Q1. Please describe yourself as a person. What are your strengths and areas of improvement (at least 3 each)? Cite situations to exemplify each.

’We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.’ I firmly believe that excellence and consistency go hand-in-hand with each other. I am a self motivated person and each achievement reinforces my belief in my abilities. This motivates me to put greater efforts to achieve higher goals. This attitude has helped me to achieve consistent excellence in academic and professional realms of my life so far. Because of my inquisitive nature, I always look forward to get holistic and insightful understanding of fundamental concepts and explore their applications in practical life. This approach helps me to generate innovative solutions to different problems which are advantageous over the traditional approaches. I have honed my team playing skills during my professional career which required me to work in coordination with different engineering teams of diverse backgrounds and functions. Team projects undertaken by me have made me realize that the net potential of a team of individuals is always greater than the sum of individual potentials. Effective leadership is vital to harness the latent potential of the team by providing the right direction and motivation to its members. Playing the role of team leader in college projects and professional responsibilities which involved working with cross-disciplinary teams has helped me to inculcate the spirit of collaborative team work and leadership. I believe that the ultimate objective of knowledge and efforts should be the betterment of the society. I am a socially sensitive person who derives pleasure in fulfilling social obligations. I have voluntarily initiated and participated in various social welfare activities during my college days and career in BHEL.

Strengths:

1. Ability to set & achieve High Goals Consistently: Zeal to excel and dedicated approach towards work are my guiding principles. This has helped me to achieve consistent academic and professional excellence. After securing the First Rank in Class 12th in the school, I decided to pursue Civil Engineering from BITS Pilani. A strong inclination towards the domain made the learning enjoyable and interesting for me. The habit of excellence that I had inculcated in the initial years of school education motivated me to achieve the same heights in the college as well. The quest for knowledge with an uncompromising zeal to achieve helped me to secure the First Rank in the Class of Civil Engineering. I was also awarded by my past employer (BHEL) for my commendable performance and contributions made to the organization during the one-year long training period. I was also appreciated for undertaking cost-saving design initiatives to save material requirements for the civil structures.

2. Innovative Thinking: Throughout the college coursework, I emphasized on conceptual clarity by understanding the underlying principles- their assumptions, implications and practical applications. This approach helped me to generate and evolve innovative ideas which enabled me to complete projects having practical significance. The project work titled ‘Cost Effective Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures’ explored the ways to minimize the structural material costs and the outcomes of the study were used by me in my job assignments as well. My efforts in this direction reduced the structural

material costs by about 10-20% for some civil designs. The project work on quantitative estimation of soil erosion, completed by me at IIRS Dehradun, conceived a novel GIS-based technique and won the Second Prize in inter-college paper presentation contest.

3. The Spirit of Collaborative Team Work: My job assignments demanded a high level of coordination with various teams and engineering groups. The civil design of any structure is carried out on the basis of requirements and specifications provided by Mechanical and Electrical engineering groups of the project team. During the design of ESP Control Building, I got an opportunity to resolve crucial engineering conflicts by working in coordination with these groups of our project team. When the entire civil design of the building was on the verge of completion, the inputs of loading values and equipment locations (which form the basis for civil design) were revised by the Electrical group. These changes necessitated remodeling and redesigning of the entire civil structure. Since, the project was running of tight timelines, and also various design details were already submitted to the project sites, it was practically impossible to redesign the entire structure. Therefore, I worked with the electrical and mechanical group to explore the changes that were acceptable to all the groups. This coordination enabled me to reach to a solution which not only incorporated the changed requirements proposed by various groups, but also had a minimum effect on civil design. I also visited the engineering subcontractor and worked with their design team to reach to a structurally safe design that did not affect the designs already issued to the project site.

4. Leadership Skills: Upon joining the organization, I was assigned the responsibility to review the structural designs proposed by engineering subcontractors, and rectify them to ensure their compliance with design specifications and system requirements. I found that although the proposed concrete designs were structurally safe, but the adopted algorithms were over-conservative, resulting in high material costs. Therefore, I took the initiative to explore and implement various techniques which could make the algorithms cost effective. My efforts in this direction reduced the structural material costs by about 10-20% for some designs. These results enabled my colleagues to truly understand and appreciate the potential of achieving material savings by following better design practices. I lead the initiative to promote the usage of these design practices by organizing interactive sessions with the team members, wherein I shared the results, techniques and the approach adopted by me. I inspired my colleagues to focus on the aspect of cost efficiency, in addition to routine emphasis on structural adequacy. The cost benefits realized as a result of this initiative are recurring in nature because of repeated use of same algorithms to design several structures.

Limitations and Areas of Improvement:

1. Tendency to Prioritize my Assignments as per my Interests: I have a strong tendency to prioritize my assignments based on my interests instead of their relative importance. Because of this tendency, I sometimes get so much engrossed in the tasks of my interest that I fail to meet the deadlines of the other important tasks assigned to me. During my college days, I focused

more on the subjects of my interest and neglected other subjects. This resulted in wide gap between the marks obtained by me in different subjects. I feel the need to adopt a balanced approach which would not only help me to achieve extraordinary results in the areas of my interest, without compromising on other not-so-interesting but important tasks.

