Students at IIMA have been gradually treading the unbeaten path by opting for unconventional internship roles. These include joining newly born startups, the Public Policy sector, NGOs and IIMA’s very own Mavericks program. Management being a field with an increasingly wide arena, students are able to pursue their aspirations of wanting to create a positive impact on the society and the country, We bring to you some of the students of 2017-2019 batch of IIM Ahmedabad, who have dared to look beyond the conventional definition of a successful career of a management graduate.

SWAPNIL CHAUHAN

Sector: Philanthropic Organisations

Organization: Tata Trusts

Internet Saathi is an initiative by Google and Tata Trusts to address the huge gender gap in the digital literacy in rural India. The advanced phase of the Internet Saathi program is Digital Livelihood (DL) in which Saathis (rural women) are provided opportunities to generate an income leveraging digital technology along with bringing value to the community at large. I was asked to validate project proposals under the Digital Entrepreneurs (DE) vertical of DL hence identify, design and propose key areas of operations for the pan-India roll-out. Having complete ownership of the project, I performed extensive research and analysis by building financial models, carrying out field visits to villages of different states of the country and deliberating with top leadership of various stakeholders like equipment manufacturers, financial institutions, implementation partners, technology vendors and training content developers.

AKANKSHA VERMA

Sector: Impact Consulting

Organization: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

I was greatly inspired by BMGF’s contributions, which are guided by the belief ‘All Lives Have Equal Value’. In India the foundation has played a key role in achieving health & social development goals, working in collaboration with the government, communities, NPOs & development organizations. As a Monitoring, Learning & Evaluation(MLE) Team Intern at BMGF, I performed extensive research and met with multiple stakeholders to review practices around Evidence-Based Accountability. My role was to devise a strategy, for identifying the synergies and overcoming the gaps that exist among the multiple internal, partner, state and central government dashboards that are being used for tracking outcomes & decision making - primarily in UP and Bihar. The internship has been valuable not only in helping me understand the issues in monitoring, outcome tracking & decision-making in the Healthcare & Social Sector but also gave me an invaluable exposure to the multiple stakeholders in the human development sector.

PRATYUSH PANDEY

Sector: Impact Consulting

Intern: Clinton Health Access Initiative

In India, CHAI has been a key impact maker in expanding the access to medical care for a variety of diseases - particularly HIV, TB & Cancer. As a part of the HIV team, I performed extensive research & analysis and worked with multiple stakeholders & experts in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to assess the strategy of National Aids Control Organization (NACO) under the Government of India's Strategic Health Mission towards eradicating HIV AIDS by 2030 (one of the Sustainable Development Goals) and recommend strategic adjustments to meet the targets across India. My project enabled me to understand the issues at the root of Health Care delivery and exposed me to high positioned stakeholders in the human development sector.

MAITREYA R.

Sector: Renewable energy and electric mobility

Intern: Mytrah Energy

I interned at the Electric mobility division of Mytrah Energy. The division was a fairly small one. My project was a futuristic one, that needed a lot of understanding initially. The people in the organisation were easily accessible and helped me out whenever possible. This was an exciting sector to work in, especially with the electric vehicle push being given by Govt. of India. I was given a fair degree of freedom on how to go about the project. I interviewed many people in the industry to obtain knowledge and collect necessary data. It was a rich experience overall, and I had numerous personal learnings. It has made me see things in a new perspective.

AKSHAYA GANESH

Sector: Public Policy

Intern: Government of Telangana

As an intern with the Industries Department in the Government of Telangana, I was assigned a series of mini projects that were diverse with respect to the nature of work, skill requirements and deliverables. I handled many projects which included ideation, content generation and design of the first edition of the Industries newsletter which was to be circulated across the state, evaluation of a PPP project, and creation of an investment pitch to attract investments in the MSME sector of the state. As a result, I was able to build my capability to handle multiple projects at a time and was even given an opportunity to interview an entrepreneur who had received the Padma Shri award for his work. I was also given complete autonomy over my projects, and therefore was able to take important decisions in a streamlined manner. It was a satisfactory experience as it provided a balance between working for a start-up like state with agile processes but with an established government organization.

PRATHEEK MENON

Sector: Entrepreneurship

Intern: IIMA Mavericks program

My Mavericks internship consisted primarily of exploring the wellness industry and trying to identify any potential for a neuro-science based wellness tracker product. Over the course of the internship, I realised that my initial assumptions of the industry and why I thought my idea could work had some fundamental flaws. This was initially a disappointing realisation as I had invested time and energy in this idea that was very close to my heart. Failure is also a great learning experience, and the skills and contacts I gained during this process will surely be useful going forward.

The Mavericks program was a time of great self-growth and introspection for me personally. Without a rigid schedule or a “boss” looking over you, it was intensely self-driven. It helps immensely that you are working on something of your own, something you have great passion for, but at the same time this feels like a great burden. The stakes in the Mavericks program are much higher because we work on a venture of our own. This is the trade-off for the increased freedom and flexibility the internship offers.

ABHIRAM NUKALAPATI

Sector: Entrepreneurship

Intern: IIMA Mavericks Program

Having worked in the US for four and a half years at Microsoft, I decided to make a transition to India and the startup world and after joining IIM Ahmedabad, the IIMA Mavericks Program gave me the perfect opportunity to do so. During the summer, I explored two ventures – one in the educational loan space and the second in the digital payments space. For someone like me who doesn’t have one fixed idea as of now to start-up with, the IIMA Mavericks Program was the ideal platform to explore the industries and ideas I had in mind. The uncertainty and hardships in the initial phases of starting a new venture were both scary and harsh, however the satisfaction and learning from executing something from ground zero more than compensated for this.