If you frequently travel across the country with a FASTag sticker on your windshield, you have most likely passed through Comvision India’s automated toll plazas. Harjinder Kaur Talwar, the company’s founder, began her career as an entrepreneur at the age of 23 in 1995, when it was nearly impossible for women to obtain bank loans on their own. As a result, Talwar had to enlist the help of her father as a business partner in order to acquire an Rs 3 lakh bank loan to create Comvision India, a computer-training services company for corporations at the time. However, the industry was not ready at the time, as only a few significant companies were interested in IT training.
In the interim, Talwar experimented with the e-governance sector in India to improve the business model. Talwar, who founded the company in Hyderabad in 1999, approached the Andhra Pradesh government for a chance to develop backend technology solutions to deliver various government-to-citizen (G2C) services such as driver’s licences, birth certificates, and other municipal services under one roof rather than citizens having to go to different government departments. Talwar was able to test her approach with a TWINS project, which allowed individuals to access those services electronically via G2C centres, which are similar to Common Service Centers that exist today.”
This concept was used as a template for other states to follow. It was also shown to Bill Clinton, the then-President of the United States, during his first visit to India in 2000. But, contrary to what I had imagined before starting the firm, I learned as an entrepreneur that making money through a business isn’t easy. Talwar told Financial Express Online, “I couldn’t even return the bank loan.”
Comvision expanded its technology infrastructure in 2011 to include traffic management segment solutions for the transportation industry. Talwar’s interest in developing solutions for efficient traffic movement within and outside cities was piqued by the sunrise segment at the time. The company’s eToll solution for highways functions as an enterprise resource planning software for the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to manage toll collections, as well as solutions for managing parking spaces with real-time data on spot availability and automatic traffic signal management based on real-time traffic flow, among other things.
In 2017, the business added FASTag-based collections to its portfolio, and in 2020, it will launch its contactless parking solution at the Hyderabad airport. “We developed the entire technological part of FASTag.” It was difficult at first, but the market opportunity was enormous. I used to go to different banks in Mumbai and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to demonstrate our technology to them. “Our initial partner was a major infrastructure bank,” Talwar explained. Comvision is currently in charge of collecting FASTag-based electric tolls on motorways, as well as clearing and settling toll transactions for womens. Comvision’s solutions are currently installed at over 130 toll plazas in India, accounting for 18% of all FASTag toll plazas.
In 2017, the business added FASTag-based collections to its portfolio, and in 2020, it will launch its contactless parking solution at the Hyderabad airport. “We developed the entire technological part of FASTag.” It was difficult at first, but the market opportunity was enormous. I used to go to different banks in Mumbai and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to demonstrate our technology to them. “Our initial partner was a major infrastructure bank,” Talwar explained. Comvision is currently in charge of collecting FASTag-based electric tolls on motorways, as well as clearing and settling toll transactions for womens. Comvision’s solutions are currently installed at over 130 toll plazas in India, accounting for 18% of all FASTag toll plazas.
Comvision had never implemented a toll management project outside of India, let alone managed a high-speed causeway, according to Talwar. “KFCA officials were impressed with our work on highways in India, but they wanted to know how our technology would manage their tolls without the need for human intervention at the toll booth, because tolls in India are managed manually by an operator.” Over the course of the nine-month period, I had to explain everything from the concept to the implementation of the project, as well as how our system will handle operator-less tolls. “KFCA was eventually persuaded,” she continued.
Comvision’s sales increased by 30% as a result of the KFCA project, which also resulted in an increase in inbound queries from overseas and improved profitability. “We’re now expanding to Bahrain,” says the company. Talwar, who is also a board member of the International Women’s Entrepreneurial Challenge (IWEC) Foundation, said, “We are now a semi company and are seeking to grow by 300 percent in the next financial year.”
The organization, which was founded in 2007 in Spain, assists small and mid-sized women business owners from 47 countries in expanding into new markets. Through this platform, Talwar is assisting Indian women-owned small businesses in expanding into these countries. “As a woman, your efforts are multiplied since you must not only persuade others how you can run a business, but also that you can run it well.” People’s faces are filled with surprise when they learn that you founded the business.” Talwar hopes to use IWEC to assist women entrepreneurs in learning how to expand or export their businesses internationally, advertise their products, locate buyers, and so on.
