Can you elaborate on your transition from a career in engineering and management at ITI Ltd. to academia, and how your industry experience has influenced your approach to teaching and administration?

1. I was joined as Draughtman in Transmission R & D during Jan 1979, I was creating Circuit, Mechanical Drawings for Transmission Equipment that was designed by Transmission Engineers at R & D. 
2. I was promoted as JTA in Sept 1980, as a JTO I was involved in Testing of Pentaconta Coils and spring nests for Crossbar Exchanges.
3. During 1985 I was promoted to STA, I was working as transferred to Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) Division (Digital Transmission Equipment Manufacturing Unit).
4. Under the scheme of Trainers of Trainer, I got trained at BEL for Two Weeks for Soldering Technique for Digital Equipment and trained  2,000 workmen as well as Junior Management Staff on soldering technique and prepare them for meeting PCM Equipment
5. Trained for automatic Testing of Printed Cards Assemblies (PCA) on Schlumberger – automatic Testing Machine. I worked in this section for 15 Years, for Testing, debugging of PCA Faults and directing for repairing to the workman experts.
6. Meanwhile I was teaching for an Apprentice for theoretical potions of Electrical engineering.  Taught 2,000 workmen on soldering techniques and prepared them for meeting PCM Equipment required for BSNL and Banks ATMs throughout India.
7. Testing of PCM system as a whole (named as system testing), and liaisons with BSNL-QA for PCM Equipment Testing.
8. Arranging the PCM Equipment for Environmental cyclic Test in our specialized Environment Test chamber. Also, Each PCM Equipment were subjected to Dry heat Test for 36 hours at the temperature 60 Degree C
9. Helping PCA Card Testing to identify faults through Automated Testing Machine. And I took up Volunteer retirement on 31 July 2006.

You mentioned undergoing training on the New Education Policy (NEP) and the usage of the UUCMS web portal. How do you envision these advancements shaping the future of higher education, and what role do you see yourself playing in this evolution?

UUCMS – Unified University & College Management System – Indian Government has adopted National Education Police (Karnataka State was First to adopt in 2020) and Liberalization of Education system by opening Universities, has resulted in 1200 + Universities in India today which consisting of Sector wise universities and Government Universities which includes state and Central. NEP has introduced a totally new education policy, in which 1^st standard to 5^th standard is named as Primary, from 6^th Standard to 8^th Standard as Higher Primary & 9^th Standard to 12^th Standard as High School at school level. In Undergraduate Level, policy was changed as 4 years college schooling, in which, Students after completing 1 year (Two Semester) can drop further studies due to his own problem, can rejoin the college within 6 years for next level, to maintain State government has created UUCMS web portal Student and Data To maintain database of the students Progression with his entire education journey. Student Database can be accessed by the students who have enrolled and even Employers can access students’ data for authentication.  The Training was imparted by Universities for their affiliated colleges Principals and HODs to work on UUCMS portal. The student who is seeking admission to college has to enter all the data in UUCMS portal and upload documents (PUC result sheet and student data will be automatically fetched from PUC Portal for Karnataka Students). Students can opt the colleges he intends to study further. Based on Intake and following the reservation policy he can join the college. (As per government strategic plan, by 2035, only Universities will operate and No colleges exist in higher Education). 

With your extensive experience in academic leadership, particularly as a retired principal, what are the key challenges you faced in managing a management college, and how did you address them?

During 2006, management of our college took a strategic decision to shift the college from the city to the new campus located outside Bangalore city 12 Kms away, and getting students to admit was a challenge. Local villages’ students were joined and it was a big challenge for faculties to make them understand the subjects, as they have completed their PUC in local language. Also, many of the students who are from outside Karnataka were also joined the college faced the same problem due to lack of English language. As a faculty for both Undergraduate (UG) and Postgraduate (PG) we struggled hard to make them English savvy. If fact, We introduced new thought to the students, that is like minded students six in numbers can joint together and each day one student has to converse in English and others have converse with group in their mother language, which foster the growth of English conversation skill and other languages also. This is introduced because the undergraduate and postgraduate students were in the stream of commerce, management and computer application courses. This new technique has helped them to get a better job outside their state as well as internationally.

As a principal, administrative works were involved and contacting Higher Education Department and Bangalore University for affiliation purposes. Also Engaged in Admission to Examination activities of students. Also, Students problems were attended and solved.

You’ve been actively involved in various extracurricular and voluntary activities, such as counseling at Helping Hand. How do you balance these commitments with your professional responsibilities?

