The Inspiring Story Of This Differently Abled Leader, Entrepreneur, Scuba Diver, 'Outstanding Student Of India' - Surashree Rahane - Best 50 - Class of 2016

Surashree has been chosen as one of the top 50 most employable candidates across B-schools and programmes in India for the Class of 2016. She has one of the best 50 profiles among the candidates who participated in the Best50 competition.   About Me I was born and brought up in a small village named Bhagur in Nasik district in a family of freedom fighter grandparents, also the birthplace of Swatantraveer Sawarkar. The qualities of courage, perseverance and self-motivation were inculcated in me since childhood. Though I am physically disabled, I was never encouraged to use it as a shield. I like to get challenged and wish to complete them on equal terms. I have won many awards in debating, anchoring, singing, elocution, an outstanding student of India, leadership and swimming in my course of learning. I secured admission in College of Engineering Pune in 2009 for B.Tech in computer science. There I was the part of the publicity team in our National Technical fest- Mindspark, was selected to be a part of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s first design innovation workshop in India and won second position in Business Bazigar event organized by the Entrepreneurship Cell of COEP. In 2011, I joined BHAU Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership (BIEL) in COEP as an ambassador and bagged “Best Ambassador” award. In the consecutive year, I was appointed as the Student Head of BIEL. During my graduation, I arranged and anchored many events which saw the presence of eminent personalities like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr. Vijay Bhatkar. I won “Leader of the Year” award in 2013 by COEP in association with Eaton. I worked with the Director of Ideapoke Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for 6 months after graduation, helping him take critical business decisions related to business development by delivering requisite facts and data analysis. I interacted, incepted and executed 3 major tie ups with officials and students from different colleges all over India and selected more than 300 student ambassadors from over 80 colleges. As a part of my work, I traveled to many places across India including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Aurangabad, Raigad and Goa for new business development and market studies. While working there, I always felt the need to understand the business aspect better. Thereafter I joined my family business in the handloom industry as the head of marketing and garnered hands on experience. I have also started my entrepreneurial journey by establishing ‘Surashree Cotton’ as an online brand. In June 2014, I secured admission in one of the top MBA colleges of India, Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi. I will be graduating in the batch of 2016 (full time) as an MBA in Marketing (major) and Strategy (minor). Our team bagged a couple of 1st prizes in national level short-film competitions. This film was very special as it was based on LGBT rights in India, a cause we all care for. I have been awarded as the National Winner for Deloitte Maverick “Be the One” competition, for extraordinary achievement in life, facing all the challenges and unleashing the maverick in me. I have completed my summer internship (2015) in PepsiCo where I headed “Crash the Pepsi IPL” digital activation. I have received a pre-placement job offer for the same. I am a people’s person and am always positive. I love interacting with others and can start a conversation with a complete stranger. This helps me in networking faster and maintaining relations, a trait highly valuable for a budding entrepreneur like me. I am also a certified SCUBA diver having completed “Discover scuba diving” course by Professional Association of Diving Instructors. My mission in life is to allow myself to learn from the experts, be one of the best resources for the industry and leverage the same for societal development. What have you done at your Post-Grad/Business School/Undergrad level that makes you stand out from the crowd? I am a Computer Engineer. Unlike many engineers in our post-grad batch, I was appointed in a managerial post by a booming Multinational startup immediately after graduation. I headed the University-Industry Connect Program and was in charge of handling the strategic and promotional activities. Later, I joined my family business of handlooms and clothing as the Marketing Head and launched the business online branding it as ‘Surashree Cotton’. Meanwhile, I also got married and featured on Band Baajaa Bride, the makeover show on NDTV GoodTimes as the 4th season finale bride where I endorsed brands like Sabyasachi, lakme absolute and Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (http://goodtimes.ndtv.com/bandbaajabride/videos/band-baajaa-bride-modern-day-ramayana-unfolds-at-the-wedding-of-surashree-anmol-315940#play). From these as well as other past experiences, I have learned a lot about management in the most practical and on ground way. These experiences helped me in quickly coping up to the curricular and extra-curricular activities in MBA. During the first couple of months at FMS, I and a group of other batchmates made a short film supporting LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights as this was one of the causes we care for.  I was playing the female lead, a lesbian character, which is considered a taboo in our society. Our film went on to win 2 national short film making competitions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0AVWwYUGkA). I have recently won the Deloitte Maverick ‘Be The One’, 2015 competition for extraordinary achievement in life. During its award ceremony, I received a standing ovation for my motivational speech from a crowd of more than 1000 people. I was the only summer intern from FMS to receive a pre-placement offer for sales and marketing in PepsiCo. I am also associated with the ‘National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People’ and work for the cause of empowerment of the disabled. What have you done in your life that you are the proudest of? I attended St. Patrick Convent High School from 1994-2007. I was scheduled for an ilizarov operation when I was in class 4th. The procedure is a time consuming activity, in my case I had to walk with the help of a walkers for 3 years after that. Knowing this beforehand, my parents insisted that I learn swimming and also enrolled me to Kathak dance class 2 years prior to my surgery. After the surgery, my doctors suggested that I skip a year when I was in class 5. However, with my self-motivation and the support of my school, family and friends, I missed just one month and saved an academic year for myself. During my school days, I bagged many awards in group singing, elocution and swimming. During my class 10th SSC board exam, my father had a severe paralysis attack and was admitted for over 4 months in a different city, where my mother had to accompany him. My ambition of securing good grades in 10th looked like a farfetched idea. But whenever I visited my dad in the hospital, he was always so positive and enquired about my singing, swimming and studies. He always smiled and motivated me with his own conduct. This led to his recovery from a stage where doctors had lost hope. I was so inspired by this that I studied hard and secured the first rank in Nashik district and second in Maharashtra for my 10th board examination in 2007. I received Dhirubhai Ambani Foundation scholarship and multiple other scholarships for the same. This incident reduced my dependence on parents and increased my responsibility towards my younger sibling. In 2008, I was contacted by Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan based on my curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities from childhood till the date, along with other merit holders from all over India. I was feeling honoured but at the same time pressurized as I was competing against the best minds in the country. I went ahead to complete the application and was honored as the “Outstanding Student of India”. I also received a scholarship. I was overwhelmed at the outcome as I relieved the most difficult moments behind my achievements when the winner was announced. That was the moment in my life I am most proud of. However, as they always say – “The best is yet to come!”. (http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=5713422682781801328&SectionId=5696588085705083254&SectionName=Education&NewsDate=20130606&NewsTitle=Mind%20over%20Matter) If you were the Prime Minister of India, what would be the one problem that you would solve. Please explain your reasons. Since childhood, we have been hearing about different political opinions from our friends, family and the society. In my personal opinion, people do exercise their freedom of speech to take a toll at politicians regarding corruption, poverty etc.; but more often than not, they do not exercise their voting rights to choose a capable leader. This leads to politicians becoming more corrupted day by day as they know victory in elections is waiting for them because the educated voter doesn’t bother to vote. If I was the Prime Minister of India, I would implement the following rule: 'Mandatory Voting for people between ages 18 to 55'. Any Indian citizen who is between 18 to 55 years of age shall be compulsorily responsible for exercising his right to vote. As soon as an adolescent reaches 18 years of age, he must apply for a Voter-ID card. Failure to do so shall be deemed punishable by the court of justice. Every adult must exercise his right to vote. Following should be kept in mind:

