Akshat Nagar, (PFM 2010-12) is currently working with Ernst & Young as a Senior Consultant in Government & Public Sector practice based out of beautiful city of Guwahati surrounded with lots of IIFM’ites. He is a management professional with over 10 years of experience in forestry, agriculture, livelihood, sustainability, and climate change. He is part of very interesting projects, working closely with the forest department supporting them in managing and monitoring externally aided projects.
He loves tracking deep inside the lesser-known forest and his passion is photography, but the object keeps on changing from large mammals, birds, landscape among others. He is currently shooting small creatures like butterflies, damselflies, insects, frogs, and spider.
Q. How has been your journey from IIFM to this role?
A. I joined IIFM with a motive to crack IFS (Indian Forest Service), but that got lost somewhere in between the two very interesting years. My IIFM journey started with internship at the ITC. ITC was struggling to get the sustainability- FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certificate. I along with the support of Prof. Manmohan Yadav and Prof. Yogesh Dubey helped ITC to get the sustainability certifications that helped them in expanding their business in Europe and United States, In return I got a Pre-Placement Offer (PPO)!!
At ITC, I learned and engaged in various areas and also got a chance to implement core forestry operation like nursery management, farm forestry, social forestry & plantation harvesting. And then some niche areas like moisture content in the wood and how it impacts the financials. I also got opportunity to lead the sustainability initiatives of ITC and worked in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
After working for five years with ITC, I moved to Orient paper Mills. AT OPM there was a time I was heading three department Raw Material Development (RMD), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environment. I would like to thank Deepak Khare Sir(1st batch of IIFM) who gave me this wonderful opportunity to lead the department even though I was very young with limited experience. At OPM my biggest learning was how extreme pressure situations bring out your best apart from ‘right’ timing in decision making which can be a game changer.
After working for three years with OPM, I joined Ernst & Young (EY). Initially it was a bit tough for me to understand the consulting world, but again some of the seniors from IIFM (Amit Bajaj Sir, Probal Sir, Devanshu Sir, Dhruba Sir, Ratul Da) came to my rescue and helped me learning the nuances of consultancy apart from making me understand the importance of going in to the minute details. Currently, I am working with the senior IFS officers supporting them in monitoring and management of forestry related activities. The journey that started with dream of becoming an IFS officer is currently at a stage where I am rubbing shoulders with senior forest officers and being involved in planning and implementing important central and state schemes. So basically I am living my dream and I have enjoyed each and every moment of this journey, Thanks to IIFM !!
Q. What were some of the key milestones/learning in this journey that you would like to share with us?
A. Won Chairman Award from Late Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar, former chairman of ITC Limited for the work done in Agroforestry
Got many accolades in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) while working as Head CSR Orient Paper Mills
Got EY “ I am exceptional” award twice in two years
Q. What is the most satisfying part of your current role?
A. My current role gives me ample opportunity to contribute to the nature, conserving wildlife and enhancing livelihood of the forest fringe communities. It’s really satisfying to work on shaping the policies related to environment and forestry. Also, I like to travel, and in my current role, I have to travel to various sites for monitoring and evaluation. Business development is also a core activity of the profile and best part is you learn with every proposal you make irrespective of winning or losing!
Q. Has your learning at IIFM helped in shaping how you approach your professional roles?
A. Apart from academics, the activities at IIFM was very enriching. I was the nature club coordinator at IIFM which gave me an opportunity to conceptualize and organize various club activities and develop many qualities like leadership, team management, work ethics & financial management. And the best part was the learning on how to do it sustainably and ensuring that the nature/community gets benefitted.
The field trips and internship provided me with the right attitude to work in the development sector and taught me the way of making an impact at the ground level.
Q. What would be your advice to freshers and IIFM graduates who are looking to choose similar sectors/roles.
A. “Patience/Endurance is the key to success” – At IIFM your patience is tested many times with vast curriculum, repetitive class tests, many assignments and various deadlines running parallelly apart from the mid-term and end-term exams among others that toughens your personality to face the world outside. I believe in this line from my favorite movie “Every champion was once a contender that refused to give up” and IIFM has crafted many champions who are leading MNCs, Bureaucrats, Entrepreneurs, in fact each one of us (IIFM’ite) is a champion.
