A reward for treading off the beaten path

After completing his Master's degree in civil engineering, he could well have landed up a reasonably well paid job. But N C V Rangacharya had other ideas.

As part of his studies, he had done a course on Computer aided Design (CAD). And choosing to do something entirely different from civil engineering, Rangacharya set up a software firm.

Fifteen years later, his efforts were rightly rewarded when he was awarded the Bharti Entrepreneur of the Year Award. The award was handed over to him by M Damodaran, president Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India in Ahmedabad, last weekend.

The Award (being supported by the Bharti Foundation) was indeed befitting. With an investment of just Rs 1.25 lakh and without assistance from any bank, he started a Computer Aided Design firm, that today has investments in excess of Rs 6 crore. Supported by the Bharti Foundation, the Bharti Entrepreneur of the Year Award comprises Rs 1 lakh in cash, a citation and a trophy.

After his post graduation studies, Rangacharya came across an advertisement by Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park at Thiruchirapalli set up by Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, inviting young engineering graduates to explore their hidden entrepreneurial instincts. He applied for the one month EDP, got selected and completed the programme in August 1989.

The company, Cadsys, was formally launched in October 1989, with his own investment of Rs 1.25 lakh as no banker was willing to take risk of financing a start up by a fresher who had no business track record. However, persistence prevailed and today Cadsys is an ISO 9002 company spread over 20,000 square feet with 600 engineers in its rolls.

His investment has gone up 480 times and this is one of the leading companies in the area of Computer Aided Design (CAD) and GIS in the country. In 2003, he started a new company, Cadsys Technologies, that focuses on emerging technologies to enable better solutions.

Currently, this company is engaged in developing wireless connectivity to Internet for various portable devices. Participation in the contest for the entrepreneur of the year award was open to EDP trained first generation entrepreneurs emerging preferably from a non-business background and possessing experience of five successful years in business.