Dr. Manjunath CS on building Baby Science IVF, the Birla Fertility acquisition, and why transparency is the only competitive advantage that matters in reproductive medicine.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Manjunath CS built Baby Science IVF from a single insight into a network of 13 centres spanning Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities across India — each operating to the same clinical and ethical standards as any metro facility. He has personally trained more than 750 gynaecologists in infertility management and gynaecological laparoscopy surgery. His clinics report a cumulative IVF success rate of 94 percent across three treatment cycles. In both 2025 and 2026, he was awarded the First Prize at the ISAR national conference — back-to-back recognition that cements his standing as one of India’s foremost voices in reproductive medicine.
In most conversations about the Indian fertility sector, the narrative defaults to the metros — the gleaming clinics of Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Delhi that have placed India on the global IVF map. Dr. Manjunath CS noticed something different. He saw the vast geography of the country that those clinics were not reaching: the Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, the smaller towns, the rural belts where couples were either travelling enormous distances or forgoing treatment altogether.
That observation became the founding premise of Baby Science IVF. High-quality IVF practice was missing in many parts of rural India. His response was not to open another premium centre in an already-served market, but to bring metro-grade laboratory capabilities and advanced genetic procedures directly to the communities that needed them most. The ambition was simple to state and extraordinarily difficult to execute: make world-class fertility treatment accessible outside the world’s most connected cities.
“High-quality IVF was missing in large parts of rural India. We set out to change that.”
What followed was a period of deliberate, values-driven expansion. Baby Science IVF grew to 13 centres, each maintaining the same clinical benchmarks that Dr. Manjunath had built his practice on. These were not three standards adopted for marketing copy. They were operational requirements: every couple received written documentation of all available treatment options in language a layperson could understand; billing was fully disclosed and signed off before a single procedure began; and outcome expectations for every treatment cycle were communicated with precision.
Alongside the clinic build-out, Dr. Manjunath built something arguably more durable: a trained workforce. Over the course of his career he has trained more than 750 gynaecologists in infertility management and gynaecological laparoscopy surgery. In a country where the ratio of reproductive medicine specialists to couples requiring fertility treatment remains severely imbalanced, that investment in human capital may be his most consequential contribution to the sector.
IN CONVERSATION
Financial pressure was constant. And the competition was not just clinical — it was commercial. Competitors with far larger marketing budgets could reach patients first, shape perceptions first, and close decisions before we could even make our case. We chose not to play that game. We invested in clinical outcomes, in training, in what I can only call the unsexy work of building trust consultation by consultation. That is a harder path. But it is the only one that holds.
Because most couples arrive with a single number in their heads and no framework to understand it. In a single cycle, our success rate is 65 to 70 percent. Across two cycles, it climbs to 85 percent. By the third cycle, it reaches 94 percent. When a patient understands that progression — truly understands it — they approach the process with confidence rather than dread. Stress has measurable clinical consequences in fertility treatment. Proper counselling is not a soft skill. It is a medical intervention.
Fertility is a field where you see joy and tears at the same moment. A family is transformed in your consultation room. That weight demands a particular kind of ethical clarity. Leaders in this field must hold two things simultaneously: awareness of the emotional reality couples are living through, and awareness of the financial reality they are managing. Those two pressures together are why transparency is not optional in our practice. It is the foundation.
The acquisition of Baby Science IVF by Birla Fertility represented the kind of institutional recognition that is easy to celebrate and harder to fully explain. It was, in one reading, a straightforward business event: a group at scale acquiring a well-built network. In another reading, it was a thesis validation. Dr. Manjunath had bet that ethical, transparent, clinically rigorous fertility care — delivered outside India’s largest cities — would prove its value. The acquisition confirmed that bet.
“When a patient understands the cumulative success rate — 65%, 85%, 94% — they approach the process with confidence rather than dread.”
Post-acquisition, Dr. Manjunath’s attention has shifted to a research question he believes may carry implications far beyond his individual practice. He is preparing to pursue dedicated clinical research into ovarian longevity — specifically, the accelerating decline in egg reserves he is observing in younger women.
The phenomenon is clinically concerning in isolation. Its societal dimension is larger still. If Indian women are experiencing diminished ovarian reserve at earlier ages than prior generations, the downstream effect on India’s Total Fertility Rate — already in structural decline — could be significant. For a country watching its demographic dividend narrow, this is not a niche medical question. It is a public health priority. Dr. Manjunath intends to bring his clinical depth to bear on answering it.
In 2025 and again in 2026, he was awarded the First Prize at the ISAR national conference for his research contributions — back-to-back recognitions that signal the field’s acknowledgement of his standing as both a practitioner and a scientific voice. The next chapter, it appears, will be written in the laboratory as much as the consultation room.
Dr. Manjunath CS is a reproductive medicine specialist, founder of Baby Science IVF (acquired by Birla Fertility), and a two-time ISAR Best Paper Award recipient (2025, 2026). He has trained over 750 gynaecologists across India in infertility and gynaecological laparoscopy. He is currently conducting clinical research into ovarian longevity and its implications for India’s declining Total Fertility Rate.
THE CEO MAGAZINE | LEADERSHIP IN MEDICINE
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