Previous Occupation: Research, operations
Present Occupation: Currently on a sabbatical before joining the Government of India
Sector: Public administration
Work Experience: Over three years
Interests – Professional/Personal: Predictive modeling, statistical analysis, Indian and western music, playing the veena, reading non-fiction and fiction, Tennis.

Tell us about yourself – your profile, recap your professional life after ISB including your career progression
I studied Electrical Engineering at IIT, Kharagpur, and then worked for Motorola under the Research Associate Programme at IIT. It was at IIT where I decided to study for a master’s degree. But my work for companies such as Bharat Forge and My Home Industries led me towards a management degree.
I graduated from ISB in 2009 after which, I worked for Repligo, an analytics firm. I then decided to take the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) Civil Services Examination 2010. I qualified this year with an all India rank of 90, and that puts me in a position where three All India Services – Administrative, Police, and Foreign may be allotted to me. I think I will most probably be placed in the Indian Police Service.

Key take-away from the ISB.
I learnt that the structure of your thought process matters. I remember V K Menon talking at a CAS session, and saying: “Use a framework, but it does not have to be obvious to the people you’re talking to that you’re in fact using one”. I think that’s brilliant advice. Models and frameworks are around to help our thought processes, not confound others.

How do you think the ISB has contributed to your career growth?
Michael Crichton, in an essay in “Travels”, wonders how much a meditation course in the middle of the Mojave Desert changed him – and he realises it nine months later, after putting together pieces of the jigsaw.
I guess ISB is that way: The sheer force with which things are thrown at you in the first 90 days is not conducive to figure out a grand plan for life. But, over time the courage you see in batch mates, the joie-de-vivre the professors carry, the helpful admin, and the long hours in an ELP that sometimes test you – all these nudge you incrementally to put things into perspective and define your goals!

What is your vision for the School?
50 years ago, in California, Stanford University (which was not quite an Ivy League Institution then) incubated many startups – the chief being HP – and grew with them as they prospered and innovated. Today, Stanford is synonymous with California and the desire to optimise human effort.
ISB is at some sort of a similar inflection point. In a few decades, it is possible that ISB will be seen internationally as the Institution that generates leadership through ideas. That is my vision. One may think that since the School is not a full-fledged University, higher education laws are somewhat archaic, and opinion in India tends to be skewered towards skepticism, ISB cannot achieve this vision. But these are issues that can be handled, given enough rope and persistence.

What are the strengths that the School can leverage upon and areas it can improve?
The strength undoubtedly lies in the ISB brand, which has ten years of hard work behind it. It is perhaps fair to say that ISB is on its way to becoming a global brand.
The School could certainly do with more awareness for its “hard” courses. Academically (maybe even otherwise), my best time at ISB was with the “Quanties” – Professors Sumit Kunnumkal, Shamika Ravi, Sanjiv Das, Ramana Sonti, Deepa Mani, Sreenivas Kamma, and others. I think there’s a whole segment of students who will jump at the chance just to hear Prof Sonti chuckle about the “Jabberwock” on predictive models.
With the infrastructure and faculty in place, ISB deserves more global recognition for its robust programmes on structured and analytical finance, and operations.

How do you think alums can associate with the School or alum’s role in building the School?
It is great to be involved in explicit promotional activity, but ultimately, alums can help by being the best at what they do. Word-of-mouth is the most powerful publicity tool as compared to everything else. To illustrate an example, the IITs are well known today largely through the commendations their graduates have garnered in their fields.
Having said that, it is necessary to put an effort to differentiate ISB and showcase our strengths in the community. But in this regard, I believe that the administration is doing a fine job in reaching out.

What is the area you can contribute in?
I would like to get involved in mentoring the students and helping them with their course work

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