2. Tendency to take Additional Responsibilities: I have always believed in setting high benchmarks for measuring my performance. Therefore, during my professional career I have found it difficult to refrain from undertaking additional challenges, even if they required a higher level or experience and expertise. This has sometimes resulted in over-stretching of my work schedule.

3. Inability to refuse to extend my favour when requested: I find it difficult to say ‘no’ to people when they request my support. During my job assignments, I have often devoted a lot of time in solving the problems being faced by my colleagues in their respective assignments. This sometimes leads to the overstretching of my work schedule and often leads to negligence in my own assignments.

Q.2 What is your single largest achievement so far? Why do you consider it to be your largest achievement? What is your largest defeat to date and why?

My single largest achievement so far is consistent academic excellence. After securing the First Rank in Class 12th in the school, I decided to pursue Civil Engineering from BITS Pilani. The habit of excellence that I had inculcated since the initial years of school education motivated me to achieve the same heights in the college as well. The quest for knowledge with an uncompromising zeal to achieve helped me to secure the First Rank in the Class of Civil Engineering. I consider academic record as my biggest achievement so far because these feats always motivated me to expand my horizon, set high goals and put my best efforts to realize them. Highest grades engineering subjects have not only enhanced my technical knowledge, but have also improved my analytical and reasoning skills.

The vital lessons that I learnt in my journey to academic excellence gave me the right platform to perform well in the professional career as well. I was awarded by my past employer (BHEL) for my commendable performance and contributions made to the organization during the one-year long training period. During my professional career, I was also appreciated for undertaking innovative cost-saving design initiatives to save material requirements for the civil structures.

The past academic and professional excellence also enabled me to secure admission to three IIMs- Indore, Kozhikode and Shillong It is a well known fact that admission to IIM depends on an overall assessment of aptitude, past academic and professional record, extra curricular achievements and personality traits. Also, different IIMs have different admission criteria. Therefore, getting a seat in three IIMs is a testimony to my past achievements in academic, professional and personal realms of life.

Further, a seat in prestigious IIMs, which are known for their quality education and tough entrance criteria, would provide me a unique opportunity of learning and holistic development. Discussion of business situations in the form of case studies in a highly conductive learning environment of IIM with a diverse mix of students

would help me to develop strong reasoning and analytical skills. The group activities at IIM would hone my interpersonal & leadership skills which would help me to harness the synergies of team by mobilizing them towards a common goal. I believe that the PGP of IIM would provide me the right platform to excel in professional and personal realms of life.

Since, the academic excellence has always opened new doors of opportunity for me, I consider it to be my biggest achievement so far.

Q3. What are your personal goals in life? Please elaborate in three separate categories: Short-term (2-3 years), Medium-term (5-6 years) and Long-term (ultimate objective). (WL: 1500)

Short Term Goals:

Why mba: consulting strategy eg powerplant/ real estate

Medium Term

Get an understanding of different sectors. Get an understanding of different domains- fin/ops/hr

Long Term

Overall understanding- how success is interdependent on other industries of different sectors, formulate growth plans, estimate the future

During my professional career so far, I have realized that besides technical knowledge, an insightful understanding of business environment is essential to proactively identify and harness emerging business opportunities. I have always aspired to be in a decision-making role of an organization where I will be responsible for designing strategies and taking key decisions which not only contribute to the growth of an organization, but also improve its utility to the society. Management education would provide me an exposure to various socio-economic dimensions of business problems. This would effectively supplement the analytical and problem solving skills acquired by me so far and would enable me to achieve organizational goals and fulfill social responsibilities.

SHORT TERM GOALS:

During my professional career, I realized that besides technical knowledge, an insightful understanding of business environment is essential to proactively identify and harness emerging business opportunities. I have always aspired to be in a decision-making role of an organization where I will be responsible for designing strategies and taking key decisions which not only contribute to the growth of an organization, but also improve its utility to the society. Therefore, in the short term, I wish to get myself equipped with the knowledge of the prevailing socio-economic environment, the techniques used to optimize the performance and utility of a business, the techniques used to forecast the future of the business. An exposure to these concepts would also enable me to understand the strenghths, weeknesses, opportunities and threats to any business.

Q4. What are the three most important values that guide your thoughts and actions and why? (WL: 750)

The three most important values that act as the guiding principles of my thoughts and actions are:

1. Be true to thyself: I firmly believe that self-discovery is one of the major contributors to success and satisfaction in life as it makes us aware of our potential, strengths and limitations. Every individual is gifted with a set of abilities which are unique to him/her. Therefore, it is extremely important to realize our strengths so that they can be further honed and leveraged for fruitful purposes. Similarly, knowledge of our limitations helps us to know the

areas where we need to put cautious efforts to improve ourselves. Self-assessment also helps us to set the right goals in our life. I firmly believe that a clear understanding of our goals and objectives is required to derive satisfaction and happiness in life. This is because of the fact that when our goals are be inline with our strengths, we have a higher possibility of achieving them. Further, when our goals are inline with our aspirations, the realization of these goals give a sense of satisfaction and inner joy. It also reinforces our confidence on our abilities and thus motivates us to achieve other higher goals. During my past academic and professional career, I have always tried to discover and utilize my strengths for deciding and realizing my goals.

