Born and educated in Kerala, Brig. Balasubramaniam was commissioned in September 1948 from the Indian Military Academy into the Corps of Signals Army. He is a qualified Chartered Engineer (CE) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering (FIETE). After serving the Army in various capacities in the Planning and Provision of Communications for 32 years, his services were transferred to Indian Telephone Industries in Feb 1980, from where he retired as Executive Director in July 1987.

Soon thereafter he joined Tata Telecom Limited and retired after a fruitful tenure. He has served the IETE thrice as Council Member.

During these years, he has been Vice President twice and has been Chairman TPC during 2002-03. He was responsible for initially piloting the idea of increasing the tenure of Chairman of Local center from one year to two years and contributing stability at the center, thereby enhancing its performance.