There is a famous quote by an Irish poet named William Butler Yeats which goes as follows; “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”. With varied human perspective, it can be understood in multiple ways but to me, it just reflects the true essence of education. And I believe that the two essential components required to light a fire for learning are will and skill. I believe in this technological world, an engineer needs to go beyond designing products to pricing them and putting them up in the market, selling them and fixing problems thereafter. So, here I am extremely motivated towards pursuing my MBA at Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur.

How I have made an impact –

During my college days at Manipal Institute of Technology, I was very eager to make a difference, something that goes beyond time. A place where students from different departments will work together to apply the theoretical knowledge into real-life practical products. So, I co-founded a team “Mars Rover Manipal” in September 2014. The purpose of this project (MRM) is to design, build and field a next-generation assistive Mars Rover which would perform a set of tasks as provided under the University Rover Challenge (URC) headed under the Mars Society, which is held annually at Mars Desert Research Station, Utah State, U.S.A. Every year nearly 20-30 students at MIT Manipal get into this team to prepare the rover and compete at URC event. Students get to learn technical skills as well as management skills which they find very helpful in their career. They are also getting to network with students from one of the best universities like Stanford, McGill, etc.

Why Aditya Birla Group is big in my life –

My relationship with Aditya Birla Group goes long back when I was in class 2. I was traveling by train and was crossing Aditya Birla Chemicals India Ltd. (ABCIL then known as BCCL at Garhwa Road/Rehla). That’s when I saw a big manufacturing unit for the first time and I was just mesmerized. It all started back there at that moment and my series of questions fired at my parents – what is this, what does it do, who runs it, who makes this, can I go inside, etc. I believe it sparked an engineer in me that day. After a few years, I got multiple chances to visit the plant. The best thing happened when I got to talk just for a minute with the then head of the plant Mr. P. N. Ojha. He shared some very useful insights about professional life with me. I will always be thankful to ABG for making that minute so special in my life.

While working at Jacobs for almost 2 years, in the last few months I got the opportunity to work for ABCIL for some maintenance designing work. The plant that inspired me to take on engineering and that day I was working for the same plant. It was like a dream come true for me.

Aditya Birla Group is omnipresent. Dressing the world in the most stylish fashion along with being pocket-friendly has been achieved by brands like Peter England, Louis Philippe, etc. Aditya Birla Capital has brought all kinds of financial services under one roof managing around Rs 3000 billion making it one of the largest NBFC in India. In today’s tough world where unemployment is one of the biggest problems, ABG has employed 1,20,000 people contributing largely towards uplifting the economy of the world. Vodafone Idea is the world’s second-largest telecom partner. Novelis Inc. is the leading producer of flat-rolled aluminum products and the world’s largest recycler of aluminum. Novelis recycles more than 65 billion used beverage cans each year, turning them back into new beverage cans in roughly 60 days. Recycling produces 95% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires 95% less energy than primary aluminum production. This is the need of the hour.

Thank you Aditya Birla Group for everything.

#VGSoM #IIT_Kharagpur # ABGLPWooMe

Saurabh Kumar

Aditya Birla Group - Inspiration for Life - VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur