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The Roads Taken
Issue 5 | An NSIT (formerly DIT) Publication | www.nsitalumni.org
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lAk 1n wll clA55 Ol 201J...
1oke wltb tbee tbe foot yeots
1bose Joys, mootbs ooJ momeots

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My lnvolvemenL wlLh 8emlnlsce over Lhe pasL few years has glven me
ample opporLunlLles Lo lnLeracL wlLh Lhe besL bralns of nSl1. 1hese are
people who affecL change ln a pleLhora of flelds. 1hey have conLlnuously
lnsplred me Lo excel, Lo lead.

My chesL swells wlLh prlde as l presenL Lo you 8emlnlsce 3.0. ln Lhls edlLlon,
we conLlnue Lo follow Lhe career paLhs of some of our many lllusLrlous
alumnl. Pere ls your chance Lo learn from Lhem. Cne Lhlng common Lo all of
Lhem ls LhaL Lhey are all fuelled by passlon. A valuable LralL for all of us as
we look ahead, noL [usL aL Lhe challenges we face, buL Lhe opporLunlLles
Loo.

1hls lssue ls dear Lo me. lL ls my flnal nosLalglc goodbye- Lo my Leam and my
college. 8uL l'll flnd ways Lo conLlnue belng connecLed wlLh you, dear
8eader. lor LhaL ls whaL l've learnL. 8econnecL. 8ellve. Cnly now as an alum.

As l glve up Lrylng Lo push back Lhe Lears ln my eyes, l can'L help buL recall
Lhese llnes from Colerldge's Absence:

Ah falr uellghLs! LhaL o'er my soul
Cn Memory's wlng, llke shadows fly!
Ah llowers! whlch !oy from Lden sLole
Whlle lnnocence sLood smlllng by!

unLll nexL Llme, dear 8eader. unLll nexL Llme.

ueepLl 8hardwa[
LdlLor
8emlnlsce
Anupam khanna 1
Manusheel CupLa 3
ranay Sharma 11
8an[an 8ao 17
PLL uS C8CW:
Slgn up aL www.ns|ta|umn|.org
WL LCvL PLA8lnC l8CM ?Cu:
Mall your feedback Lo
rem|n|sceQns|ta|umn|.org































ANUPAM KHANNA
Class of 2005
Anupam Khanna began his corporate journey as a technical
trainee. After working as a Business Analyst at Wipro
Technologies for more than a year, he assumed his present
position as Sr. Associate at Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Here he shares the lessons learnt on his journey so far.
From being a technical trainee to a
corporate man, how has the
journey been? Tell us about your
present job at Cognizant
Technology Solutions.
Its still a small journey, but it has been
good. From being a software engineer
at Perotsystems (now Dell Services) to
Analytics Consultant at Cognizant, there
has been a dramatic shift in my profile.
At Cognizant, we work on delivering
analytics-based solutions to clients
business problems. We use statistical
techniques and tools such as
SAS/SPSS/Excel and work on historical
data provided by the client to provide
answers and recommendations to the
business problems faced by the client.

What skill set, according to you,
should a business analyst develop
to be successful and recognised?
In the IT world, a business analyst (BA)
is looked upon as an interface between
the client and the project team. The BA
is expected to know about the clients
business, possess good domain
knowledge, have good communication
skills, have working knowledge about
the technologies used to deliver the
solution to the client and have good
analytical thought process. A BA has to
prepare all the required documentation
and must conduct knowledge-sharing
sessions with the technical team to help
them understand the requirements. In
addition to this, if the BA is able to help
the project managers generate more
business from the project by suggesting
innovative processes which can be sold
to the client, it is a sure shot way of
getting recognized.

How has the recent economic crises
affected your work and clientele?
Well, overall we are seeing a lack of IT
spending from the clients end. The IT
budgets are being trimmed. This slowed
down the project pipeline. The
Cognizant Enterprise Analytics Practice
(EAP) BU fell well short of their 2012-13
revenue target. Clients have become
more demanding and have been asking
to cut down on the billing charges.

Do you feel that saturation
develops in the career path of
individuals who do not pursue
higher education?
So far what I have seen, anyone who
has a passion for what he or she is
doing, and does it with complete
commitment, will always do well-
irrespective of whether he/she has
pursued post-graduation or not. A post-
grad pursued from a good university
will definitely give one a good initial
thrust but sustaining that thrust
depends on ones own commitment and
passion towards work.

