vishnu-era-13

ISSUE 13 OCTOBER 2016
heavy funds in R&D infrastructure like CSIR, ISRO, DAE and DRDO.
These institutions have highly specialized scientists, with focus on
emerging technologies. We have to accept the fact that it is highly
difficult for us to have R&D facilities like them. The best strategy we
may follow is to make use of these R&D organizations by linking with
them. It is not easy to have collaborations with these reputed
organizations, but once we enter into such partnerships, it will be a
huge opportunity for us. At SVES, our goal would be to have a program
plan, which is a win-win strategy for all players.
You got mentored by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at DRDO. What was
the most unique quality of him that you admired and tried to
emulate?
Dr Kalam was an excellent person with superb qualities. For him there
was no hierarchy. He was a simple and highly focused person and
always very open to criticism. The one aspect which really inspired me
was his focus towards youth development. India with highest
population of youth by 2020 can definitely aim at becoming knowledge
superpower if we keep our focus on youth education, skill and
entrepreneurship.
Dr Kalam was instrumental for my entry into academics.
After my career in Missile program I was moving out as
global head of a multinational R&D facility. At that time
there was an offer from MHRD to join as the Director of NIT. I
consulted Dr Kalam regarding this. He gave specific
direction for me to use the opportunity to head NIT and
execute strategies for transformation as a service to give
back to the society.
What would be your message to the students who
aspire to become Missile Scientists?
Anyone who aspires to be a Missile Scientist should first
aspire to become a technology leader. Missile systems
having complex subsystems and components offer exposure
to multidisciplinary technologies. These technologies have
great business potential. Missile Scientists are technology
developers, integrators and entrepreneurs. Students have
to develop knowledge, skill and business acumen to
succeed as Missile Scientists
Please brief about the project that you consider the
most challenging in your career as Missile Scientist
at DRDL.
For anybody, the biggest challenge comes during the first
ten years of one's career. As a student of IIT Madras, there
were many opportunities available for me and I was able to
secure as many as fourteen jobs. I landed in DRDL at
Hyderabad with a plan of seeing places at Hyderabad and
move over to TELCO Pune. The assignment at DRDL was so
attractive that I spent my entire career there. When I joined
DRDO in mid 70's, only six countries had missiles technology
and I was placed in a top secret project. I got initial exposure
at HAL, Koraput, Odisha where they were working on
Russian technology. Later I returned to DRDL and worked on
developing hundreds of components based on the
technology experience. This was the most challenging
period of my career.
Will we see SVES working in collaboration with
premier R&D institutes in near future?
SVES is a versatile organization with multiple institutions in various
disciplines. India has many premier government agencies (ISRO,
CSIR, DRDO, DAE) that focus on R&D. They all have heavily funded
applied research programs. These institutions have excellent
scientists and state of the art research facilities. We will get aligned
to their requirements and involve our faculty and students. Our focus
will be on networking these major organizations with SVES. In the
beginning, it would be challenging, but once started, we will move
forward.
What was your immediate response when you got the proposal
for being the director of SVES?
My work at NIT was the first phase of my journey in academics. My
focus was to transform the 50 year old government funded institution
to the current requirements of higher education with special attention
to students needs. Because of the limited number of seats in NITs and
IITs, only a few lucky students get a chance to study in these
institutions. I realized that majority of our students are in private
institutions. These students require much more attention. Institutions
like SVES are capable of taking and executing very quick decisions.
This is not possible in Government institutions. Also there is a gap
between aspirations of these students and capabilities of the faculty.
A person with very high academic qualifications need not necessarily
be a good communicator or a good teacher. So there is a need for
improving the communication and psychological connection between
students and faculty. I decided to focus on students in private
institutions and get involved in faculty development activities during
the second phase of my academic career.
Our Chairman Mr Vishnu Raju is a Distinguished Alumnus of NIT,
Trichy. He received the award from Honourable President of India for
his outstanding contribution to the society. During discussions with
him, I could sense his passion combined with sincere efforts to shape
up our students to ethical and excellent professional. Dr V S Raju, a
leading academician and past Director of IIT Delhi, spoke very high
about Mr Vishnu Raju during his visits to NIT, Trichy. Mr Vishnu Raju
impressed me with his simplicity and sincere goals. With this
background, I was happy when he offered the post of Director SVES
during our discussions. Our Vice Chairman, Mr Ravichandran is also an
“
The personal satisfaction came, when I changed my
field to academics and started focusing on students. I am on
Facebook with my students (Higher Education, India). I am
connected to about 14,000 students. I know their aspirations,
difficulties, dreams and challenges. I find immense
satisfaction in interacting with students and this keeps me
going forward in my mission.
