) and Vinod (5). Sukumari gave up her career as a teacher to devote herself to raising their family, but she says her husband comes first in her life, even today.

When he travels, which is on the average of two and a half months a year, Sukumari remains at home because of the children but "never reconciles herself to their separation." She maintains a keen interest in his work and attends his lectures whenever possible; he always invites her. He also uses her as "the testing station" for his speeches, reading them to her beforehand. "If she, being a layman, can understand what I'm saying, then I know I've succeeded in getting the message across," he comments.

In 1964, SEKHAR was elected a Fellow of the Institution of the Rubber Industry (IRI) and was chosen a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry the same year. He is President of the Malaysian Institute of Chemistry and Past-President of the Malaysian Scientific Association. In 1969, at age 39, he was the youngest—and the first Malaysian and Asian—to receive the Colwyn Medal, the highest award of the IRI. It was given for "conspicuous services of a scientific and technical character having an important bearing on the rubber industry." The same year he received the Johan Setia Mankota from His Majesty, the Supreme Head of Malaysia.

The Honorary Doctor of Science which SEKHAR received from the University of Singapore in 1970 perhaps best expresses his contributions to date; it was given for his "achievements in initiating and sustaining a great technological revolution in the processing of natural rubber. "

September 1973
Manila

REFERENCES:

Chang, Henry. "RRI Tyre Rubber a Boost to Industry," Malay Mail. Kuala Lumpur. February 23, 1972.

Information Circular. Publications and Information Section, Rubber Research Institute of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur. December 14, 1972.

"KL Plan to Take Over Small Rubber Holdings," Sunday Times. Kuala Lumpur. September 24, 1972.

Malayan Rubber Fund Board. Natural Rubber: Nature + Science Serves Mankind. Kuala Lumpur. (Fact Booklet). 19 p. N.d.

Ng, Anthony. "The Man Who Landed the $3,550-a-Month Job." Sunday Mail. Kuala Lumpur. March 27, 1966.

Organizational Changes in RRIM. Publications and Information Section. Rubber Research Institute of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur. April 25, 1973. (Mimeographed.)

Rubber Research Institute of Malaya. Kuala Lumpur: Rubber Research Institute of Malaya 24 p. N.d.

Sekhar, Balachandra ChakkingaL "Closing Address Delivered at the RRIM Planters' Conference. Kuala Lumpur, July 13, 1971.

______. "Closing Address Delivered at the RRIM Planters' Conference." Kuala Lumpur. July 20, 1973.

______. Malaysian Natural Rubber, New Presentation Processes. Kuala Lumpur: Rubber Research Institute of Malaya, July 1971. 26 p.

______. "Natural Rubber in Malaysia." Malaysian Scientist. Kuala Lumpur. Vol. 5, 1969/70.

______. "The New Image of Natural Rubber is Going to Permeate the International Scene." Rubber Development. Kuala Lumpur. Vol. 24, no. 1, 1971.

______. Presentation made to Group Discussion. Transcript. Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation. Manila. September 4, 1973.

______."Speech on the Visit of H. E. Dzemal Bijedic, President of the Federal Executive Council (Prime Minister) of Yugoslavia. . ." March 16, 1973. Kuala Lumpur.

"Substantial Changes in RRI Activities Says Sekhar," Malay Mail. Kuala Lumpur. August 29, 1968.

Yuan, Chin Phong. "Test Tube Rubber Trees," Sunday Times. Kuala Lumpur. March 11, 1973.

Letters from and interviews with colleagues and peers of Balachandra Chakkingal Sekhar. Visits to RRIM.