Ahmedabad.com profiles Pratul Shroff CEO of eInfoChips, an infotech company in Gujarat to get the Best Software Exporter Award by STPI (Gandhinagar)

Promoting a cutting edge, software export operation in Gujarat has often been akin to "growing roses in the desert" he sighs, but then, Pratul Shroff has also been receiving ample recognition for his labour of love.

For the second time in a row this year, Software Technology Park India has conferred his eInfoChips Limited the region’s Best Software Exporter Award and the Government of Gujarat, meanwhile, has been pursuing him avidly to help promote information technology (IT) in the State.

Despite his hectic schedule of shuttling between Ahmedabad and the Silicon Valley, where he has recently set up a joint venture Start-up Company, Pratulbhai is happy to oblige. For if there’s one thing the amiable BITS-Pilani and Cornell University graduate is high on, it’s Emotional Quotient (EQ).

Having worked nine years in Silicon Valley, at Intel and then at the breakaway Daisy Systems Inc, formed by a group of former Intel engineers, Shroff’s professional friendships abroad have always been the key factor in the success of eInfochips.

It was the sale of his stake in Daisy Systems Inc, after its initial public offering (IPO) in 1984, that provided Shroff with the seed capital for his maiden venture in Gujarat: Contech Limited, which specialised in process control systems.

Then, in the true Silicon Valley entrepreneurial tradition, he sold his 50 per cent stake in Contech to his partner, to start an independent venture in a more state-of-the-art field.

Today, hardware and software contribute equally to the e-Infochips annual turnover (1998-99) of Rs 2.9 crore and net profit of Rs 1.2 crore.

Not surprisingly, the eInfochips software division is focused on Internet applications, which includes a recently developed product named MailHarvester, an e-mail extraction package that crawls through the entire web to collect e-mail addresses in specific areas of interest.

The division has also developed and successfully marketed ESynergy, an Intranet-based software package that "takes into account Indian telecom infrastructure caveats."

The hardware division of eInfochips specialises in the design and verification of Application Specific Integrated

Circuit (ASIC) chips, where a portion of the chip is pre-fabricated and the rest is constructed using what are called Very High Level Description Languages.

Clients in this field include Sun Microsystems and according to Shroff, "Worldwide, there is explosive growth in this field but here, I’d estimate that less than 6,000 engineers are practicing this aspect of hardware design or are even aware of it."

Indeed, over the past decade, Shroffs greatest contribution to developing IT in Gujarat has been in training a whole breed of young engineers to take up challenges in the forefront of technology.

In this he takes his inspiration from Intel Chairman Andy Grove, who, as CEO in the early 80's, personally trained him and other young engineers in the company.

Shroff has also put in place an employee stock option scheme, even though the company is a private one, in anticipation of the day it goes in for an IPO.

Compiled from Economic Times (Ahmedabad)