“
alumnus of NIT, Trichy. The zeal and enthusiasm with which both of
them are putting efforts to bring the best practice available in any part
of the world to SVES during the past decade confirmed the
professionalism in management and commitment to society. Setting
up of VEDIC is an excellent initiative being executed for the first time in
the country. My mission matched with SVES goals. I took the decision
and joined SVES.
Sir, we have read that you have "networked over 400 industries
and 40 academic institutions for R&D leading ". How do you
comprehend or associate so many things?
When we consider major programs, each program costs about 3000 to
4000 crore rupees and almost 70,000 personnel are involved in such
programs. Development and production are taken care of by industry
and research part is done in academic institutions and research
laboratories. There are 20 to 30 major industries like HAL, ECIL, etc.
and 400 small scale industries. We follow a structure called project
management and program management, which gives us necessary
expertise on managing large scale programs, in terms of networking,
monitoring and maintaining these programs. The flow of information
is very fast. Networked management structure is the key factor.
Programme Management with structured information flow and timely
decisions helped me to handle the otherwise complex looking tasks.
What developments do you want to bring about in the SVES
society for the next five years?
SVES is an excellent group with multiple streams of education like
Engineering, Pharmacy, Dental, Science Courses, etc. Because of this,
we have the advantage of faculty having different skill sets and
expertise. Academic Integration could help in forming
multidisciplinary teams that work on the emerging areas of
technology. This makes us relevant in 2020. Collaboration with the
Industry and foreign universities is the key. Also, Classroom Lecture
delivery has changed over a period of time. We will use more of virtual
classrooms and the concept of flipped classroom, where in the student
go through the lecture at home or hostel and work out the assignments
and carry on activities in the class. Flipped classrooms allow teachers
to have more time to clarify the doubts of the students. At VEDIC we
are designing few studios that will help the expert faculty to prepare
the video lectures that could be used by the students
anytime, anywhere. Students can watch these lectures
even during their travel between the college and their
home. It will be more learning than teaching in future, both
for the student and teacher. We will focus more on applied
research, Innovation and entrepreneurship activities by
establishing an effective Industry – Institute
collaboration. We will also build up an useful alumni
interaction cell. VEDIC is a very good initiative to bring all
of us viz faculty, students and nonteaching staff together
to achieve our goals. I am sure with all these initiatives,
SVES can become a force to reckon with in the field of
higher education in future.
Sir, you have achieved many milestones throughout
your marvelous career .Name any one achievement
that stands out - the one which gave you immense
satisfaction.
I found professional satisfaction in my three decade long
career at DRDL. The personal satisfaction came, when I
changed my field to academics and started focusing on
students. I am on Facebook with my students (Higher
Education, India). I am connected to about 14,000
students. I know their aspirations, difficulties, dreams and
challenges. I find immense satisfaction in interacting with
students and this keeps me going forward in my mission.
What do you think of the popular opinion that hard
work isn't enough to rise up the ranks?
Hard work definitely plays a major role in one's success.
But there are other things which need to be practiced. Prior
to hard work one needs to plan properly. Once planned,
one should focus on it and carry out midcourse corrections
wherever necessary. A good team-player achieves a lot. A
lot more can be achieved working together than working
alone. It is similar to music where many instruments are
played together to create a good tune and each instrument
has pivotal role in making the song soulful.
What is your success mantra for life, any favorite
quotes and from whom did you draw inspiration from during
your formative years?
Swami Vivekananda's famous quote “Arise, awake, and stop not till
the goal is reached” continues to inspire me and is my mantra for life. I
don't have any personal quotes.
I was inspired by several people at different stages of my life. When I
was young, my parents inspired me the most. My father was mentored
by Dr Annie Besant for the education of Indians. He was an excellent
orator and an authority in English. My mother was the first lady in the
family to study in Queen Mary's college in 1930s.Both these noble
persons sacrificed their life for education and were my primary source
of inspiration. During my college days, I drew my inspiration from Prof.
Md Roshan, who was instrumental in bringing my focus towards
research and technology. Subsequent to him was Air Marshal
Narayanan and finally Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. I was highly inspired by
Dr. Kalam.
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