I have been trained in Counseling of people of all ages. Especially the adolescent age students from Helping Hand (a Volunteer organization). The policy of Helping Hand is to, once in a week for three hours in the evening trained counselors has to come to center and counsel free for the needy who come to center. Every day between three to five counselors were present in the center helping the needy. For women and girls lady counselors were present and for men, men counselors were attended. If the counselee psychological problem is more than referred to medical attention. I was chosen on the weekend to attend the center. When I was working with M/s. ITI Ltd., After Shift hours in the evening I was attending this on every Saturday. But once I joined the college, I was counseling our own students who have adolescent students. In Total I was doing this volunteer service for last 25 Years.

Your tenure as an Assistant Engineer at M/s. ITI Ltd. involved extensive testing of Telecom PCM Equipment and liaison with BSNL QA. Can you share a particularly challenging or rewarding experience from that time and how it shaped your approach to quality assurance and troubleshooting?

PCM Equipment is Multiplexing Equipment and uses Time Division Technology, as our ear will receive the sound after 125 microsecond delay and hear sound. Technologists used this 125 microseconds delay for their advantage and came out with the multiplexing concept. In which in 32 channel PCM, 2 channel received for hand shaking and other initial setup and 30 channel used send the 30 telephones at a time using this time division multiplexing technique.

Since it is digital equipment, any digital data can be sent on this. In fact Internet and dedicated ATM machines of various Banks were connected through PCM Equipment to avoid delay in transaction and communication.

The Printed Card Assembly (PCA) used in this PCM Equipment used with 7 layer Printed Cardboard. If any track problem occurs due to manufacturing defects of the board it is very difficult to trace. It so happened that, during the mid 1990s Calcutta Telephone received our PCM Equipment, connected to various exchanges. There was a problem that, a telex message sent one particular address, instead of telexing at the routed address, it was telexing six other exchanges, which includes the routed exchange. 

There was a big commotion from BSNL Calcutta, and took back the equipment and we found that 50 PC cards manufactured by the supplier in one of the layers were short in printed tracks. Our team located this fault and repaired this card. Even our Fault locator could not locate this fault. This was a big challenge for us. We attended the fault within three days. 

Another challenge was internet usage, our equipment which was installed in different places on the Godavari river basin when Puskhar festival was taking place. Many of the missing children who were with police custody were traced back through their finger Impression that was stored under Aadhar details, traced their parents and made children reach safely to their family. Which is really thrilling for our department. We never used to compromise regarding quality of the equipment, in the entire manufacturing process.

You mentioned attending a workshop on Model Question Paper Presentation at Global Academy of Technology in 2006. How have the insights gained from this workshop influenced your approach to designing assessment materials or evaluating student performance over the years?

VTU organized the Model Question Paper Presentation, whenever there is change in syllabus or any process change. VTU will take care of questions from all the modules for term end examination, In fact each group will have questions from different modules. At the end if one looks at the Question Paper it covers the entire syllabus. In the workshop, we discussed what should be the question types for 3,7,10 marks in each group in the term end examination.  For student assessment for 30 marks, attendance, two assignments, two internal tests and conduct in the class were used to assess the students.

Reflecting on your diverse professional journey, how do you see your blend of industry experience and academic leadership shaping the future of education, particularly in areas like curriculum innovation, skill development, and industry-academia collaboration?

Since I taught for NCTVT apprentice in our training center for 8 years, and trained the employees for soldering technique on PC Assembly, my migration to teaching in higher education was easy for me to teach. I started teaching UG students first in the next semester. I was allotted even PG subjects such as Entrepreneurship and ethics, production and Operation Management, where my industry exposure helped to teach the subject by citing industry experience as examples. In fact some skill development activities were created on the subject and students were showcased the same on the floor. As for curriculum innovation, it is the university BOS (Board of Studies) that are framing the syllabus by adding new innovations that are currently used in the industries.

On a lighter note, outside of academia and professional commitments, what are some of your hobbies or interests that you indulge in during your free time?

I love to travel, I have travelled officially and personally. I used to read books related to the subjects. Since I was studying for courses (BE, DCSA, ITIODE) while working, I was busy with studies plus working. This made me strong mentally to address any problem. I was a football player during my school days. 

As someone who has guided numerous students in their projects and academic endeavors, what advice would you give to aspiring academics or young professionals looking to make an impact in their respective fields?

In my 18 Years of Experience in the education system. Very few students are interested in carrying out their internship and full length project with quality output by collecting data from the field studies. I was choosing these kinds of students to transfer my knowledge. Many students were actually, were not interested in doing project assessment etc., on their own. Even by hand holding up to some level, they were lethargic and slow in their work. Many students after completing courses and after joining work, have undergone struggle in executing the given jobs and were used to coming back and telling us about their experience and repenting for not following teachers instructions during their college days.

Since, students joined are from villages, making them understand the Management course subjects were very difficult.