A 'green' entrepreneur's success story

It has been 25 years of entrepreneurship for Pramod Chaudhari. A successful entrepreneur, he describes his experience as an exciting journey full of ups and downs. After his engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Pramod Chaudhari worked for a multinational company for a few years. Later, he decided to start his own venture. Passionate about green technologies, he established Praj Industries in 1984. It was not an easy ride. He failed many times but that did not deter him from taking new initiatives and moving ahead. His never-say-die attitude and optimism made sure he built a world-renowned company. Under his leadership, Praj focusses on offering innovative solutions to add value in bio-ethanol, bio-diesel, brewery plants and process equipment and systems for customers worldwide. Praj has been creating innovative technology platforms to make biofuels a sustainable choice toward making a greener planet. Praj was recently conferred the 'Forbes Best Under a Billion Company' in Asia, for the second consecutive year, based on its consistent growth and profitability over three years. Chaudhari has also contributed to the National Biofuels Policy as a member of the Committee on Development of Biofuels, Planning Commission for introduction of renewable fuels to India. He believes that innovation and entrepreneurship must go hand in hand to build sustainable solutions. Stressing the importance of intrapreneurships, he says, young managers within a company, who have good skills and ideas must be encouraged to develop their ideas. Chaudhari shares his views on entrepreneurship and his company's initiatives to promote green technology.

How difficult was it to leave a good job and start a venture on your own?

It was very difficult as I was working for a MNC. But my father had confidence that I will
do something different. I told them that I will give it a try for about five years and I won't be a burden to them.

What are the core activities of Praj? Our core business is to offer technology design and machinery for the production of bio fuels. We try to bring in green technology in our day-to-day activities, like green design, green manufacturing, energy efficient technologies and waste water treatment. We operate on five parameters. Our products facilitate the use of bio fuels, our processes are green as they consumes less water and less energy. In all our processes we keep a tab on low energy consumption, lesser paper use. We also encourage our employees to take part in social activities related to the environment. So we complete the pentagon of green initiatives.

What would be your advice to entrepreneurs? The decision to become an entrepreneur itself is a great achievement. Creating value for whatever product or service is good. However, the focus must be to offer a solution for the society, solutions to make this planet a better place.