A normal student in India is
expected to slog day in and day out
for 'grades' and 'percentage'. Now
that you have experienced the
world that is out of books, how far,
you think, do grades take you in the
long run?
As students, all we care about is grades
and percentage. But as one grows in
experience, it hardly matters what
percentage you scored in your
graduation. What becomes first priority
to hiring managers is the number of
years of relevant work experience and
ones knowledge. An overall good
academic record may get one
shortlisted more times than not for an
interview, but at the interview table its
what one speaks or the knowledge one
exhibits and not what one scored in
graduation that decides whether one
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|2







































gets selected or not.

If NSIT had the culture to celebrate
Thanksgiving Day, which special
person would you dedicate the day
to?
Undoubtedly Bhatia Sir.

If you were to make a bucket list of
all the things that students must do
while their years at NSIT, what
particular activity would appear on
the top of the list?
Nights out during Moksha would rank
amongst my best moments at NSIT.

How would you be willing to
contribute to make NSIT a better
institute?
I am willing to actively participate in
CSR initiatives that NSIT is associated
with.























Anyone who has a passion for what he
or she is doing, and does it with
complete commitment, will always do
well.
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|3































MANUSHEEL GUPTA
Class of 2008
Manusheel Guptas entrepreneurial streak became evident
straight out of college. He co-founded SEETA and Aspiring
Investments. He has also been actively associated with One
Laptop Per Child since his college days. Here he takes out
time to patiently answer questions on social
entrepreneurship, start-up financing and more.
Please share with us the vision
behind SEETA.
The vision behind SEETA, when it
started off, was very simple. I came
across some open source projects when
I graduated and while doing those
projects, I became aware of the
environment of what we did. I think the
focus was on developing software and
doing it in a way that has parity of
deployment as well as need. It is
focussed on need, interest, time and
curiosity of the users. That is the spirit
of SEETA. When it stated off, it started
off in a different direction. But now it is
more focussed on developing software
and models.

So what were the challenges that
you faced when you started SEETA?
I think the biggest challenge that I
faced was acquiring knowledge of
everything, starting from how much to
invest. When you create a start-up, you
need to have an understanding of how
teams work. A lot of decisions that were
made in the beginning were confused
between what we need at that time and
what we were doing at that time. Also,
I was not a very good team worker at
that time; I was not much bothered.

You were also beginning to
associate with one laptop per child.
So how did it come about?
The technology supports 2.8 million
laptops but just providing laptops is not
enough. In India, along with proving
laptops we need to provide clean food
and clean water. These are the things
that I have realised over time and what
I feel is that one laptop per child along
with focus on food and health would be
more sustainable. I think that in terms
of learning, we were not aware about it.
The way we went about doing it was at
a flying speed. So we are talking about
full scale deployment, more in South
America, one to one deployment. But
when it comes to a country like India, I
think we still need to do a lot of
focussed learning. In terms of personal
growth, I think the learning was
absolutely unparalleled. Before I started
working with one laptop per child I did
not know how software products were
developed and how they are used.

So what lessons did you essentially
draw from that experience?
I think the two lessons that are very
central are firstly, many a times we try
to do things that will create an impact.
It is imperative to understand that the
more important thing is to participate
than to create an impact. My greatest
impact was not really in reference to
deployment of laptops or not in
reference to where the project in India
would be finally deployed. We had to
cut the cost figures, I mean the cost
figures were higher. We still cannot cut
the cost figures, I mean its not 100
dollars. It was different while talking to
my seniors, juniors and batch mates at
NSIT. I think there was I able to create
much better environment than I was
able to do on this side of things. We
were able to form groups, we did a lot
of projects and we had a much bigger
community learning in terms of doing
things together. And secondly,
whenever we are doing a particular
thing we must analyse whether it is
needed or not. Like 5 or 7 years down
the line when I am doing this one
laptop per child project (it is an
excellent project) because of its
feasibility and necessity. Whenever you
wish to do something in the remotest
part, try to do it in the very region
where you have an understanding of
things and do that in a sustainable
fashion.
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|6





























more balanced approach for anyone
who wishes to do anything is to find a
sustainable salary per month because I
feel that if someone doesnt do that or
if someone doesnt find a focussed area
where they will be able to grow
personally and professionally, I think
its hard to get into a society of making
changes. So I feel that a balanced
approach is needed.