2. Change Yourself and the World changes with You: I firmly believe that most adverse circumstances, which we believe are the result of external factors beyond our control, can be tuned in our favour once we change our own perspectives, thought process and actions. We can improve our lives through the things we can influence, rather than by simply reacting to external forces. Following this principle not only reduces my dependence on external factors which beyond my control but also helps me to bring about positive change in myself. It is the human tendency to try to mend the ways in which people act and blame the circumstances for their failures. However, it must always be remembered that these circumstances are a mere reflection of our past deeds which depend on our inner-self. Therefore, the change starts from within.

3. Due Regard to Moral Considerations and Social Obligations: I firmly believe in following the moral principles of honesty, truthfulness and empathy. Following these moral principles boosts my inner strength and helps me to stick to my commitments/ principles even in the adverse circumstances. This also helps in building a positive image in the society. Also, I believe that the way people behave with us is a mere reflection of ourselves. Therefore, if we follow the principle of empathy and helpfulness, there is a greater possibility of being treated in a similar fashion by others. In this inter-dependent world, it is very important to develop healthy personal relationships in the society. I believe that ethical and emphatic behaviour is most important way to build trust in personal relationships. I always take due consideration that my actions and thoughts should not bring about any harm to the others. I believe that being socially sensitive helps to boost our moral character as it motivates us to work for the betterment of society as a whole. This approach increases our circle of concern from mere ourselves to the entire society.

Q5. What type of assignments/tasks keep you hooked and charged and what are those that you find unexciting? (WL: 500)

During my academic and professional career so far, I have developed strong analytical reasoning and problem solving skills. Because of my inquisitive nature, I always look forward to get holistic and insightful understanding of fundamental concepts and explore their applications in practical life. This approach helps me to generate innovative solutions to different problems.

I am always fascinated by the tasks/assignments which require innovative problem solving skills because these assignments often lead to the conception of a new approach to perform a particular task which has advantages over the traditional approaches. For example, during my internship at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, my project work conceived a novel GIS based algorithm to quantitatively estimate soil erosion. This had numerous advantages over the traditional field based procedure. The GIS based technique not only saves time, manpower and cost for conducting the field surveys, but also ensures higher accuracy. Further, soil erosion values for the inaccessible regions can also be computed by GIS based technique, which could not be done by procedures based on field surveying. The algorithm developed by me is still being used by the agency to calculate soil erosion values.

I also undertook a project titled ‘Cost Optimization of Reinforced Concrete Structures’ in which I explored the various innovative design techniques which can be used to minimize the structural material costs. The outcomes of this project work were also used by me during my job assignments at BHEL. Its implementation resulted in cost saving of around 15-20% for different concrete structures. The routine design algorithms being used by the organization were modified by me to ensure cost efficiency. Since, the same design algorithms are used repetitively, the cost benefits realized are recurring in nature. This was highly appreciated by the seniors in the organization as well.

Further, during my college course work, I have especially excelled in the Open Book format of examinations. These examinations require a much higher degree of conceptual clarity, analytical and problem solving skills. Further, one of the major reasons I chose to pursue Civil Engineering was that I was always fascinated by real- world challenges and an innovative approach to solve a problem is required in all design problems of Civil Engineering. Problem solving skills, creativity along with intuition can do wonders in Civil engineering. There can be a number of solutions to a particular design problem, but arriving at the best solution in terms of the cost efficiency and usefulness is a major challenge. However, a strong knowledge of fundamentals may enable an engineer to reach the “most appropriate” solution quickly. The challenges posed to the civil engineers involve a great deal of risk (in terms of both capital investment and human resources). Exhaustive design checks are therefore required to ensure the safety of structure and there is no room for error. Therefore, accuracy, flawlessness and cost effectiveness are the major challenges to Civil engineers and no other branch of technology is as sensitive to risk and efficiency as civil engineering. I have honed my team playing skills during my professional career which required me to work in coordination with different engineering teams of diverse backgrounds and functions.

Team projects undertaken by me have made me realize that the net potential of a team of individuals is always greater than the sum of individual potentials. I have always enjoyed working on projects which required innovative thinking and collaborative team effort.

The problems and the assignments which require following a standard set of pre defined algorithm have not fascinated me as much as those which allow flexibility in the procedure being adopted. Thus, during

my job assignments, in addition to designing the structure by using routine design algorithms or using ready-to-use excel, I always tried to explore more cost effective and simpler ways of solving the same problem.

