Talk with students of AgFE, 2nd April '10

Following is the talk which I had with students of AgFE on 2nd April '10 during Prakriti (www.prkt.in) This of-course is not the exact version, but I have tried to do the justice. You may look at the end of the post for the messages I had for the students if you are not interested in reading the whole blog.

Talk had two parts, one my story and second on what I had to say. Please read as per your interest...

The talk –

“My name is Varun and I am 2006 batch B.Tech in Agricultural and Food Engineering (AgFE). I am here to talk about my story and talk you on what we can collectively do. I would first like to talk about my individual story to make a few points and then would like to speak about what I want to do.

MY STORY

I always wanted to do Entrepreneurship, even before getting into IIT, but had no clue on what to do or what subject to take. My father suggested me to take AgFE, based on his I idea on how Agri and Food are evergreen markets and future presents lots of scope in the food processing. Although I was getting civil and other “lower” branch, which going by “market” way I should have preferred, yet I got into AgFE.

After coming here, Profs told – “If you can’t marry the girl you love, love the girl you marry” and seniors told us to slog hard to get a department change (DepC). Everybody wanted us to leave the department. But I didn’t really pay much attention, thinking I should stick to the original discussion. After end of the first year I had a CGPA of 8.47, which made me eligible for a DepC. I would have got Industrial /Energy etc. and all my friends were pushing me to submit the form, but I didn’t. This was NOT from the conviction on the department or on Agri & Food sector, but was more of let’s see what happens (kind of childish in retrospect)

Up-to the end of second year things went “normal” and this thought of AgFE being a useless department was catching up with most of my batch-mates. Things change for two of us, me and Kaushik Malpani, in the beginning of third year when our seniors told us that in this course called “Agricultural Machinery” taken by Prof. EV Thomas one can’t get a grade better than “B” (8/10). Both of us thought this is impossible, one can always get an “Ex” (10/10) if enough effort is made. And we did that, worked hard for that course, did all assignments and could get an Ex at the end of the semester. Again in sixth sem, we got an opportunity of internship with ITC. Since then things moved very rapidly and we went out, saw scope of AgFE and were all excited. On our way back, in the train me, Malpani & Sudu were very sure that there is a huge gap and something needs to be done, and that’s where ankur was germinated. (Please refer my old blogpost on conceptualization of ankur - http://varunflyinghigh.blogspot.com/2005/09/and-ankur-was-germinated.html)

Then you all know about “ankur”. We conceptualized it, and we could conduct it. It was as tough process you guys are going through. We all went through highs and lows of planning, sponsorship, support etc. but in the end it all went well. (Please refer to my old blogpost which I wrote after completion of Ankur - http://varunflyinghigh.blogspot.com/2006/03/ho-gaya.html)

But the point I am trying to make here, it was not important what we did. The important thing was to NOT believe all the negativity which was there in the system and do what you feel like.

After graduating, I worked with ITC Limited at Guntur (in Andhra Pradesh) for three and half years with their spices business. Worked with supply chain, projects, production, quality etc. Enjoyed my work there, but this feel of doing something on my own was bugging me. In December 2008, I attended PAN IIT (Please refere http://www.paniit2008.org/) Got an opportunity to meet a lot of people and people suggested that if you are interested in Entrepreneurship, why don’t you look into the issue at the ground. Supply chain was an area of interest of mine. I started looking what are the ground level issues of supply chain, how can I make a contribution towards improving supply chain of community. Health-care looked attractive to me as an opportunity to work with healthcare supply-chain. Again started meeting a people and tried to explore what can be done. After sometime I realized that it is impossible to get ideas sitting in the office and hence decided to quit the job. After quitting the job, I planned to relocate to Lucknow (my native place) and work with my father for some time in his NGO (which works on promotion of traditional health care system) to get an idea on ground level issue.