What kind of projects have you
taken with Aspiring Investments?
Again this is a very interesting question.
This, I would like to share with all the
folks of NSIT. From a company just
take one project which develops around
a platform and we developed it around
our own platform and not as a project
company. And that has helped us in not
only keeping things balanced but also in
experimenting, a lot. So we have our
own platform which can be used by
enterprises, by financial companies or
by personal users; or by a variety of
industries like hospitality, shipment or
pharmaceuticals. The platform is more
profound and more impactful than just
getting along with production
technology because its wasteful if you
dont have understanding of customer
impact.

What is your take on social
entrepreneurship?
I think that there are a lot of good
examples. I was having this
conversation with one of my juniors
what happens to be in the final year.
She was organising a parliamentary
debate or session in NSIT. What I got to
learn from her is that there were a lot
of book authors and different types of
folks from different communities
participating in debate, but that is a
different angle I would like to come

You have been using your
engineering skills for social causes
but how do you make it financially
feasible?
I think I dont give all my time to social
causes. To be honest there was a time
when I gave all my time to the social
side. I would say that we define social
side of things with an investment cause.
So, I feel that if you try doing a social
cause, you need a good understanding
of how sustainable it would be. I have
seen that if you are talking of software
part that is more of a software model in
India then you need to be aware of
competition due to piracy, because a lot
of pirated softwares are available in
India. So, I feel that in such cases a
I feel that social entrepreneurship
should be done in areas where you can
really make a difference; not just short
term but also long term.
back to that later, and then is that if we
are talking of social entrepreneurship in
India, there are people who are capable
and there are people who are able to do
things. What I feel is that social
entrepreneurship be done in areas
where you can really make a difference
not just short term but also long term.
The idea has to be productive to do
that. There would always be other
times and other opportunities for doing
that. But I feel that when we have an
understanding of time,
entrepreneurship and a clear balanced
vision of team members then it just
works. There is one more thing that I
would like to add over here. Social
entrepreneurship is the only place to
find the most devoted team. The person
who is putting all the effort and who is
taking the initiative of social
entrepreneurship, he or she must
understand that there are other team
members and there should be a more
shared vision and it should be more on
an equal basis rather than on hierarchy
basis. So, people should be more like
partners and not like folks who are
employees.

So what would you like to say to
budding entrepreneurs in NSIT to
build better teams and become
more communicative? Besides that,
what challenges should they
expect?
I feel that if you are in NSIT and if you
are in your student years then the first
thing is to really drive an experience
from college life. Also, there are many
students who are interested in doing
entrepreneurship alongside college. It is
a very productive aspect to do. It is
really productive to have a community
based environment with your friends.
There is a lot to learn from our peers
and from our teachers, through things
might be different for an
entrepreneurial initiative. But I think
the most important aspect is to deal
with folks and the second aspect is to
inculcate the basic habits of love and
devotion. I think these things are very
much needed at any given time, be it in
an entrepreneurial zone or in any other
zone.
Several students from the current
batch of NSITians have been a part
of your team at SEETA. What would
you say to those who are interested
in SEETA and any other such social
cause?
I would say that I dedicate most of my
learning to most of my juniors, and not
just my immediate junior batch but all
subsequent junior batches. I feel that
they should be doing two things. They
need to spend some time thinking
about themselves. They should not
think about promotion or job; they
should be thinking about themselves 5
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|7 8LMlnlSCL 3.0|8









































or 6 years down the line. But they need
to understand their needs, their
interests, how they feel creative and
how they feel curious. And if they are
able to understand that then they will
be able to come along with a team. And
the second is that they should inculcate
basic human behaviour of love and
devotion. I think that is very much
needed in every initiative, whether it is
profit or non-profit.

Share with us one of your most
loving, devoted and spiritually
uplifting experiences while working
on SEETA.
There was an interesting incident that I
wish to share. There was the time of
October 2010 when there was a person
with whom the project didnt work out
and what happened was that most of us
got overworked in the next 2 months. I
feel that during that period of 6 to 8
months, I was able to understand what
the driving factor was. And when SEETA
was evolving, not everyone and
everything was coming along in a way
that it should but I think when things
did work out then we were able to
understand that what should be the
basic necessities of an organisation and
what should be the basic habits in an
organisation. And I think those 6 to 8
months when we were really struggling,
we could really feel what is love, what
is devotion, what is sustainability, what
kind of vision should we have and what
we had. A lot of experiences can be
learned when you are in financial
trouble. That was a time when we were
really struggling and we did not have
any understanding of where we were
devoted and where we were
compassionate but we were really
trying to understand things and we
were able to see curiosity. It was not a
difficult time but it was a distinct time I
would say. In terms of good
A lot of experiences can be learned when you are in
financial trouble.
experiences, there was a time way back
in early 2010 when we were thinking of
a new project and I very well remember
that there were close to 50 students
form NSIT who joined us. It was very
productive and as we went doing
things, we could see what interested
students to a certain extent but we
were not able to visualise in depths
what a student may contribute. So I
think in terms of a driving experience,
the second one is what would be more
productive in terms of how an
organisation should be but in terms of
spiritual experiences, it is day to day
work. It cannot be an exclusive
experience, its every day.