Q6. Describe an incident that has had a deep impact on you and brought about a significant change in you? (WL: 1000)

During the first year of college, one day when I was browsing a course website which was used by faculty to upload notices, course material and assignments; I came across a new link titled ‘Home Assignment No. xx’. When I downloaded and opened the document, to my surprise, I found it to be the question paper of the test that was to be held two days later. My past performance in the course was not very good and scoring well in the coming test was vital to get a good grade in the course. This tempted me to scroll the document further to read the questions, but soon I realized that while doing this might fetch me more marks but would always burden me with a feeling of guilt and shame. The relative grading system followed by the institute meant that this would also be an injustice to the deserving students who will suffer because of others’ immoral behaviour. Having thought this, I immediately closed the document, deleted it from my computer and reported the incident to the Professor over the phone. The link was soon removed and the next day, the Professor called me to his chamber and thanked me for my course of action.

The marks that I scored in the test were definitely much less than what I could have got by compromising morality, but such an unethical course of action would have put a permanent dent on my character and would have hurt me throughout the life. Besides this, the appreciation that I received from the Professor makes me feel proud till date and inspires me to always follow the path of morality. Although, I ha always believed in following ethical principles, but this incident reinforced my belief in moral values further.

After this, there have been a number of incidents- both small and big- where I have always chosen the path of honesty and truthfulness, even when compromising them seemed to give better payoffs in the foreseeable future. . Following these moral principles boosts my inner strength and helps me to stick to my commitments/ principles even in the adverse circumstances. This also helps in building a positive image in the society. Also, I believe that the way people behave with us is a mere reflection of ourselves. Therefore, if we follow the principle of empathy and helpfulness, there is a greater possibility of being treated in a similar fashion by others. In this inter-dependent world, it is very important to develop healthy personal relationships in the society. I believe that ethical and emphatic behaviour is most important way to build trust in personal relationships. I always take due consideration that my actions and thoughts should not bring about any harm to the others. I believe that being socially sensitive helps to boost our moral character as it motivates us to work for the betterment of society as a whole. This approach increases our circle of concern from mere ourselves to the entire society.

Q7. At times, many of us are caught in a situation of moral conflict, where we have to choose between two seemingly right alternatives. Describe up to two situations when you faced this conflict. How did you resolve them? (WL: 1000)

I have always been a person who has tried to maintain high ethical standards and moral integrity. I have followed the principles of honesty even in the adverse circumstances. I firmly believe that following these principles not only boosts our self esteem, but also improves our trustworthiness in the society. High self-esteem improves our confidence in own abilities, which is essential for success in life. Following these principles even in the adverse situation gives us the inner strength and the courage to keep our promises even in difficult times. The moral dilemma that was faced by me during my college days is being described in the following lines.

During the first year of college, one day when I was browsing a course website which was used by faculty to upload notices, course material and assignments; I came across a new link titled ‘Home Assignment No. xx’. When I downloaded and opened the document, to my surprise, I found it to be the question paper of the test that was to be held two days later. My past performance in the course was not very good and scoring well in the coming test was vital to get a good grade in the course. This tempted me to scroll the document further to read the questions, but soon I realized that while doing this might fetch me more marks but would always burden me with a feeling of guilt and shame. The relative grading system followed by the institute meant that this would also be an injustice to the deserving students who will suffer because of others’ immoral behaviour. Having thought this, I immediately closed the document, deleted it from my computer and reported the incident to the Professor over the phone. The link was soon removed and the next day, the Professor called me to his chamber and thanked me for my course of action.

The marks that I scored in the test were definitely much less than what I could have got by compromising morality, but such an unethical course of action would have put a permanent dent on my character and would have hurt me throughout the life. Besides this, the appreciation that I received from the Professor makes me feel proud till date and inspires me to always follow the path of morality.

Similarly, during my professional career I have encountered a situation where I committed a mistake in design procedure which was not noticed by my boss. The basic load density values used by me in the design were considerably higher than the actual values. This had lead to a highly over conservative design which had a direct impact on the material requirements & structural costs. This mistake was realized by me only when I had finished the assignment, which had taken almost a week to complete. When I noticed my mistake, for a short while I felt that since the design was still safe, the increased material costs had no direct impact on me, and the mistake was also not noticed by me boss; I should keep the mistake to myself. This would save my efforts and would also not tarnish my image in front of my colleagues. But my inner voice did not permit me to do this. Since the mistake I had committed had resulted in a huge increase in material costs to be borne by the Company, I felt that bearing the ignominy in front of my team mates and the pain of repeating the assignment was a better alterntive than concealing my mistake. I, then, conveyed it to my boss and had to redesign the entire structure. Although it required a lot of efforts from my side, but the joy and the sense of satisfaction I got was more than enough to offset the pain of hard work.

Q8. Sometimes, we may find a group of people disagreeing with our beliefs/point of view. How do you prefer to handle such a situation? Give us an instance where you had to convince a group of people on your point of view. (WL:1000)

Upon joining the workplace, I was assigned the responsibility to review the civil structural designs proposed by engineering subcontractors, and rectify them to ensure their compliance with design specifications and system requirements. I found that although the proposed concrete designs were structurally safe, but the adopted algorithms were over-conservative, resulting in high material costs. Since, the material costs were to be borne by our Company, the contractors were indifferent to the cost implications of over safe designs. Further, over usage of structural material also provided an additional margin in case the designs turn out to be unsafe because of the committed errors.

