A 25-year old entrepreneur from India receives a rare international honour in Europe
Overcomes supply chain issues during the COVID lockdowns to make quality video gaming equipment affordable to customers in 43 countries
Chennai, 20th October 2022: Niranjan Ovhal, has won a top global entrepreneur award in The Netherlands for m aking quality simulated racing/PC gaming equipment affordable for many in developing countries. His award, gi ven at The Hague, is an international honour for India and a global recognition for Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), a socio-economic initiative that mentors budding grassroots entrepreneurs like him from vulnerable bac kgrounds.
Ovhal, 25, from Pune, who owns Simforge Engineering, India’s first and only sim racing gear manufacturer, expo rts his products to 43 countries. He won the Youth Business International Global Young Entrepreneur of the Ye ar 2022 Award in the COVID Resilience category.
“BYST is proud to have mentored and supported Niranjan Ovhal. By manufacturing and selling global standard si m racing gear at affordable price points, he has created new sim racing communities across 43 countries. Ovhal turned the pandemic and all the challenges it brought with it, into growth opportunities. Helping entrepreneurs build risk-proof and sustainable businesses has always been our goal. I’d like to express my gratitude to YBI for recognizing grassroots entrepreneurs on their credible platform and giving them much needed motivation.” Ms. Lakshmi Venkataraman Venkatesan, Founding and Managing Trustee, BYST, said while she accepted the honour on behalf of Ovhal.
Ovhal’s Simforge Engineering, a start-up based out of Pune, has now been put on the global map and emerged as an international brand, making India proud, true to its vision of self-reliance.
“Under the guidance of BYST mentors, I was able to successfully navigate man y practical problems that threate ned my business continuity. During the pand emic, more people were stuck at home wanting to play video games, but many quality auto racing games were unaffordable. This inspired me to build an Indi a solution affordable to many,” Ovhal said in a statement.
Ovhal’s mission is to start manufacturing the entire Sim Racing ecosystem, an d he plans to set up offices in Nor th America, South America, Europe, and Asi a. His vision is to see a sim racing setup in every home in India. He hopes to se e more international motorsport drivers emerge from developing countries.
About Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust
Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST) is a not-for-profit organisation. We assist disadvantaged Indian youth devel op their business ideas into viable enterprises under the guidance of a mentor. Founded in 1992, BYST was sup ported by industry stalwarts like JRD Tata and Rahul Bajaj. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is our str ategic partner.
BYST programmes support underprivileged young entrepreneurs by arranging loans through our partner banks (total financing: almost Rs. 500 crores, median value: approximately Rs. 5 lakhs), without security or collateral.
Entrepreneurs are also nurtured through services such as training, business plan development, monitoring, me ntoring, and networking, till they reach a level of self-sufficiency and start making valuable contributions to so ciety.
In 30 years, BYST has supported nearly 12,000 entrepreneurs who have generated Rs. 5,000 crores wealth and helped create over 3,50,000 jobs.
For more details, please visit www.byst.org.in.