Some of your best memories and
learning experiences while you
were at college.
I wont say that all the memories are
interesting. It is like every memory has
its own taste, its own smell. But if you
are talking of the best and most
cherished memory then I would say
that there have been many interactions
with my juniors and I have been
working with them throughout my
undergraduate years so I feel that that
a lot of encouragement that I got in
doing things was from them. I think my
most memorable experience would be
when we were just starting Computer
Society of India and at that time and
the response that we got from my
immediate juniors was fantastic. I was
in my third semester at that time and I
could really see that spirit of 200 new
members coming along and doing
things. And the second one that I would
like to share is that I got a lot of
guidance from my immediate seniors in
things like writing resumes and
applying for internships. There were
some of the seniors who were doing
their masters over there.

Is there anything else that you
think everybody, at NSIT, must
know?
Everyone at NSIT must know that they
are NSITians. That is the most
important thing. Surely many people
call it a school and say that we are
more studious than friendly folks of
other colleges. But what I feel is that
what everyone should remember two
things at this stage. First one is that we
must start understanding what we need
in life and what we are trying to go for.
If they are really able to understand
what they really need in life, they will
be able to take more bottom-up
decisions in life and compare to them to
decisions that might not be very much
productive in long term. We might not
get best folks but having an overall
aura of love, devotion and faith goes a
long way. People should definitely go
for their career but they should be able
to inculcate these basic elements of
human life and compassion. Its as
important in doing well. College is a
very good time in human life to develop
balance with nature, works and books.
That is just opposite of what we do,
that is we disturb the balance of our life
in college. So if a person is able to
develop/sustain this balance then we
would be able to have a balance in life.
And that is very important.

8LMlnlSCL 3.0|9
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|10































PRANAY SHARMA
Class of 2008
Pranay Sharma needs no introduction. He is the famed alum
who won the Microsoft Imagine Cup, 2010. After completing
his BE, Pranay pursued an MS at National Chiao Tung
University and has been working at Metanoia
Communications ever since. Here he shares with us the
secret behind all the prizes and patents.
To go through your profile is a
humbling experience. Dozens of
international awards, scholarships,
motorsports and what not. How did
you grab hold of all these
opportunities? How have they been
life changing?
As Steve Jobs said, "Its all about
connecting the dots. I used to be very
active in college fests. I also did many
extra projects. While pursuing these, I
made many new friends. Amongst
them, one (Ankur Verma, ECE, 2009)
introduced me to Imagine Cup.

In 2007, I went for an internship at
Gerontechnology Research Center,
Taiwan, where I was introduced to the
stunning new field of wireless sensor
networks (WSN). My experiences in
NSIT-Motorsports had given me some
exposure to automotive electronics. So
in Imagine Cup 2008, we participated
with an idea related to Intelligent
Transportation System (ITS), which was
a combination of WSN and automotive
electronics. Luckily, our team's idea
was well received and we made it to the
finals in Paris.

The exposure from that event was
enormous, both in terms of meeting
highly motivated, intelligent people and
learning about brilliant ideas from the
world over. So, in my undergraduate
life, my experience with NSIT
Motorsports, the internship in Taiwan
and reaching the Imagine Cup finals
were the key events that jumpstarted
my career. They gave me insights into
collaborative work, principles of team
and event management, large-scale
research problems, state-of-the-art
technologies as well as research topics
being investigated worldwide. Most
importantly, they made me realize that
even as a student, my work could make
some difference. I think building self-
confidence and receiving
encouragement from others at a critical
stage in one's career is half the battle
won. I am lucky to have had professors
and met people who provided me
encouragement when I needed it most.
Later, I decided to pursue this field
further, and so when I was applying for
my Masters, these projects,
recommendations from my professors
and my experience as a research
assistant at IIT played a big role.