I had I bike in Guntur, and I thought why not drive to Lucknow instead of sending it through transport. Then my father suggested that if you have decided to come on a motorcycle, then at lease go see some of the interesting projects on the way. This gave me the idea of a motorcycle journey and which developed to a five month plan when I realized this “commitment free” phase I’ll never get in my life again. I travelled across the country, drove around 10,000 km and another 10,000 km on public transport, saw 100+ social innovation projects. Few of the photos below will make summarize the effort. Find out more about my journey in my facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?v=app_2347471856&id=664895538)







Currently I am trying to reflect on the process of journey by means of making a report. This will help me to absorb the individual experiences which I had. And currently I am flexible with my future plans and not much worried about what I am really going to do.

Now, WHAT I WANT TO SAY –

Today I have come here in Kharagpur to talk to you about what really is the disconnect between the expectations and the department. I am not here to tell you to leave your job / career to undertake entrepreneurship. Just go back to the moment when we cracked JEE, there was a sense of achievement that accompanies us. We all worked hard to get there and feel great to see our roll no. on the list. Across the India students of science background studied Physics, Chemistry & Maths in class 12th and we never questioned whether Physics was better or Chemistry. But interestingly from the day we start preparing for counseling, we are told that CompSci is better than Elec, which is better than Mech. and so on. When we see everybody do that we believe it to be true.
(see more on this argument on my blog - http://journeyofvarun.blogspot.com/2010/04/response-to-iits-factory-and-copycat.html)

And then we get AgFE, about which very few people know (although it is one of the oldest department). Everyone who meets us before coming to Kgp vaguely talks about the scope in Agri and that how this is the field to be in right now, and how Food is the industry that can never slump, because everyone needs to eat, right? There are talks of government aid in Agriculture, the manpower, the social generation that is about to take over the country. And on the contrary, every IITian bhaiyya that we talk to has just one thing to say: DepC! Work hard and get into the “upper” departments. By the time we’re in Kgp, we’re positively confused whether this department is good or not! We’re nevertheless happy that we’re IITians now.

This euphoria lasts exactly two minutes; or in other words, the time it takes for us to enter the department and talk to the first professor. From day 1 our heads are crammed with the forsakenness of this department, and we start believing right from our first year, that if the profs thinks so too, it must be true. A Department that we don’t even know the ABC of, we’ve already started hating, and a paltry few are dedicated enough to move up, but most of us stay behind for good. Only to curse the department with every waking breath we take and secretly wish we hadn’t even chosen to appear for JEE. Some of we work hard to achieve some sense of semblance.

Earlier the buzz word was IT, now it is Finance because even Consultancies do not wish to take us. Another few of us might stick around and do something worthwhile in the department, but even they think they’d have achieved more if they were in another department. Stay or Go; IT, Finance or Dep; MBA or MS- PhD, students of this department have one thing in common – they hate the Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering.

Now I come to the point which I am trying to make, I am just trying to say don’t believe others of they say you are not good or what you are doing is not good. They may have their perceptions / issues / reasons but let them keep it to themselves. You guys are capable enough to find out for yourself, you have four years to do it. No hurry. And believe me this is not the problem of the AgFE but of most of the engineering branches as core sector cannot match the IT / Finance / Consultancy on salary. At the end of your four years you may still conclude that there is no point in sticking to the AgFE, but then you would not get feeling like, “If I would I have studied better, today I could have pushed for the department jobs” etc.

Again I am not trying to say leave those high paying IT / Finance jobs. I am saying even if you have interest and conviction on the dept jobs, still go ahead and join those high paying jobs to get your stability in career. But say if after 2-4 years you don’t feel like continuing with that, you’ll have options and opportunities in AgFE. And if you are still interested in IT, then work on IT tools for agriculture, innovative supply chain solutions and what not. Similiarly if you are working in finance, you can work on financing models for small scale and farming industry, work on tools for better cash flow managements. These are top of the mind examples and opportunities are endless. So I am putting stress on the fact that you people explore what are the opportunities in the sector.

