In our list of India's Best 50 - the 50 Most Employable Students from the Class of 2021-23, we feature MBA students who have walked that extra mile and done that little more to stand out! One of those featured in today's story, Abhishek Anshu Das, has shown an incredible amount of passion to achieve his true potential. Read on and find out how his story!
The following are Abhishek Anshu Das’s set of responses to a questionnaire floated amongst MBA graduates to determine the top 50 Most Employable MBA Graduates of the Class of 2022. Amongst the massive number of entries and responses being evaluated, Abhishek's story and profile stood out. Here's his story in his own words.
Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.
When I joined Amazon in August 2018 as a Quality Specialist post-B, I wasnt interested in the usual business process. So, I couldnt perform very well for the first few months. But at the same time, my father didnt have a job, and I had to repay my education loan. So, I talked to my team lead ( or POC) to understand how I could improve my performance. My team leader made me understand I need to go through the usual business processes and go the extra mile to take leadership roles to become a team leader. Initially, it was very difficult for me to understand and give my best to the job, but I started working hard to come out of my comfort zone. I solved one problem related to last-mile delivery in Japan that saved millions of dollars for Amazon. I learned every technical and soft skill to become a team leader, and within the next three months, I became the team leader. It was the first time in my department that someone became a team leader in just five months of joining.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
After the first year of my graduation, my father lost his job and the family quarter, too, in which we lived. His job was the only source of income in my family. After he lost his job, it became challenging for us to survive. We shifted into a rented house, and expenses increased; managing our livelihood was tough for us. At that time, my family relied on me for daily expenses, but it was difficult for me because I was pursuing engineering full-time. At that time, I started taking tuition classes as much as I could. Waking up at 5 am and traveling for around 2 hours, I used to attend college daily. My college time was from 8 am to 2 pm. After college returning home around 4:30 pm, I started teaching from 5 pm till 10 pm so that I could earn some amount and will my family manage finances. Managing studies were the major problem that I was facing at that time. Continuing the same routine for around two years and performing well in my academics and teaching, I learned many things, such as never losing hope in any adverse situation & keeping working, and using time effectively and efficiently. It was a selfless act, but it helped me and my family to pass on that phase.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
It was a time when I had completed one year at Amazon, and I had an excellent performance report, and because of that, I was moving to an Internal Quality Auditing Team as a POC. So, I was the POC in my present team, and my colleague and I had a task to select one POC and train him/her so that he/she could take my place. I had a report of top performers and looked at how many times they have taken the initiative as a leader. I came up with the list with proper reasoning why they should be selected as POC. But my fellow POC and my manager wanted someone else to become POC because that person was their friend. I have tried to make them understand that this is unethical and that someone deserving should become POC, but they were very adamant about their decision. So, I prepared all the reports, made a document for all the candidates, and shared those documents with top managers and made them understand who was more deserving and better fit for becoming POC. I had several meetings with senior managers, and at last deserving one became POC.
What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative that has led you to do deep work in that field?
I can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in analytics. In my 2nd year of my MBA, I had most of the subjects in Analytics. I had prior experience in Analytics at Amazon, but I learned a lot of new skills in my MBA. I have learned the following skills over time and become a master of these skills:PythonRTableauTensorFlowSQLPower BIExcelSASMatlabApache SparkMachine LearningDeep LearningScikit-LearnApart from these technical skills, I also learned the following managerial aspects:Understanding of Business Intelligence and its importance to organizations. Overview of enabling technologies like data warehouses and data martsKnowledge of various data mining algorithmsHands-on experimentation with algorithms for data mining using open-source industry standard tools
If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?
Today, India is facing a very big problem of overpopulation. With a growing tendency of unemployment, overcrowding of infrastructure, and depletion of natural and artificial resources, overpopulation is hurting the growth of society and the nation. If I had 10 Million dollars, then I would try to solve this problem, I came of the idea of having a business that would be based on family planning solutions, and our motto would be to educate and help couples in family planning so that we can effectively deal with the problem of overpopulation. China introduced the one-child policy in 1979, which was relaxed in two stages in 2013 and 2016. In recent years, the government has worried that the country's declining working-age population will not be able to sustain economic growth or provide pensions for the elderly adequately. According to the Straits Times, China's birth rate dropped from 18.5 million in 2016 to 17.2 million in 2017. According to the report, by 2030, about a quarter of China's population will be 60 years of age or older. However, these efforts conflict with social, cultural, and economic barriers. For example, young people in urban areas prefer to postpone marriage and have no more than one child. Employers disapprove of women who plan to have a second child; this may mean downgrading or refusing to work. In addition, housing prices are rising, so larger families face higher housing costs.So the problem that can arise by implementing a population control law is "India will grow old before it becomes rich." So, what is the problem with the older population? There are three significant problems: Increase in health care costsLack of a younger workforce to keep the economy afloatOur demographic dividend, which is our strength now, will become worse So, the feasible solutions are:Boost women's empowermentIncrease access to the family planning program Using 10 Million Dollars, I will work on my business plan to increase the accessibility of the family planning program.Firstly, we will create an app "Suraksha," to track menstrual cycles. As a result of natural family planning (also known as fertility awareness), women may determine when they have a high probability of becoming pregnant. Women who desire to conceive can also benefit from this approach. Menstrual cycle data is collected by smartphone applications and processed by algorithms so that women can plan their families without leaving their houses. Using the app, women may learn more about their reproductive cycles, which might help them plan or avoid pregnancy.We will create a digital platform and add the future in our app-"Suraksha," which will help us spread awareness on preventing pregnancy. It will help young adults in India learn about safe strategies to avoid unwanted pregnancies and helps women to handle unexpected pregnancies with confidence. Will set up a health center chain throughout the country to provide sexual and reproductive health-related essential health services to the couples. Our focus would be to help our couples medically and psychologically. We will make them understand their present health and financial condition and what's best for them regarding family planning. We will create a long-term relationship with our couples. Our motto is to ensure that there is no stigma or prejudice in sexual and reproductive health choices and rights for all individuals in India. For that, in cities, we will charge minimal consultancy fees from those who can afford it but not to them we can't. In rural India, we are not concerned about getting revenue. We will advocate for enabling gender equality and empowerment for everyone, especially the poor and vulnerable, ensuring information, education, and services powered by knowledge, innovation, and technology in pursuing long-term development. We are attempting to build an army of young women who will have access to complete sexual education, and services, the ability to make choices in their life, and access to school so that they may reach their full potential.
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As per government tax payers' data and our assessment, only about 6,00,000 Indian taxpayers earn an annual 'salaried' income of INR 30 lacs or above. And only 11,00,000 Indian taxpayers earn a 'total' income of INR 30 lacs or more.
Have you ever considered how much time it would take for you to be amongst these top 0.5% earners in India?
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