In the first year of my post-graduate
studies, I teamed up with some Polish
colleagues and participated again in the
Imagine Cup, 2010. This new idea was
an amalgam of things that I had learnt
while doing some projects later on. By
that time I had improved upon certain
skills such as defining a problem
clearly, planning for deadlines,
identifying and meeting competition
deliverables etc.

That year we won the competition. That
was my first ever `1
st
prize in anything
and that it was at the global level was
the cherry on the cake. This was a
humbling experience. Later, I devoted
myself to the ITS project that I had first
presented at the Imagine Cup in 2008.
I had been trying to file patents with
my original team from India but that
was not successful as we did not have
good guidance or funding. I decided to
continue the work for my Masters. At
the end of two years of hard work, the
results were great. I ended up filing 2
patents and publishing good papers
related to my thesis. Further, when I
was working to implement the idea in
real life, I participated in the European
Satellite Navigation Competition in
2011 and 2012. Both these years, we
won prizes.

At each stage of these competitions, my
perspectives changed. In the beginning,
I was participating to prove that I was
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|12
. competitions became a way to gain
a bigger platform so that ideas could
be adapted and implemented in real
life by attracting funding.





























Chiao Tung University (NCTU) is the
best in CS and EE in Taiwan so I
decided to join it. I was lucky, that they
had an international program in English,
which was perfect as I did not know
Chinese at that point. Most importantly,
I was decided upon my research area
so the only thing important for me was
finding a good professor who would be
my advisor.

I believe that Taiwan is a very good
option for EE as they have many chip
fabrication and IC design houses like
TSMC, Mediatek, Realtek etc.
Furthermore, the professors in good
universities there are amongst the best
in the world (most of them are
themselves from highly ranked schools
in the US). Getting a scholarship there
is easier and one has to understand
that money is a big problem for Indian
students abroad.

However, a major issue to get used to
is the language. So anybody wishing to
go there should be ready to learn
Mandarin or have a research or study
direction already set up. Usually most
of the universities provide free
Mandarin language courses which are
very helpful. As a country, Taiwan is a
very peaceful and a beautiful place to
stay. It is very safe and, in my
experience, Taiwanese people are one
of the most honest and kind people I
have met.
good enough. Later on, the
competitions became a way to gain a
bigger platform so that ideas could be
adapted and implemented in real life by
attracting funding. I hoped my work
would make a difference someday.

Unlike most people who pick US for
their Masters, you chose Taiwan.
Why was that? What has the
experience been like?
This is a great question! Let me try and
answer it to the best of my ability.

During my days at NSIT, I had been
fortunate enough to go to Taiwan for
my summer internships. So I knew that
the education and technical industry in
Taiwan is state-of-the-art. Also, I had
decided that I would go for an MS only
if I got a scholarship. But 2008 was a
year of financial turmoil. It became
even tougher for me as I was trying to
switch departments while aiming for a
good scholarship. I was fortunate
enough to be granted one by the
Taiwanese government. So that was
one of the deciding factors for me to go
there.

Furthermore, I felt that the brand
mattered a lot and it was a better
decision to go for a top university in
any industrialized country than a lower
ranked university in US (though it
might be equally good). As National
Tell us about your work at Metanoia
Communications.
Let me first tell you a bit about
Metanoia. Metanoia Communications is
an IC design house that focuses majorly
on fixed line communications market,
including xDSL(VDSL and VDSL2),
GPON, G.hn and G.hnem.

I am a Design Engineer there, currently
working in the R&D (research and
development) team working on the
G.hn standard. It is a standard to
enable a single chip to network between
coaxial, power and telephone wiring in
a house to allow existing wires in a
house to perform high bandwidth
networking.
In the team, I am in charge of
designing the routing and topology
related features for the DLL layer. So as
a Design Engg, I
first need to study
the design that the
G.hn standard
specifies for the
systems
`interfaces. Then I
am required to
design and code
the `internals for
our embedded
system. All this has
to be done keeping
in mind things like
our embedded
systems design
and its limitations
pertaining to things
need to decide if any topology feature
needs to be migrated from software to
hardware or if some new hardware
module needs to be added to give more
efficiency to the system to work
correctly.

