Meet Our Alumnus

Mr Ravish V Bhatt

Institute of Technology (Mechanical Engineering, 2004-2008)

Currently posted as Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (Assessment Unit) – 1(4), Vadodara (station: Bharuch) with additional charge of O/o Joint Commissioner of Income Tax (Verification Unit) – 1(1), Ahmedabad.

Mr Bhatt secured an All-India Rank – 318 in the first attempt in Civil Services Examination-2011 conducted by the Union Public Service Commission. Here is an extract of our conversation with him.

Ques 1) Please tell us something about yourself.

My schooling (1991 to 2004) at ‘BVB’s Narmada Vidyalaya’ at Bharuch helped me to be a culturally sensitive, sympathetic, and ambitious citizen. Mechanical Engineering at Nirma University (2004 to 2008) equipped me with the required technical and non-technical skills along with a very good network of friends. Service at L & T (July 2008 to July 2010) gave me much-needed confidence, resources and sufficient time to get mature for the final bout.

Family background: My father retired as Additional General Manager at GNFC Bharuch and I have imbibed the qualities of uprightness and sincerity from him. My mother did her masters in Sanskrit, is a homemaker and she has constantly supported me in all my endeavours.

Ques 2) Your inspiration, why you thought of joining Civil Service.

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact event when my inclination towards civil services originated but I think, when I saw dignitaries like the Managing Director/s of GNFC (where my father used to work) coming to our school for the flag hoisting ceremony, who used to be and have been conventionally an IAS officer, I was inspired by them. Dreaming and imagining myself occasionally as an efficient and efficacious civil servant had been part of my routine during school and graduation days. I used to ponder how an officer would respond to various challenges of life. But it took the hardest of my efforts to gain the confidence and resources to move towards the final stage i.e. ‘actual preparation’.

Ques 3) How did you prepare for the Civil Service Examination.

I left for Delhi on Oct 3, 2010 – on the day of the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games 2010! As suggested by some of the selected candidates, I kept my optional non-technical subjects viz.: Geography and Public Administration. The reasons to prepare from Delhi were – the availability of updated, wide-ranging and authentic materials, support of good subject experts and a dedicated, sincere, optimistic friend circle along with the competitive feeling which is imperative for sustainable preparation. 18 to 19 months of disciplined and comprehensive studies with a passion for civil services made me not only a competent aspirant and a successful candidate but a better citizen of India too.

Ques 4) Challenges you overcame during the preparation process.

According to me, two challenges which I managed well were:

Firstly, English as a medium of examination for the Civil Service Examination needed special attention as I studied in Gujarati medium during my schooling.

Secondly, leaving a well-settled lifestyle, and a good job for such a challenging examination where success rate is 0.08%.

Ques 5) What are the challenges you face as a Civil servant.

• One has to be a quick learner. The type of work we handle varies almost every fortnight and therefore, one needs to have a quick grasp of new projects.
• Acclimatize to change. In the life of a civil servant the work environment and people we work with, be it our reporting officer or our subordinates keep changing frequently. We have to adapt to all these external factors really fast by saliently observing structured and unstructured environment.
• While dealing with external persons or enforcement agencies, we have to understand the core issue in minimum time. So, being able to differentiate essential from the non-essential is important.
• Unlimited work, limited and outdated resources and pressure to produce outcome constantly surround us. Hence, it is very important to prioritize and strategize the work.

Ques 6) Message you would like to give to the youth.

• It is easy to decide between right and wrong. But it is difficult to choose between two rights. The dilemma of choosing an activity which gives instant gratification Vs delayed gratification is a matter of choice. I suggest, you go with what you really crave for in the long run and avoid short-cuts.
• Never compare yourself with others. Compete with yourself.
• Keep yourself abreast with the changing times.
• Give yourself some ‘Me Time’ away from friends, family, and gadgets to ponder how to improve as a person and what to learn from our as well as others mistakes.

Ques 7) Message for aspiring Civil servants.

As CSE (Civil Services Examination) conducted by UPSC is said to be the mother of all examinations, assiduous planning and perfect implementation of the same is the key to success. Also, it is not only a knowledge-gaining exercise but an attitude-developing, insight-developing exercise.

A person who wants to clear this examination has to move from information to knowledge to clarity to analysis to views to opinion on all relevant and important issues, for which, inquiring mind and minimum ponderance on each issue is sine qua non.

Also, one should be able to appreciate the very fact that UPSC is not searching for the correct answer but a correct candidate in most of the answers. So, the thought process and overall orientation have to be of a civil servant while preparing itself!

As depicted in the web series ‘Aspirants’, a candidate who has the highest level of patience, perseverance and dedication becomes IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS, and the list goes on.

I would like to tell three stories which any honest aspirant should remember…

• Two friends went to the jungle and saw a lion. One of them took out his NIKE shoes from his bag and started wearing them. Another friend said, “This won’t help you run faster than that lion.” He replied with a smile, “I need not run faster than lion but faster than you.”

It means, in spite of the best efforts by mankind to sideline or overturn the Darwinian concept of ‘survival of the fittest’, it is still relevant in any competitive field.

• A person wanted Salvation. So, he went to the Himalayas and met a Yogi who suggested he say a ‘Mantra’ every day without remembering a monkey! When this person started practising the mantra, the imaginary monkey used to haunt him and he never attained salvation!!!

