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Sitting in the cosy ambience of seventh floor
Office of Vijay Uttarwar, Roamware at Sigma Hiranandani Business
Park overlooking Powai Lake, life is not much different than
Silicon Valley, San Jose California for this 40 plus software
genius. Vijay alongwith his brother has been an early entrepreneur
at Silicon Valley way back in early nineties. He resides in
Hiranandani Garden today and heads the operations of the Development
Centre at Powai for his company headquartered in US.
Vijay Uttarwar shot into limelight some years back when he
sold his previous company Softplus for $360 million to US
Interactive. Softplus's software had helped many telecom operators
manage their customer relationships better. The brothers co-founded
the company and like true entrepreneurs did not want their
hot hands to cool. Once they sold Softplus they stated another
company called UnwiredSoft in wireless data services to later
graduate in roaming software solutions to the telecom industry
and renamed to ROAMWARE. Their software solutions to these
mobile operators save million of dollars to end users and
operators. With an impressive array of clients Orange, BPL,
IDEA, MTNL in India and many international operators in Europe,
South East Asia and US.
This man comes across as simple, suave and
warm person true to his roots in Rale-gaon village, Nagpur
district in the Vidharbha region of Western Maharashtra which
was a backward area once.
He recounts his childhood memories in his native village where
education was only upto 2nd standard. This makeshift school
too was started by his grandfather. His ancestors have been
hereditary Patils of this village. His father is an agri-cultural
graduate and the first farmer in that area to have cultivated
hybrid cotton, the cash crop of that area. Vijay had been
inculcated to follow education and he completed his graduation
and post-graduation in Agricultural Science from Akola University.
It was during this time that doing statistical analysis on
computers he realised its potential and decided to pursue
higher studies in US, where his elder brother was already
doing Computer Engg.
Today, after many years having grown out of their taluka and
completing a full circle of wisdom, wealth and glory they
feel conscious and burdened to pay back their due to their
roots. Vijay maintains that in his case it was the change
in his circumstances that gave him the opportunity for better
education, inner quest to excel in any chosen field. Primarily
the values inculcated by his parents and focused efforts have
given them winning results most of the time.
Now, they have formed Uttara Foundation, a charitable trust
which has further entrusted the task to a NGO called 'Pratham'
of handpicking meritorious student of their native place and
giving focused education to nurture them for formal and higher
studies. All the expenses are borne by them, the results are
amazing. Now, they want to replicate this process all over
India. So far they have bettered some 2000 students towards
educational excellence. His wife Smita handles this aspect
of their activity.
Not content with this aspect of educational benevolence, Vijay
has been constantly looking for some measure where they can
impact the local economy to accelerate socio-economic change
by leveraging the local resource of land and farming community.
He is got the answer for that too. He has hit upon a herb
which gives extract for natural sweetener. Prototype testing
for production is being carried out for marketing trials.
World market for this is gigantic and once his Product is
sailing he will get the farmers of his area to switch to this
cash crop, the climate of this area is congenial too.
India seems to have come of age when a section
of its empowering Youth today is laying the foundation for
the Superpower status for India that the World today is predicting
that we may turn into an economic giant by 2050 AD. It is
the likes of Vijay Uttarwar whose vision, dynamism, entrepreneurship,
social payback and most of all financial resource to propel
a chain reaction of growth. An old Chinese saying - Why give
a man fish to eat, teach him fishing he will never go hungry
all his life.
On a concluding note about Powai he said, "Powai provides
an excellent environment to work and live, it gives a platform
combining western comforts and eastern warmth."
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