Realizing the wastage of materials and cost escalations, I undertook the task of identifying the over conservative design practices being adopted. I presented a detailed report highlighting the over conservative practices and remedial solutions. My colleagues and seniors were of the viewpoint that the adopted practices should not be tempered because they had been following it since long and were therefore time-tested. Further, following the practices suggested would require a higher degree of effort which might delay the design submissions. Further, it would also require an accurate and detailed verification of the design calculations by our colleagues as the margin of safety would now be considerably reduced. I still believed that the cost savings that would be realized were worth much mote than the involved efforts. I decided to modify the algorithms myself. I also took the initiative to explore and implement various other techniques which could make the algorithms cost effective. My efforts in this direction reduced the structural material costs by about 10-20% for some designs. I decided to convey these results to my colleagues by organizing a seminar wherein I highlighted the achieved quantum of cost savings and the miniscule efforts involved to achieve the same. I not only modified the design calculations but also explored new ways of achieving cost efficiency. Typical design algorithms for beams, slabs and staircase were modified by me.

These results enabled my colleagues to truly understand and appreciate the potential of achieving material savings by following better design practices. I lead the initiative to promote the usage of these design practices by organizing interactive sessions with the team members, wherein I shared the results, techniques and the approach adopted by me. I inspired my colleagues to focus on the aspect of cost efficiency, in addition to routine emphasis on structural adequacy. The cost benefits realized as a result of this initiative are recurring in nature because of repeated use of same algorithms to design several structures. The initiative, which was initially opposed by my colleagues, received wide acceptance once the associated benefits were clearly brought out by me.

Describe an occasion when you realized the need for change/improvement/self development. How did you respond? (WL:500)

When I joined BHEL, I was assigned the responsibility to review the structural designs proposed by engineering subcontractors, and rectify them to ensure their compliance with design specifications and system requirements. My job assignments demanded a high level of coordination with various teams and engineering groups. The civil design of any structure is carried out on the basis of requirements and specifications provided by Mechanical and Electrical groups of the project team. Often, the requirements posed by the Electrical and Mechanical groups change at a time when civil design is already on the verge of completion. The change in input requirements necessitates redesigning of the entire civil structure which leads the wastage of time and efforts put in previously. Thus, to complete any project in time effective team playing, negotiation and conflict management skills are very essential. Thus, I realized that in order to excel in professional career I not only needed to focus on my performance, but was also required to keep a close eye on the design requirements being proposed by the other engineering groups.

I soon realized the importance of effective team playing, negotiation and conflict management skills. I tried to develop strong professional relationships with my colleagues in different departments. I also tried to improve my interdisciplinary knowledge by exchanging knowledge with colleagues of different departments.

My job assignments also demanded me to interact constantly with subcontractors to ensure timely completion of various design works. The team playing skills honed by me in due course of time enabled me to coordinate with subcontractors and resolve the problems being faced by them. I was also responsible for answering the design related queries posed by the customer and incorporating the changes suggested by them. While some of the demands put up by the customer were reasonable, many were not acceptable to us. Strong interpersonal and conflict management skills helped me to politely deny the unreasonable changes suggested by them.

Q10. Describe a challenging project or a seemingly impossible task which you have undertaken. What was the outcome?

During my internship at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing Dehradun at the end of second year of graduation, the institute mainly focused on giving an overview of the general principles of GIS and remote sensing techniques. However, I was very keen to be involved in a live project of practical importance which would give me an opportunity to implement the concepts being taught to us. I did some homework on the applications of Remote Sensing and GIS. Based on my research, I examined if GIS could be used for calculating the soil erosion values for different regions. I approached my project guide, and when I conveyed my willingness to undertake this project, he conveyed his apprehensions by telling that the work required a lot of expertise on Remote Sensing, an in depth understanding of GIS concepts and the algorithms used for the calculation of soil erosion.

I decided to undertake the challenge. With a lot of efforts from my side, I was able to understand the various algorithms that were used for the quantitative estimation of soil erosion. The procedure that was being adopted so far was a field based procedure which required ground data to be obtained

through field surveys According to the conventional method, the region is divided into a finite number of smaller area and different parameters are determined separately for each area. The number of areas in which the region is divided depends on the available time and financial resources, the variability of rainfall, land use and the terrain slope. Because of constrained resources and inaccessibility of certain areas, the accuracy of the result was generally low. The method became impossible to apply to regions for which the required data could not be collected because of highly undulated and inaccessible terrain.

Realizing the shortcomings of the conventional procedure, I worked under the guidance of my project guide to conceive and implement the GIS based algorithm. I learnt about the basics of Remote sensing, decoding satellite images and acquainted myself with the working knowledge of computer based GIS platforms like ArcView and IDL 6.0 by referring different books in the library. The help rendered by the post graduate students of the institute also helped me a lot in the project work. After about 7 weeks of rigorous hard work, I was able to develop an automated technique which eliminated the use of field surveys.

The use of remote sensing and GIS based techniques provided a more feasible way to evaluate the parameters involved in the algorithms for the calculation of soil erosion. Satellite images provided valuable information regarding the terrain and the land use. Thus the various parameters involved in the algorithm were evaluated with ease and much higher accuracy.

