Background
Just another engineering graduate among the huge number of engineers in India. I completed my degree in Civil Engineering at JNTU-Kakinada after which I was placed in Tata Consultancy Services. I also studied in the Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta for a 2 year MBA equivalent degree. I developed a keen interest in marketing, strategy and product development. I had the opportunity to work with e-commerce giant Jumia in Kenya, Africa for 2 months in customer experience. As of now. I am working as Group Young Leader Associate with Bajaj Finserv, a financial conglomerate in India. I work with multiple financial products including retail banking, investments, insurance, payments, digital wallet, secured&unsecured loans, and mutual funds.
Interest in Not for Profit Organisations
The foundation that kindled my passion to work for the society began when I was in high school. I was a registered young National Cadet Corp and Rotarian. Under the leadership of eminent Rotarians, I learned the joy of giving and service. When I was pursuing my undergrad, I was absorbed by the community services of Lions Club. With an interest in community service and experience in leading a team towards the cause, I was entrusted with a responsibility of the oikos Chapter President of Kolkata in 2017.
What oikos taught me
oikos Kolkata posed a unique challenge to me. With the support of the previous President Bhavana Surapaneni (who instilled a lot of confidence and was very supportive), we wanted to reshape the outlook of oikos in Kolkata. For many years community services, sustainability awareness, responsible behavior- all sounded very serious tasks. Tasks that were meant for serious people, so our goal was to make it more fun.
oikos Kolkata always kickstarted the year with a quiz. For a change, we brought in a nature treasure hunt event. The event witnessed a huge crowd and we got wonderful feedback. Next came the pizza talks. Who wouldn’t come around for some free pizza? We also conducted a nature trip to Mousini Islands to raise awareness of global warming and bad agricultural practices. Then, came the 5 day sustainability week which was also attended and supported by Clementine Robert, current oikos President. oikos Kolkata welcomed 106 participants during these 5 days. It was a great success for us.
Bhavana always talked to us about the importance of the FutureLab and we made a promise to prepare especially well for the conference. To make oikos Kolkata more attractive within the oikos community and our campus, we took FutureLab’17 as a new challenge. Our core members worked meticulously, thanks to Levan Pangani and Adriana who supported us heavily, in putting this dream together. We successfully held a workshop on Artificial Intelligence and its Implications with Prof. Runa Sarkar, Dean Academics- IIM Calcutta, as the guest speaker. With a chemical engineering degree from BITS Pilani and a Masters in Environmental Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA and 5 years experience as an environmental consultant, she is now an academic in economics.
oikos instilled a lot of confidence in me and helped me develop a sense of ownership. With a great network of wonderful people, oikos is a library of endless learning.
