MBA internship is such an integral part of the journey. I too had a remarkable one during my campus days at NMIMS. Well, I may not have agreed whether NCDEX was the right company for me, in hindsight, I feel that it was one of the best decisions for my career. I had a background of Fashion Technology in my graduation and wanted to specialize in Finance. This led to not many companies shortlisting me for finance roles in summers and my internship in NCDEX happened as a result of other candidates opting out of it. Nevertheless, I felt that the best way for me will be to learn and try harder in final placements.
My project was originally expected to focus on market development of Agri traders in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which would have involved significant travel and doing a sales role. I was supposed to report to Mumbai office and after couple of days head to my project location. However, on reporting to Mumbai office, I was told to head to Gulbarga (in Karnataka) as there was Tur Dal procurement which was happening for which additional manpower was required. I left the same day and after a 16 hour bus journey finally managed to reach my destination.
Over the next two weeks my primary role was to monitor the bags of tur dal which were getting procured and ensure that they were properly accounted for. In short, checking the weight and counting the bags. While it may sound extremely boring and pathetic, I also came across the challenges of direct procurement such as verification of land records. You will come across hundreds of farmers with date of birth as 1st Jan and all ID proofs having different names or pressure of politicians to procure old and rotten grains from certain farmers. The experience even involved making a late night escape with grain procurement from storage area on top of a truck in order to avoid political wrath the next day ! It was one heck of a journey. During the stint however, I also managed to come across the entire team of NCDEX as most of us were staying in the same guest house. One such gentleman was Mr. Bharavi Mishra and I owe him a lot. He was quite impressed with my sincerity and one fine day he asked me what is it I wanted to do in my internship. I requested for a finance related project. Miraculously, my project did get changed !
On returning to Mumbai, my project got changed to valuation of NCDEX Spot exchange with direct reporting to the CEO. It was like a dream project for me to analyse so much of data and build projections, perform scenario analysis and so on. I was extremely fortunate to get such an exposure early in my career and helped me understand my romance with valuations. The same romance continues even till today. During the project, I had access to lots of confidential data and it taught me the importance of non-disclosure and confidentiality.
But the most important lesson that I actually learnt was something different. Even if you don’t like something, do it wholeheartedly. You never know who is watching and your sincerity will get rewarded eventually. If I was not sincere in doing the procurement activities in Gurbarga, I would have never had the opportunity to have my project changed. This is a life lesson that I carry with me at all times. I was informally offered an opportunity to join them, however I politely declined and asked them not to inform placement committee about the offer. I was fortunate that they heeded my request.
Those two months helped me gain lots of insights on how the Agri business works in India and provided me some valuable management lessons that I treasure even today.
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