I was highly appreciated by my guide for my dedication and problem solving skills. The developed algorithm is still being used by the agency to quantitatively estimate the soil erosion values.

Q11. If you have work experience, tell us about your work profiles, the responsibility that you handled, the projects handled by you, your roles & achievements in those projects and things where you think you could have done better. (WL:750)

Design of any power plant structure requires engineering efforts from different engineering groups like Mechanical, Electrical and Civil. The design of power plant structures is carried on the basis of requirements given by different engineering groups. As an Engineer in BHEL, I was responsible for coordinating with cross-disciplinary design teams and subcontractors to ensure timely delivery of civil designs of power plant structures. Often, the design requirements of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering groups change during the phase when structural design is in progress. While some of the input changes are avoidable, others need to be incorporated in the civil design. Incorporation of changes in loading values, equipment types and locations, change in location of vents and ducts require redesigning of the entire structure. This requires the repetition of engineering efforts and also leads to the wastage of time. Therefore, I was responsible to resolve the conflicts between different engineering groups by determining the best way which required the least alterations in the civil design. These assignments demand not only a high degree of domain knowledge but also inter disciplinary knowledge. I was highly appreciated for resolving a critical cross disciplinary conflict arising during the design of ESP Control Room. I visited the engineering subcontractor and worked with their design team to reach to a structurally safe design that did not affect the designs already issued to the project sites.

I was actively involved in review and modification of structural design algorithms adopted by engineering subcontractors. I was also responsible for providing solutions to the technical queries raised by subcontractors and customers. The experience of working on structural design tools has given me an exposure of civil engineering aspects involved in the design of thermal power plants. Working with cross-disciplinary design teams has not only enriched my inter-disciplinary knowledge, but has also honed my team-playing skills. The task of resolving design related conflicts with various design groups and manufacturing units of the organization, subcontractors and customers has enabled me to develop strong conflict management and negotiation skills.

I also played an important role in correcting the over conservative design practices followed by engineering subcontractors. Such practices unnecessarily resulted in high material costs which had to be borne by the Company. The contractors generally over designed the structures to isolate themselves from the design errors which would otherwise render the designs unsafe. The modification of the design algorithms resulted in cost savings of around 15-20% for different power plant structures. This was highly commended by the seniors.

Despite all these achievements, I feel that because of limited on-site experience, I have little knowledge about the construction practices followed on-site. A better understanding of construction practices would enable me to anticipate the practical problems that are faced during the construction phase of proposed designs. These would have enabled me to design the structures that are easy to fabricate and construct on the site. Further, an understanding of construction project management techniques would have enabled me to plan and schedule my work as per the site requirements.

Q12. In your student life or professional career so far, please cite any innovative/creative initiative taken by you, which have given you a sense so accomplishment. Briefly describe the project/situation of the problem, the approach and the outcome. In retrospect, do you think you should have handled it differently? (1000 words)

During my internship at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing Dehradun at the end of second year of graduation, the institute mainly focused on giving an overview of the general principles of GIS and remote sensing techniques. However, I was very keen to be involved in a live project of practical importance which would give me an opportunity to implement the concepts being taught to us. I did some homework on the applications of Remote Sensing and GIS. Based on my research, I examined if GIS could be used for calculating the soil erosion values for different regions. I approached my project guide, and when I conveyed my willingness to undertake this project, he conveyed his apprehensions by telling that the work required a lot of expertise on Remote Sensing, an in depth understanding of GIS concepts and the algorithms used for the calculation of soil erosion.

I decided to undertake the challenge. With a lot of efforts from my side, I was able to understand the various algorithms that were used for the quantitative estimation of soil erosion. The procedure that was being adopted so far was a field based procedure which required ground data to be obtained through field surveys According to the conventional method, the region is divided into a finite number of smaller area and different parameters are determined separately for each area. The number of areas in which the region is divided depends on the available time and financial resources, the variability of rainfall, land use and the terrain slope. Because of constrained resources and inaccessibility of certain areas, the accuracy of the result was generally low. The method became impossible to apply to regions for which the required data could not be collected because of highly undulated and inaccessible terrain.

Realizing the shortcomings of the conventional procedure, I worked under the guidance of my project guide to conceive and implement the GIS based algorithm. I learnt about the basics of Remote sensing, decoding satellite images and acquainted myself with the working knowledge of computer based GIS platforms like ArcView and IDL 6.0 by referring different books in the library. The help rendered by the post graduate students of the institute also helped me a lot in the project work. After about 7 weeks of rigorous hard work, I was able to develop an automated technique which eliminated the use of field surveys.

The use of remote sensing and GIS based techniques provided a more feasible way to evaluate the parameters involved in the algorithms for the calculation of soil erosion. Satellite images provided valuable information regarding the terrain and the land use. Thus the various parameters involved in the algorithm were evaluated with ease and much higher accuracy.