This implies that any distraction to sincere work is a monkey, be it gossip, Facebook post or any other form of trivial entertainment. So, the tools which empower us have an ability to mistakenly kill us. We must identify monkeys in our life and try to remove or reduce them.

• An old man crossed a dense forest on a windy night with a small lantern in his hand. When he was asked by villagers how that small lantern helped him cross the forest, he replied with a smile, “This dim light of the lantern is not sufficient to see the entire path but it is more than sufficient to see the next step. Each of the steps taken in the right direction helped me
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  to cross it!” – One step at a time.

My suggestions can be summed up as follows- focus on the process, keep yourself away from the hype, trust your natural capabilities, be good and do good, and have problem-solving attitude and not the problem-creating one.

IF YOU SWEAT MORE, YOU SHINE MORE!!!

Achievements

• Mr Tarun Bothra, an alumnus of BTech Mechanical Engineering, 2015 pass out, and Co-founder of ‘Saathi’, an Indian start-up that makes biodegradable and compostable sanitary pads has been named winner of the ‘Nikkei Asia Award’ for its unique technology and potential benefit to society in Dec 2022. The start-up produces sanitary napkins from locally sourced banana and bamboo fibres.

• Mr Kothari Naman Miralbhai, an alumnus of BTech Mechanical Engineering, 2021 pass out scored 99.97 percentile in CAT 2022.

 

 

 

• Mr Aadesh Shinde, an alumnus of the 2017 batch, Institute of Law, and currently Advocate at the High Court of Madhya Pradesh won the ‘Best Delegate’ Award at the National Youth Parliament organised by the New Government Law College, Indore on Jan 3, 2023. He was felicitated by Padma Bhushan Sumitra Mahajan, former Speaker of the Lok Sabha, for providing innovative solutions on the agenda ‘Uniform Civil Code’.

 

• Mr Ravish Bhatt, alumnus of the Mechanical Engineering department, Institute of Technology, currently working in Indian Revenue Services (IRS), Income tax department, CBDT, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, was felicitated with the ‘Best Alumnus Award’ for the year 2022 by the Nirma Institute of Technology Alumni Association (NITAA) on Jan 7, 2023.

 

Alumni Association Meets

Alumni Day Celebration at Institute of Management

Institute of Management organised its Alumni Day on Oct 1-2, 2022. A total of 300 alumni participated in a host of activities like General Board meeting, Faculty Alumni Interaction, Cultural Extravaganza, Sports and other Engagement activities.

Alumni Meet of Institute of Law

Institute of Law organised its Jaipur Chapter Alumni Meet on Nov 21, 2022 at Rambagh Golf Club, Jaipur. The meet was attended by 80 alumni members across all batches along with the faculty and staff members.

Alumni Meet of Institute of Pharmacy

The Alumni Association of the Institute of Pharmacy hosted its Alumni Meet on Dec 31, 2022. A total of 70 alumni members attended the event. Dr Tejal Mehta, I/c Director, Institute of Pharmacy and President-IPNUAA delivered the annual report of the Institute, Dr Dhaivat Parikh (Vice President, IPNUAA) briefed the alumni about various activities conducted by the Alumni Association and requested their support in various activities including placement and training of BPharm and MPharm students.

Alumni Talks at Institute of Technology

• Ms Kinjal Rathod, MTech in Information and Network Security from Nirma University, currently working as Software Development Engineer 2 at Paytm gave a talk on ‘Exploring Career Paths’ on Oct 15, 2022. Ms Rathod has also contributed to finding vulnerabilities in Arogya Setu App in 2020 and received an award for the same.
• Mr Mantraraj, alumnus of Department of Computer Science and Engineering, currently working with the portfolio companies to improve their KPI matrix conducted a session on ‘Entrepreneurship’ on Oct 20, 2022.
• Mr Alark Patel, an alumnus of the Institute of Technology (class of 2012, BTech in Computer Engineering), currently Sr Technical Programme Manager, eBay conducted a session for CSE students on the topic ‘#include<Roadmap.h> – The header file to an amazing college life ahead’ on Nov 18, 2022.
• Mr Meeshant Jhaveri, an alumnus of the first batch of the Civil Engineering department, Institute of Technology, and currently Director, MJ Structural Consultants, Perth, Australia delivered an expert lecture on ‘Design of Mill Building for the Cobre Panama Project’ on Jan 19, 2023 for MTech CASAD students.

The Department of Electronics and Instrumentation, Institute of Technology organised the following expert sessions on Jan 19-20, 2023 conducted by the alumni of the department:

• Mr Niraj Shah, an Automation and Robotics Engineer, Entrepreneur, Academician, and Mentor discussed the nine pillars of Industry 4.0 and what it essentially entails.
• Mr Payank Patel, has twenty years of experience in business operations, business development, people development, and people transformation delivered an expert lecture on the development of interpersonal and professional
• Mr Deep Patel, Director at ICON Industries talked about the possible career paths and prospects after graduation.
• Mr Jaimeen Chhatrawala, Project Manager, Rockwell Automation talked about the fundamentals of IoT in business and the various emerging technologies.
• Mr Brijesh Patel, Faculty at SPIPA (Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration) provided guidance about entrance tests like the UPSC and GPSC.
• Ms Nishtha Vasa, Consultant, discussed the role of Instrumentation Engineers and the importance of the field.