Other than that, I also look into things
like OS memory management and at
times other modules design decision.
You won the 1st Prize for
Envisioning 2020 category in
Microsoft Imagine Cup 2010. What
was your 'vision'? How did you get
there?
Our vision was to construct a model
viable by the year 2020 to deliver
agricultural information to poor and
uneducated farmers through a direct
and understandable way.

The model introduced cooperation
between technologies and performed
information collection (using remote
sensing), information processing (using
cloud computing), and information
delivery (via smart phones).
Agricultural data in this model will be
released by companies and
like operating system, memory,
processing power, hardware
architecture etc. Interaction with other
software components also needs to be
understood, designed and defined at
times. While doing this, I need to
choose or design new algorithms and
data structures. With regard to
programming language used, my work
is totally in C language. At times, I also
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|13









































governments to create larger open data
set for the field of agriculture. Farmers
will also collect data about their specific
environments and make it available to
agricultural companies for research and
new product development. These in
turn will enable early problem detection
and reduce the response time to
problems. Among the possible
applications, a good example would be
the analysis of satellite imagery and
delivery of exact solutions to farmers
using smartphones. With this, more
than 800 million small farm owners
would be able to improve their
agricultural practices and more people
will enjoy indirect benefits.

While preparing for the competition, the
first thing we did was identifying the
most pressing problem. The theme of
Imagine cup at that time was solving
UNs 8 Millennium Development Goals.
These provided us with a rough problem
statement. My team and I then
brainstormed and identified problems
ranging from traffic, healthcare and
agriculture. We zeroed down to
agriculture as being from India I knew
the plight of farmers back at home.
Further, we thought that cloud
computing, machine learning,
localization-based technologies
combined with good smartphone
penetration could prove to be a very
potent and practical solution by the
year 2020 for agriculture. We also
consulted a friend from Africa who was
an Agricultural Engineer. That helped us
define the problem better. After the
first stage we brain stormed again and
thought of all the ways the problem
could be solved better and how the
technologies would evolve till 2020.
After the problem and its solution were
well defined, we started to work on the
implementation of our concept with
regard to the competition requirements.

In hindsight, who are the people
and what are the experiences that
have shaped you into the person
you are today?
Again, a wonderful question! Sadly the
answer to this will take a lot more
pages. I have so many people to thank
that I've lost count.

To name a tiny subset of these people,
the greatest influence on my life has
been of my parents, my friends
(especially my best friend Ashish who
has advised me through thick and thin),
my team-members, all my teachers and
professors from school time till now.

As for experiences, I think it will have
to be what I've discussed previously.

If there was one thing you could
say to students today, what would
that be?
I would like students to always
remember and follow the famous quote
by Mark Twain: Don't let school
interfere with your education.

I believe real education is never `only
in textbooks. So let your experiences
define you and educate you instead of
caring for others' opinions and running
after standardized metrics. College is a
safe way to discover and create ones
self; so be adventurous! Experiment
with your ideas, believe in yourself,
follow your dreams unwaveringly and
stay focused.

Things never come to you in a day so
keep trying and learning. You will
eventually succeed!


Let your experiences define you and educate you
instead of caring for others' opinions and running
after standardized metrics.
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|13
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RANJAN RAO
Class of 2005
Ranjan Rao began his career as an Analyst at HSBC. He is
presently working as a Manager atAmerican Express. Read
on for his insights on higher education, finance industry,
and more.

Do tell us about your work at
American Express.
At Amex, I lead the Enterprise Wide
Risk Management team. My team
develops Credit Risk Basel models for
portfolios across the globe. In layman
terms , it drives the amount of capital
Amex allocates on its balance sheet to
see through tough times. It involves a
unique blend of business and finance
skills.

You have been a part of big
financial and banking companies.
What are the projects you have
been involved in? What were the
challenges you overcame to
contribute to the success of these
projects?
In the last eight years, I worked on
different aspects of the credit card life
cycle, right from underwriting new
products to the very end at collections.
The challenges varied across different
phases in my career. I will take two
most critical ones:
Team work: In academia, high
emphasis is given on individual
performance and competition.
However, things change considerably
when working effectively in a team
environment becomes critical to ones
long term success.
Filtering the noise of suggestions:
There is no dearth of suggestions and
suggestion givers. In the end we all
have to figure out what works best for
us. This filtering can be done with
either clarity of goals or persistent hit
and trials.

