Karthick is an international development professional with more than 11 years of experience in strategic consulting, data analytics, impact evaluations, and monitoring & evaluation.He has worked with government organizations as well as international agencies in countries across Asia and Africa providing technical assistance, consulting services and implemented national level evaluation projects. In his previous roles, he has worked with MicroSave Consulting, CARE India, Neuerth Group and FINO Payments Bank.
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/morchan-karthick-9a225125/
Twitter:@KarthickMP
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. It has been an exciting and memorable journey from IIFM days to where I am today. When I joined IIFM back in 2010 I had been seeking for a management degree which will also add a purpose to my life, not just the career. I had three B-School admits and I choose IIFM because I could envisage a pathway to rediscover myself as management guy who can add an environmental and socially conscious perspective to everything. And being brought up in Nilgiris, forests enticed me all my life. Hence IIFM seemed to be the perfect place for me. After doing my internship at Periyar Tiger Reserve with three of my awesome friends (Swayam, Ramanshu and Lubina), I gathered some eye-opening experience of working in the forestry sector which made me realise that this is not the career path for me.
In 2013, I got an opportunity to work with Neuerth Group, a company working on waste management in Africa. Still, in career exploration mode, I worked for a year in Angola with waste collectors, recyclers and government agencies.
In 2014 when I returned to India, I got some sense of what I want to do for the first time in my life. I joined CARE India and worked as a Monitoring & Evaluation professional with some of our amazing alumni (Indrajit Chaudhuri – PFM 2000-02, ShamikTrehan – PFM 2000-02) and my batchmate Rahul Chatterjee. I had a good grasp of Quantitative Techniques and Statistics since IIFM days and loved my job at CARE India. Post that I joined MicroSave Consulting in 2017 and implemented large scale evaluation projects across Asia and Africa working with some of our wonderful alumni (Akhand Tiwari – 2004-06, Anup Singh – 2004-06, Nitish Narain – 2007-09 and Aakash Mehrotra – 2009-11). In my current organisation, I shifted my focus from M&E to Data Analytics with the objective of leveraging the power of data to create social impact at scale.
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. One of the major learnings for me in this journey was the realisation that the underlying principles and basic concepts were similar across different domains of the development sector space. This has helped me to transition smoothly to work across sectors like financial inclusion, waste management, public health, entrepreneurship development and gender. Also, there is need to continuously learn and upskill oneself in order to deliver impactful results.
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. In my current role, I am building a new vertical at LEAD with a team of computer engineers, statisticians and social sector researchers to develop data science solutions for some of the complex development challenges we are focusing on. The best part of my current role is the autonomy I have been given in developing strategic initiatives that we truly believe in and implement them. I get the opportunity to collaborate with academicians and research organisations across the world to develop innovative data science solutions.
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. IIFM curriculum is designed in such a way that you look at a development issue with different lenses be it economic or social or environmental. This has helped me approach my work in a holistic perspective and made me comfortable around work conversations from different perspectives.
Q. Who (or what) are the biggest influences or drivers in your careers? What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles?
A. The biggest influence on my career has been my wife (Paramita Saha – PFM 2010-12) who has always been there to push me and give clarity of thought throughout my career. The biggest influence on me to make a career in the field of monitoring and evaluation were my bosses at CARE India (Indrajit Chaudhuri and Tanmay Mahapatra). They were patient enough to train me on the basic concepts of epidemiology and went that extra mile to help me grow. My advice to IIFM graduates is to keep an open mind about the career options available for you. It is perfectly okay if you are not sure about what you want to become. There is plenty of time post IIFM to figure that out and IIFM alumni are present across all sectors who can guide you just like they did me.
Q.What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. Two years at IIFM was filled with so many joyful memories.
- The awesome field visits around the country. We went to Panchmarhi during orientation and then the trip to Rajasthan, Gujarat and Goa which made so many happy memories.
- One of my proudest moments in IIFM would be captaining our batch football team and winning the Independence Day Cup in the second year. The first year was a painful 3-2 defeat to the 2009-11 batch in which we did a remarkable comeback from being 2-0 down to 2-2 conceding a goal in the dying moments of the game.
- IIFM ground has been the go to place for me everyday. So many days spent there playing football with friends, seniors, juniors, and Vanika people. Conversations around football with Darshan, Swayam, Mradul and Shubham.
- Exploring the campus in winter.
- Listening to endless life experiences of Swayam and Mradul.
- Having tea and bread under the neem tree with friends in the middle of the night.
- The S.I experience working in a Tiger Reserve with close friends. We went on so many treks inside the reserve seeing so much wildlife. We stayed in a staff quarter inside the reserve and used to hear all kinds of animal calls in the night!!
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. People I met in IIFM have become life long friends and literally family. My beautiful wife Paramita Saha is my batchmate. Swayam, Darshan, Nishant, Mradul, Shubham, Rahul, Ramanshu and Lubina are some of my close buddies from IIFM. Indrajit Sir and Shamik Sir have been instrumental in shaping my career. I owe them big time. Also had the privilege to recruit, work and make friends with some of the junior batch students. Gaurav and Shashi from 2015 batch, Pushkar from 2016 batch to name a few of them. IIFM faculty have been there for us whenever we needed them. Dharni Sir, CSR Sir, Advait Sir and Suprava Maam were my favorites.
Q. As an alumni, what’s your advice to freshers or those are joining IIFM to get best out of the 2 years there?
A. I wanted to share something that I wished I did during my time at IIFM. Stay up to date with what’s happening around you. If you have an area of interest, learn what are the latest developments in that field and talk to alumni working in that area. For someone who is not much of a reader, I found Twitter to be a great resource to gain knowledge.
Q. What is your typical day at the office? (We want to know what your day job looks like)
A. I have been mostly working from home since the birth of my little girl two years ago. I will be on meetings for 5 to 6 hours in a day (most of these could have been an email update). Spend 2 hours during the day taking care of my daughter. The actual office work gets done in the night in about 2-3 hours.
Q. And how about weekends, Hobbies, Family and anything else you want to add
A. Weekends is all about family time and football. We go out on short day trips in and around Kolkata on Saturdays. The evenings of the weekend are reserved for premier league football (Manchester United fan☹). I try to stay fit by playing turf football with my wife’s cousin and his friends who are 15 years younger to me.
Q. IIFM is driven by alumni’s passion and commitments towards its goal. How would you like to contribute to IIFM or IIFM alumni, students? Your engagement with IIFM Placement or OT/SI?
A. I will be more than happy to guide IIFM students, freshers who want to have a career in the area of monitoring and evaluation or data analytics.
Q. What do you think is different at IIFM now vs when you studied there? What do you think is a positive change and what is not?
A. I guess a lot of changes has happened in the MBA/PGDM ecosystem in recent years (opening up of new IIMs and other institutes offering PGDM in environment or development management) and we have been slow to respond to these changes and make IIFM stand out. This is based on my little understanding on what is currently happening at IIFM.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. Indrajit Chaudhuri (2000-2002), ShamikTrehan (2000-02), and Anup Singh (2004-06).