Q. What are your favorite memories during your IIFM days?
A. I can write a book on this. So let’s start with my first interaction with IIFM, it was in the year 1994-95 when a batch of IIFM came to Pachmarhi for the field trip and my father was posted their as Assistant Director – Satpuda Nation Park. So, my father was invited for a dinner cum interaction with the IIFM batch, I also went along with him to a hotel named New Hotel and that is when I saw some boys/girls dancing and boozing around the camp fire and I was like wow!!! And that tradition is still in vogue which all of us know from our IIFM days! The field trips at IIFM makes the bonding for lifetime. The wildlife field visits, the livelihood field visit, the PRADAN (Kesla, Betul) Visit make the bond (Some for lifetime; as a couple) stronger
Q. The best buddies / seniors /faculty at IIFM? Some memorable tidbits that you like to share?
A. Ankit Malani is my best buddy from IIFM, wherever I am whatever I do I make sure we talk around 5-6 times a week. The discussion could be anything from politics, cricket, career etc.
There were different groups in or batch like Sports group, Studious group, Musical Group, nature group and many more but the best part was me being part of all the groups thus was able to create bonding with the whole batch which will stay with me. All the faculties were amazing, and I still talk to many for brainstorming and decision making. I am thankful to Manmohan Sir, Bijalwan Sir, Bhaskar Sinha Sir, Yogesh Dubey Sir, Amitabh Pandey Sir for their constant support and guidance.
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. At IIFM you would get the best course curriculum that will shape your career. Although all the courses are blended with forestry you will get opportunities to make your career in diverse fields like development, banking, consulting, forestry among others. Apart from enjoying your stay at one of the most beautiful colleges in India try to Invest your time in achieving proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint as that is one commonality which would stay relevant in all the sectors.
Try to learn from the field visits and implement the same during the internship. Take internship(now called SI and Project) very seriously because at that time you are representing IIFM on behalf of your whole class and hence a good behavior and impactful report may get you a PPO as well as more offers for your friends in campus placement by enhancing the image of IIFM.
And do not forget to enjoy each and every moment you spent at IIFM, I am sure you are going to miss it later. Each one of us miss it.
Q. What is your typical day at the office? (We want to know what your day job looks like)
A. A typical day will start with checking emails in the morning, acting on those mails (if required), reaching the office by 9:00-9:30 AM, interacting with the clients, meeting with vendors, follow-up with the officials and various stakeholders in the project, and virtual meetings on project deliverables and working on the assigned deliverables. After returning from the office, sometimes have to work on proposals as part of business development.
Q. And how about weekends, Hobbies, Family and anything else you want to add
A. The weekends are either spent with family or on a nature trail or working on some urgent client deliverable.
With my father and my hero-Anil Nagar
Q. Favorite Books, movies, authors
A. I love reading sports autobiographies e.g. Faster Than Lightning: by Matt Allen and Usain Bolt, No Limits by Michael Phelps, It’s Not about the Bike: My Journey Back to Life Lance Armstrong.
Some of my Favorite Movies are : Rocky (Sylvester Stallone), The Silence of the Lambs ,The Terminal, The Shawshank Redemption, Behind Enemy Lines, 3 Idiot, Munnabhai MBBS.
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. Wherever I am and in whatever capacity I try my best to engage some students for internship or for the placements. Being in the forestry sector the best candidate you can get is from IIFM, thus I am in touch with a lot of IIFMites, especially fresh graduates and try my best to guide them.
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 am really happy to see so many Alumni meets specially in Delhi/NCR. The overall efforts have increased tremendously and are far more organized. The start of the new program (Sustainability Management) is great initiative.
I think student exchange program with some of the leading global university would provide better visibility.
Q. Any suggestions on who you want to get profiled/interviewed here?
A. It would be great to hear journey of Devanshu Chakravarti (PFM 96-98), Kulranjan Kujur (PFM 99-01), Nitin Gupta (PFM 99-01), Narendra Mohan (PFM 11-13), Vijit Singh (PFM 10-12), Varun Mohan (PFM 10-12), Pradeep Das (PFM 10-12), Bhaskar Paul (PFM 10 -12), Amit Singh (PFM 10-12), Shobhit Mani (PFM 11-13), Isha Ayyer (PFM 10-12), Ushnish Chattopadhyay (PFM 04-06), Rishi Prakash (PFM 05-07), Arnab Dey (PFM 10-12), Arnav Subba (PFM 10-12)