The much awaited Banking Laws
Amendment Bill was recently
approved by the Parliament. What
impact, positive or negative, will
this have on the banking sector?
Financial industry in India faces more
regulation when compared to its peers
worldwide. In my opinion it will lead to
Long overdue consolidation across
players. Now, are big banks good for
consumers or economy? Enough is
written on both sides of this topic.
Improvement in services and
infrastructure
It disappointed me with no item about
improving coverage in "bottom of
pyramid or the people not covered by
banking services.

Banking experts like Michael
Lafferty say bank scandals such as
those of HSBC and Swiss Bank UBS
in Europe just show what a mistake
it was to allow investment banks to
merge with retail banks that lend to
ordinary businesses and the public.
What are your views on this?
What we need to understand is that
fundamentally, the problem doesnt lie
in the merging of two different
operations. The problem is, or was,
two-fold:
The iBanking culture
Poor regulations and low corporate
governance
I still strongly believe that high risk-
return iBanking and stable retail
banking can complement each other. A
combination of an adequate amount of
regulation, highest standards for
corporate governance and ethics is the
best way forward.

Any move in the economy of US
severely affects the entire world. Is
this the only way? Can India
possibly shield itself from this in
the future?
Yes, but I think this will take at least
half a decade, unless there is some
significant political or economic fallout.
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|18








































Lets recall that till the 18
th
century
India and China contributed about 70%
to the world GDP. As China and India
catch up with US in terms of
demographics and economic size, this
reliance will decrease due to increased
internal consumption.

Who or what has been your
inspiration so far?
It has always been Sachin Tendulkar.
His two decades of a non-controversial
career, persistent hard work and
perseverance make me remember that
the best thing one can earn is respect.

How can a person add industry
value to himself without pursuing
higher education?
Firstly, in todays fast changing world
there is no career for anyone without
continuous education. I didnt go for a
formal degree, but didnt let that affect
my education. I pursued courses like
CFA, FRM, PRM to improve my
knowledge of Finance. These, when
complemented with regular reading,
turned out to be invaluable for me.
I would encourage everyone to pursue
certifications in his area of interest as
it not only helps one learn but also
helps build a network or professional
circle beyond work.
Stay abreast of research in the area of
interest through magazines.
Use technology to your advantage:
Google has made all information
available and allows it to chase you
rather than the other way round. Use
it.

What are your plans for the future?
Nothing on the radar immediately, but I
definitely plan to pursue some
Use technology to your advantage:
Google has made information available
and allows it to chase you rather than
the other way round. Use it.
advanced degree in Business/Finance
over the long term.

Tell us a little about how you like to
spend your free time and what
keeps you going.
I unwind myself with the latest
Bollywood music and try to catch up
with movies and cricket. I try to watch
one or two movies every weekend.

Any advice that you would like to
give to juniors?
The internet has reduced the entry
barriers for skill set. Today someone
not at NSIT also has access to the same
knowledge as someone at NSIT and
that too at the click of mouse. To do
better in such a scenario, one needs to
first perpetually learn. Remember
whatever you learn now will very likely
define your next thirty five years of
professional life. Do not ignore soft
skills like team work, communication
and presentation skills. This is one area
which is generally neglected at
graduation level. Initiatives like
mentoring from faculty/alumni can be
extremely helpful in this. Lastly, never
be hesitant to take risks or be afraid of
failure. Always remember "If we dont
try, how else will we know.

Please put your comments/
suggestions regarding the
questionnaire and/or any other
experiences that you wish to share
here.
Few experiences that I would like to
share are:
The placement days when Infosys
hired ~100 of my batchmates and it
was a great party day all around. I
vividly remember Bhatia sir running
from pillar to post to ensure that
everything worked out smoothly.
Second was the late night cricket in
BH1 till wee hours in the little light
and dense fog.
And yes, not to forget the hostel
mess. It gave us immense strength to
endure food of all types whenever we
stayed away from our homes. Many a
times, I feel like coming back to hostel
and try mess(y) food 1 once again.
There were some fun incidents during
our time like snake/python sightings
in the grass. Another one was when
one guy from our batch with a shaved
head roamed around like a ghost in
BH2 with a white bedsheet. The very
next day ghost sightings were the talk
of town.
8LMlnlSCL 3.0|19











































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MAnACL8: SanchlL Manchanda
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ASS1. Lul1C8S: Meera Mun[al, Anshul Sharma
WL8 CL8A1lCnS: nlLlsh Cundherva

Other members: Jatin Shridhar, Daksh Talwar, Shrey Bansiwal, Priyanshi Gupta
Until next time.
The Team