1. If you don't vote, you shall a have yellow mark listed on your name in the voter’s directory.
2. Three yellow marks shall lead to a red mark.
3. Red mark implies you shall be denied of all the government facilities.
4. To remove yellow/red marks, a separate clause shall be invoked.

Pros of this decision:

1. Every Indian citizen will be responsible and accountable for choosing a capable leader.
2. As the percentage of voters casting their votes increases, the current situation of caste-based voting will dramatically change and people will vote based on development factors.
3. National development will be the main motto of all the parties.
4. Reduction in Vote Bank Politics.

Cons of this decision:

1. International Residents will need a different bill.
2. Residents who have moved intra nationally will need to be involved as well in the new area.
3. Voters will make false votes just for the sake of avoiding any legal issues.

If you had unlimited money, what would be that one mobile application that you would create and what problem would it solve? Motto: Educating the rural segment of India. Latest statistics suggest that 67% of India’s current population still stays in rural India. If we educate this segment it shall lead to the whole country’s development. The reality shows that only 3% of annual global spending for education goes into technology. There is a huge gap in online education when India is taken into perspective. I would develop an app that makes banking processes, schooling, and such other services easy to understand and use. We will focus on multilingual approach as 63% of the Rural population cannot read English. The virtual lessons will be interactive and will cost very less to us as compared to recruiting a teacher to move to the remote locations. Also, it would be free.   Meet the rest of India’s 50 Most Employable Management Graduates from the Class of 2016 here