Now a bit on what is different now!!!
When we were students nobody came to us and told us what can be done. Today I come here and I have spoken to my friends also about what can be done. People are positive about giving their time for things in the department and now its up to you people to do something. Issues will also be there in any system but its upon us how we handle them. Whatever happens in the department happens when people reach in fourth year and need a job. Everybody want to write to companies and hope that something magical will happen. If I run a company and you come to me suddenly one day to ask for a job I’ll say who are you? And then you’ll tell all the stories about the department, about which you yourself are not convinced, and I’ll ask you to get lost “politely”. Then you’ll say lets change the curriculum, to suit the industry requirement. But is setting a curriculum that random process? What about people who want to pursue research, what about people who want to entrepreneurship? Why course should be modified to cater to industry?
My point is things don’t happen in such random way. So I request you to get together and do something, we are there to help you.

What can be done !!!
The mechanism we propose is as follows: We propose to form different awareness groups in the department under an independent body or under AES as central body. The groups will be one for each of the following:
1. Students interested in further studies (MBA and MS-PhD groups can be subdivided)
2. Students interested in getting a job
3. Students interested in entrepreneurship
Each of this group will involve students and concerned alumni in the said field. There should be in place a mentorship program that would involve juniors getting the proper guidance from seniors, and the seniors in turn looking to interact with the outside world through their alumni mentors. These groups will be under the purview of a higher group (either AES or independent body) that directs the communications and policies of these groups while administering the proper guidelines. Each student can be a part of any number of these groups, or not at all! Professors may get involved as volunteers.

Each of these group will work as team to identify development, issues, opportunities in each of these areas and will identify gaps in the departments which needs to be worked upon. It is always easy to make radical statements like change the curriculum, change the system but I strongly believe that is not the answers. Each of these groups will work towards analyzing the issues and come up with well thought, discussed and very specific recommendations. I am sure nobody will say no to this, and alumni will work with the department to see these ideas are implemented. We’ll call industry experts / Research experts / Entrepreneurs throughout the years (and not only in final year when we want jobs!! ) and then work constructively towards improvement. This process will create opportunities for internship, projects which will give good insights to students regarding the actual scope of the department.

Here I would like to make a point – “I would be most happy if you people don’t follow the model I proposed. It’ll be better if you can come up with a model of your own”. What I am trying to say, this is not the only way of doing things. Important is to do something.

Why I am here today !!!

Before closing I want to tell you that why I came here today. Lot of people may think, this is department sentiments or old Ankur sentiments which brought me here. But I would like to ask a question – “If some of you start a venture tomorrow, who is likely to join you?” I am sure apart from your friend and family nobody would like to take a risk in the new venture. People who either believe in the idea or believe in you only will join. Now think that if you want to get real good talented people, from where you can get them? It’s the rapport you build in the department, which will help you to get more of your juniors to join you !! So I have come here today to talk to you all thinking some of you can join me / work together in future. Also it gives me more opportunity to get small projects done in the department is students wish to get associated with me. And this is what seniors will gain by engaging with you all.
I would also like to clarify this is not an ad-hoc response to Prakriti for me to visit the campus. Me and Suvrat bafna already started working on how to engage with the department, even before getting any news of Prakriti. We created a Facebook community call “IIT KGP AgFE Students' Union” for working with students. We called this a “Union” because we strongly believe that things can be improved only by coming together. So this visit was always on the card. Prakriti provides a good opportunity, and hence I am here today.

This concludes on what I wanted to say, I’ll just quickly summarize what I wanted to say.

Summary

1. You need not play all the smart moves in life and need not be lucky all the time, but things will fall in place if you believe “I Can”.
2. Never believe anybody, try out yourself. Nothing is Impossible.
3. AgFE has tremendous opportunity, its for you to find out.
4. You need not sacrifice your lucrative career options of IT /Finance. What I am asking you is to keep your eyes open for the opportunities in AgFE sector. If anytime you want to do something different, you’ll have opportunity. You may actually find opportunities where you can use your experience in IT / Finance in AgFE.
5. All you need to do is come together and actively do something, as seniors we are ready to help you. Engage with Research groups, Industry, Entrepreneurs on regular basis. Doesn’t matter what you do and how you do it.
6. There is my personal benefit also to come here to get good future work partners and resources to get the small projects done.

That’s it from my side. I’ll be happy to take questions.