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 entered IIT Gandhinagar and started playing chess, there were hardly any initiatives to develop a formal chess club at the campus. There was no proper recognition of the game, no resources for the players to train or play, no particular domain email ID for communication, and no designated venue to meet, train, or conduct events mainly because of no significant achievement or enthusiasm towards the game. Along with one of my batchmates, I kept persuading authorities to establish a chess club. College authorities were not responsive enough even after approaching significantly, but we didn't give in and decided to pursue our passion with all our hearts. We regularly participated in intercollege tournaments and started performing well at state and national level events. We started gaining attention. Then we procured a few chess boards by ourselves and started conducting open-air contests at places like in front of the mess, hostel, and academic areas. We created our first-ever chess club (informal) page on Facebook and devised social media strategies to increase reach and engagement. Eventually, the participants started to shoot up, and our college recognized our efforts, provided us with club recognition, domain email ID, a fund of INR 20,000, and a separate room for practice and conducting tournaments. I felt this was a considerable achievement, establishing a club at IIT Gandhinagar from scratch.
When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.
Within two months at Tata Motors, I received my first project to test the prototype of the RHD bus developed for the Middle-East Asian regions. It was an entirely new concept, and my manager trusted me with it, becoming one of the fastest among 250+ GETs at Tata Motors to execute a project single-handedly. I managed several teams, including the mechanical shop, instrumentation lab, and test track department, to successfully test the vehicle and publish one of the most detailed vehicle test reports recommending several design improvements. I further worked with the design team for several months to rectify the issues discovered and received appreciation from the entire team for my work.
Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?
When I started working with Nikita Metachem, Raipur, I observed that few of the equipment installed was pretty worn out and could fail anytime. Failure would obviously lead to delay in production and failing to meet targets but it could also be critical towards the safety of labourers. I suggested management to replace them as soon as possible. But since replacing them would require a long time and plant shutdown, therefore management was reluctant to do it as production and delivery targets were also to be met. Nonetheless, I persisted and chalked out a solution to address sudden breakdown. I ensured the availability of spare parts of critical equipment and provide necessary training to manpower in the plant, making sure they know how to install them quickly in case of a breakdown so that important operations could continue without major lapses.
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 which has led you to do deep work in that field?
From early childhood, I have always been fascinated with the Maths subject. I represented my state in the National Maths Olympiad and even got honoured by the CBSE chairman to score perfect marks on the subject. Four years back, I got interested in finance, especially fixed income and derivates, involving higher-level mathematical theories. At IIM Lucknow, I scored high on Quant-based and finance subjects. I was also invited to take PGP 1 classes on the subject this year, where I took Maths sessions for more than 180 students (Among 12 students from a batch of 450+). I was also awarded a merit certificate in all the terms at IIM Lucknow.
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?
Being a person who is too accountable with money, I have few plans with that amount of money. I will divide the corpus into two significant funds: 70% in Fund A ($7 million) - society fund and 30% in Fund B ($3 million) - investment fund. I have always believed in giving back to society in whatever way I can. During my work experience at Nikita Meta Chem, I took the initiative to set up a club with the sole purpose of helping the needy people around the campus area. The most significant way to blur the lines between the privileged and underprivileged in our society is to start impacting them on the foundation level - education - so that steadily, one day, people can be self-sufficient and start contributing to the nation. Provided there aren't many quality education opportunities for the backward part of our society, I would use Fund A to create a healthy educative atmosphere for the children who are deprived of quality education in their early stages and a professional training setup for people in need. This way, I can indirectly impact people's lives by improving their living standards and contributing to the nation's economy as well! Being a finance guy, it seems wise to set up Fund B solely for investment purposes to continue generating income. Of the corpus, I will invest 30% of the fund ($0.9 million) in real estate to gain price appreciation over time and stable rental income and invest 20% ($0.6 million) in fixed income securities and metal ETFs. Rest 50% ($1.5 million) of the Fund I will invest in equity securities. Out of this, one-third of the part ($0.5 million) will go into companies with solid fundamentals; the rest will be divided equally between small-cap, mid-cap, and large-cap securities. The above plan will ensure I keep generating funds to further invest in the betterment of society and contribution to the nation in general.
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