I was highly appreciated by my guide for my dedication and problem solving skills. The developed algorithm is still being used by the agency to quantitatively estimate the soil erosion values. The algorithm developed by me has further been modified by my project guide and is now being used as a standard procedure to estimate the soil erosion values. This gives me a tremendous sense of accomplishment as my efforts had opened new gateways for further improvement which has resulted in

the development of a procedure which is not only cost-effective, but also more accurate and time-efficient than the traditional approach. This algorithm has helped the institute to identify the regions of high soil erosion. Efforts were also taken to prevent erosion in such areas. Thus, I feel that I too have my contribution in the conservation of this precious natural resource.

In retrospect, I still believe that it was the best project that I could have undertaken. It not only gave me an exposure to the technical aspects of GIS and Remote Sensing, but its immense utility and its role in soil conservation gives me a sense of satisfaction till date.

Q13. Have you been a member of any social/cultural organization? (Yes/No). If yes, please detail your position and accomplishments in the organization. What was the key purpose behind your decision to be associated with this entity? What are your future plans in this regard? (WL:1000)

I have always liked to keep myself involved in social service initiatives like teaching underprivileged children and organizing tree plantation camps. During my college days, I had taken an initiative to improve the greenery at the campus by planting more trees. During my first year at BHEL, I realized the alarming gap between the learning opportunities available to the privileged in comparison to the under-privileged. The lack of learning opportunities result in

Q.14. Tell us about a time when you had difficulty with a co-worker/team-mate and how you handled the situation.

Since, my job assignments required a high degree of coordination between different engineering groups, there have been many situations where I got the opportunity to resolve the differences the involved groups. One such situation was faced by me when I was designing the Civil structure for ESP Control Room. When the design of ESP Control Room was on the verge of completion, the inputs of loading values and equipment locations (which form the basis for civil design) were revised by the Electrical project engineer. These changes necessitated remodeling and redesigning of the entire civil structure. Since, the project was running of tight timelines, and also various design details were already submitted to the project sites, it was practically impossible to redesign the entire structure. When I conveyed my apprehensions to the Electrical project engineer, he was reluctant to consider my viewpoint. He felt that the change in Electrical layout was in the Company’s interest as the proposed layout was more cost-effective than the layout which was used as the basis of Civil design. Further, the Electrical project engineer had put-in a lot of efforts to achieve cost-effectiveness in the layout pattern. I felt that the cost of delay that would have to borne because of structural redesigning would overweigh the cost benefits of the new layout. This created a conflict between the two engineering groups as each of us had a different viewpoint on the issue,

To resolve the conflict, I felt that it was better to quantitatively estimate the cost implications of each of the alternatives. I requested the Electrical project engineer to calculate the total estimated cost savings because of his new proposed layout. I calculated the cost of delay by getting the relevant information about the construction schedule, available manpower, the slack time, and the penalties associated with the delay. When, we independently worked out the cost implications for both the alternatives, it was found that the cost implications of delay would heavily outweigh the cost savings achieved by new electrical layout.

I worked with the electrical group to explore the changes that were acceptable to us. This coordination enabled me to reach to a solution which not only incorporated some of the changed requirements but also had a minimum effect on civil design. The minor design changes required as a result of this were incorporated by both of us. This coordination not only lead to design that was cost effective but also ensured timely availability of structural drawings.

Q15. Give two examples of how you have demonstrated leadership and inspired people towards achievement of certain goals.

Upon joining the workplace, I was assigned the responsibility to review the civil structural designs proposed by engineering subcontractors, and rectify them to ensure their compliance with design specifications and system requirements. I found that although the proposed concrete designs were structurally safe, but the adopted algorithms were over-conservative, resulting in high material costs. Since, the material costs were to be borne by our Company, the contractors were indifferent to the cost implications of over safe designs. Further, over usage of structural material also provided an additional margin in case the designs turn out to be unsafe because of the committed errors.

Realizing the wastage of materials and cost escalations, I undertook the task of identifying the over conservative design practices being adopted. I presented a detailed report highlighting the over conservative practices and remedial solutions. My colleagues and seniors were of the viewpoint that the adopted practices should not be tempered because they had been following it since long and were therefore time-tested. Further, following the practices suggested would require a higher degree of effort which might delay the design submissions. Further, it would also require an accurate and detailed verification of the design calculations by our colleagues as the margin of safety would now be considerably reduced. I still believed that the cost savings that would be realized were worth much mote than the involved efforts. I decided to modify the algorithms myself. I also took the initiative to explore and implement various other techniques which could make the algorithms cost effective. My efforts in this direction reduced the structural material costs by about 10-20% for some designs. I decided to convey these results to my colleagues by organizing a seminar wherein I highlighted the achieved quantum of cost savings and the miniscule efforts involved to achieve the same. I not only modified the design calculations but also explored new ways of achieving cost efficiency. Typical design algorithms for beams, slabs and staircase were modified by me.

These results enabled my colleagues to truly understand and appreciate the potential of achieving material savings by following better design practices. I lead the initiative to promote the usage of these design practices by organizing interactive sessions with the team members, wherein I shared the results, techniques and the approach adopted by me. I inspired my colleagues to focus on the aspect of cost efficiency, in addition to routine emphasis on structural adequacy. The cost benefits realized as a result of this initiative are recurring in nature because of repeated use of same algorithms to design several structures. The initiative, which was initially opposed by my colleagues, received wide acceptance once the associated benefits were clearly brought out by me.

