In an interesting chat with rediff.com on Thursday, former IIT-ian Sabaleel Nandy talked about his experience at the premier educational institute and also about the forthcoming Pan-IIT Global Conference 2006 to be held in Mumbai in the third week of December.
Nandy is the group executive officer, Tatas, where he is instrumental in strategising various group ventures and new initiatives.
After his graduation from IIT Kharagpur and post graduation from IIM Lucknow, Sabaleel joined the Tatas in 2001, as part of the hallowed fraternity of Tata Administrative Services.
Before joining the group executive office, this young man played a significant role in Tata Motors, across functions of sales, marketing & IT.
Transcript:
Sabaleel Nandy says, Sorry Frieds, we are a bit late to start, but lets compensate by having a fruitful chat
Sabaleel Nandy says,
Avipsa asked, How do you handle such huge success at such a young age?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, It is more a matter of how you define success. As long as success to you implies job satisfaction through newer challenges, it is easier to grasp with.
Raghav asked, Why is India bad in innovating new products?Why dont IITans take this intiative and make Brand India be heard.
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Innovation cannot really be defined as a cause-and-effect phenomena. Various inputs play a facilitating role in ensuring a country's innovation outcome. IITians have for long contributed to innovation and if innovation is for the good of mankind, it really does not matter whether innovation happens in India or elsewhere.
sampat asked, sir,i m working as s/w tester. i want to attend panIIT fest. can i eligible.
Sabaleel Nandy answers, The Pan IIT event is mainly focussing on IIT alumni.
Prabu asked, what PAN-IIT will do for an IITians? any suggestion pls?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Pan IIT organization was formed as an umbrella organization, covering alumni of all 7 IITs, with the objective of providing a platform to "give back" to the nation in some tangible way. for other details please visit our website www.paniit2006.org
rajesh asked, frankly...im disgusted at the way IITans are being glamorized...one article said they are a gods gift to mankind...im at IIMA and i dont get it sir...what the heck?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Educational institutes like the IITs and the IIMs are all dedicated to the same purpose -- to serve the nation by providing relavant and requisite talent pool. Articles such as these are more a form of overt appreciation of the contribution made by the alumni concerned and should therefore be viewed in the appropriate context.
Prasadh asked, Hi Sabaleel, I was working with Mr. Maniraman in Customer Support,WTC , TML . Seen you in close quarters. my question is - Suppose you have two reportees ; 1 IITian & 1 non IITian say BITSian -- What differences do you think both will have (in terms of effectiveness at work place) ?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Hi Prasadh. Good to hear from you after a long time. In my opinion, apart from academic pedigree, workplace performance has several other factors like diligence, hunger to succeed, prior experience, etc. that contribute. I see no reason why IITians should be unduly favoured in a workplace.
agar asked, How was your IIT experience? How did it help you shape your career?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Limitations of space and time are hurdles against giving a comprehensive reply to your question. In short, the 4 years at IIT helps a person to develop both tangible and intangible aspects of one's personality. Personally I possibly got the chance to practise principles of team-work, camaderie and humility at length at IIT.
Titus asked, On the one hand we hear that India is shining.. on the other we find that the country's best brains tend to leave it and few come back.... why so? what to do to stop this?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Brain drain is a phenomena of the past. Today more and more expats are returning back to the country. With our country offering more and more opportunities to talented minds, I see that it will not be long when "brain drain" will be an unknown term for our youngsters.
Poonam asked, I have been hearing a lot about Pan-IIT this, Pan-IIT that... could you, sir, please tell me how do IIT-ians plan to transform India?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Transforming India is not a destination to be reached in a finite time frame. It is more like a journey that needs to have a right destination and adequate quantity & quality of "marchers". Through Pan IIT 2006, IITians are trying to re-iterate their resolve to continue their journey of transformation.
nikhil asked, dont you think iit education is hyped...to the extent that it does not provide well-rounded education like some of the best in the world???
Sabaleel Nandy answers, I am not sure what reference points you have in mind. In my opinion an ideal education system should provide the requisite environment of discipline for developing desired faculties (like respective technical inputs) as well as provide necessary freedom to help mould a variety of personalities. An I think an IIT system pretty much provides for both.
indu asked, How important is innovation for entrepreneurship?Why do we lag behind in entrepreneurship?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, Entrepreneurship is customer relavant innovation encapsulated within a framework of corporate discipline. It therefore has 3 parts -- Innovation, need and corporate discipline. Innovation that does not seem to address any "need" is of no use. Similarly, innovation with a need, unless exercised within framework of corporate governance will not be sustainable. It is not that India lags behind in entrepreneurship per se. It more a case where we need to bring all the 3 elements together for greater degree of success. The Pan IIT 2006 is actually a confluence of innovators and corporate chieftains. You should get a more detailed answer to your question there.
indu asked, Engineers are now more inclined towards managerial jobs. What are the reasons for this? Is this a good trend?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, A career choice depends on what the role has to offer and its matching with the candidate's aspirations. AT some point in India's march towards industralization, India had more engineers than managers. At this point, possibly the managerial profiles sweetened themselves to attract more engineers. In future if the requirement of engineers increase, the engineering jobs will offer greater sweeteners than managerial ones. I see no reason to opine this as "healthy" or "otherwise".
Dev asked, Pardon me if I sound harsh, but glamourising a particular institute like IIT-IIM doesn't do any good.This is a kind of educational apartheid being created between the elite and non-elite institutes.Passing from one institute doesn't make someone immortal.Its the learning and output one gives back from those learnings that matters.What do you have to say bout this?
Sabaleel Nandy answers, My friend, I guess you have absorbed the wrong part the statements that you are referring to. I agree with you that mere academic background implies very little. But articles or statements that you are referring to are trying to highlight the contribution the said person would have made and his/her academic background is merely incidental.
Sabaleel Nandy says, Thanks friends. I enjoyed the session. Hope you found it useful too!
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