To meet Kamakshi Rai casually, a reporter is impressed by her poise and confidence. The real story behind that air of intelligent competence is even more so. There is some real buzz about the 24-year-old techie in Kathmandu's corporate circles.

The first woman to become a Oracle Certified Professional in the country, Kamakshi is at ease teaching the program to professionals much older than herself. "I've been teaching Oracle since I was 19, so I'm quite comfortable," she says confidently.

Kamakshi and her fianc?, also a computer professional, train students in various computer programs and market software. Becoming a certified Oracle professional, in particular, is a tough and expensive process. Kamakshi's training institute Microhard has created a portal where students can access 40,000 potential exam questions. "If they score a hundred percent on our tests, that means they'll probably get 75 or 80 percent on the real one-and that's what you need to pass. It's hard," she says.

She can teach, but level-headed Kamakshi says selling software is a different challenge altogether. She recently set up Microhard, a franchise of an American software development and training institute. "You have to deal with decision makers, managers, administrators, non-technical people who don't have a clue. It's pretty demanding."

At work, she's convincing and competent as she explains to potential clients how Biometrics, a computerised system with a sensor to identify people by their fingerprints, works. Since they began marketing the software two months ago, the results have been encouraging. "Many companies use swipe cards, but that could give rise to proxy entries. This actually tells you whether an employee is in or out of the office," says Kamakshi. Kathmandu Guest House is their first client, and companies such as Toyota, Soaltee, and Shangri La are also showing interest.

In school in Dehradun her career counsellor saw sparks fly when Kamakshi was anywhere near a computer and suggested she pursue further studies in IT. Kamakshi did, but also worked at an arts degree just in case. It couldn't hurt to be well-rounded. But anyone who knew her even at 18, when she was a replacement executive and student representative at the Tata Unisys in Siliguri, couldn't believe she'd make her career in any other field. This was followed by a three-and-a-half year stint at World Distribution Nepal in Kathmandu, where she taught students Oracle and helped create hospital management systems for Norvic, Apollo, and the Nepal Medical College. "I'm happy my parents encouraged me," smiles Kamakshi. "After all, one is a retired army officer without a clue about computers, and the other a gender consultant whose computer literacy is restricted to email and Internet."

Kamakshi's long-term goal is to set up a software development centre and get into e-marketing. "The economy can't sustain that now, but we definitely plan to promote it in future as a business solution." Even the Nepal Tourism Board, which needs all the help it can get, has approached her. Perhaps between them, some tourists can be lured back here.