During my college days, I have lead the initiative of planting trees to make the campus greener. I did groundwork to understand what types of trees are best suited to the prevailing climatic conditions and also have associated benefits. I conveyed my findings to my friends and inspired them to work me in the initiative. I explained them how a little efforts from our sides could make a huge difference. Initially, I could gather the support of only a few people, but as more and more students became aware of this, the initiative started becoming popular. As a group, we also organized seminars with an aim of sensitizing students about environmental concerns and our responsibilities towards it.

Q 16. Have you ever adopted a non-traditional approach to manage a project / situation or to solve a problem? Briefly describe the project / situation of the problem, the approach and the outcome.

During my internship at the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing Dehradun at the end of second year of graduation, the institute mainly focused on giving an overview of the general principles of GIS and remote sensing techniques. However, I was very keen to be involved in a live project of practical importance which would give me an opportunity to implement the concepts being taught to us. I did some homework on the applications of Remote Sensing and GIS. Based on my research, I examined if GIS could be used for calculating the soil erosion values for different regions. I approached my project guide, and when I conveyed my willingness to undertake this project, he conveyed his apprehensions by telling that the work required a lot of expertise on Remote Sensing, an in depth understanding of GIS concepts and the algorithms used for the calculation of soil erosion.

I decided to undertake the challenge. With a lot of efforts from my side, I was able to understand the various algorithms that were used for the quantitative estimation of soil erosion. The procedure that was being adopted so far was a field based procedure which required ground data to be obtained through field surveys According to the conventional method, the region is divided into a finite number of smaller area and different parameters are determined separately for each area. The number of areas in which the region is divided depends on the available time and financial resources, the variability of rainfall, land use and the terrain slope. Because of constrained resources and inaccessibility of certain areas, the accuracy of the result was generally low. The method became impossible to apply to regions for which the required data could not be collected because of highly undulated and inaccessible terrain.

Realizing the shortcomings of the conventional procedure, I worked under the guidance of my project guide to conceive and implement the GIS based algorithm. I learnt about the basics of Remote sensing, decoding satellite images and acquainted myself with the working knowledge of computer based GIS platforms like ArcView and IDL 6.0 by referring different books in the library. The help rendered by the post graduate students of the institute also helped me a lot in the project work. After about 7 weeks of rigorous hard work, I was able to develop an automated technique which eliminated the use of field surveys.

The use of remote sensing and GIS based techniques provided a more feasible way to evaluate the parameters involved in the algorithms for the calculation of soil erosion. Satellite images provided valuable information regarding the terrain and the land use. Thus the various parameters involved in the algorithm were evaluated with ease and much higher accuracy.

I was highly appreciated by my guide for my dedication and problem solving skills. The developed algorithm is still being used by the agency to quantitatively estimate the soil erosion values. The algorithm developed by me has further been modified by my project guide and is now being used as a standard procedure to estimate the soil erosion values. This gives me a tremendous sense of accomplishment as my efforts had opened new gateways for further improvement which has resulted in the development of a procedure which is not only cost-effective, but also more accurate and time-efficient than the traditional approach. This algorithm has helped the institute to identify the regions of high soil erosion. Efforts were also taken to prevent erosion in such areas. Thus, I feel that I too have my contribution in the conservation of this precious natural resource.

When I joined BHEL, I was assigned the responsibility to review the structural designs proposed by engineering subcontractors, and rectify them to ensure their compliance with design specifications and system requirements. My job assignments demanded a high level of coordination with various teams and engineering groups. The civil design of any structure is carried out on the basis of requirements and specifications provided by Mechanical and Electrical groups of the project team. Often, the requirements posed by the Electrical and Mechanical groups change at a time when civil design is already on the verge of completion. The change in input requirements necessitates redesigning of the entire civil structure which leads the wastage of time and efforts put in previously. Thus, to complete any project in time effective team playing, negotiation and conflict management skills are very essential. Thus, I realized that in order to excel in professional career I not only needed to focus on my performance, but was also required to keep a close eye on the design requirements being proposed by the other engineering groups.

I soon realized the importance of effective team playing, negotiation and conflict management skills. I tried to develop strong professional relationships with my colleagues in different departments. I also tried to improve my interdisciplinary knowledge by exchanging knowledge with colleagues of different departments.

My job assignments also demanded me to interact constantly with subcontractors to ensure timely completion of various design works. The team playing skills honed by me in due course of time enabled me to coordinate with subcontractors and resolve the problems being faced by them. I was also responsible for answering the design related queries posed by the customer and incorporating the changes suggested by them. While some of the demands put up by the customer were reasonable, many were not acceptable to us. Strong interpersonal and conflict management skills helped me to politely deny the unreasonable changes suggested by them.

In retrospect, I still believe that it was the best project that I could have undertaken. It not only gave me an exposure to the technical aspects of GIS and Remote Sensing, but its immense utility and its role in soil conservation gives me a sense of satisfaction till date.