Can you share your life’s journey on a personal front ?I am from Bihar. During my childhood, I stayed most of the time with my grandfather, Lt Shri V N Jha, a freedom fighter of the1942 movement. Though my parents were staying in Patna, the capital town of Bihar, as per family tradition my early education happened in Hindi medium at Murliganj, a semi town 14 km away from my village. Lt Shri G Jha, my grandfather’s younger brother, was a headmaster there in a very reputed high school of our district. I was brought up in a traditional environment under his guidance where we were taught a lot of values . I was good in academics, a national scholarship holder in my school days. I started composing poems in Hindi from the age of 12 years and participated in dramatics. In my formative years, I was highly influenced by my grandfathers’ commitment to building family, dry honesty, and unconditional love for village & Nation. I picked up the creative side of my life from my father Lt Shri Shobha Kant Jha, a renowned journalist of a leading Hindi daily in Bihar. He was a highly knowledgeable & a great speaker. Later I did my engineering in Metallurgy from BIT Sindri.
How do you see today’s economic scenario specifically in the Auto sector?
Though our used vehicle industry is doing well, the economic scenario for new vehicles business is really tough. I believe that we are going through a transition phase and soon the industry will figure out creative& holistic solutions with the wisdom& hard work of Government & entrepreneurs. Tough times & creativity are cousins!
With AI and ML taking big leap…how do you see it impacting the future skill gap scenario?
I don’t believe in Yuval Harari’s extreme view of life science & algorithms leading us to two types of human beings, Homodeus, and Useless others! However, all the scientific transformations will lead to accelerated disruptions in professional & personal lives. On one hand, as a consumer human beings, are expecting more& more for less& less; as a professional, he’ll struggle how to create& deliver the same to the consumers. One has to be digital-savvy, well conversed with AI, MI, VR, and transformations happening in life science. However these will not be sufficient. Human beings will have to be flexible & open to learn newer & newer fields of knowledge, acknowledging that any skill will have ever decreasing half-life and any role have the propensity to become obsolete unpredictably. Human beings will have to be adaptable, humble and compassionate enough to grow in such an environment.
What would you advise the future generation and is our current education system and policy geared to address it?
We need to acknowledge that we are leaving in a volatile, uncertain, complex & ambitious world. We’ll get constant push from various sides. So, on one hand, we should be adaptable & flexible and constant unlearner & learner. On the other, we should learn to be more mindful, calm, humble & compassionate like the eye of the vortex! I would suggest that the new generation should be taught on listening, mindfulness, compassion as serious subjects. These human qualities will be more and more important than any technical skill for a person to grow in life.
Some great learning or life experience that you would like to share?
I started my career as a metallurgical engineer in iron making and ferroalloys production. However life kept providing me an opportunity in the area of TQM, HR& Sales in Telecom, Chemical & Automobile industries; and I kept accepting the same with all humility and sincerity. I learnt the new nuisances from my juniours & customers with a zeal to enhance my understanding and serve internal & external customers with sincerity. My key take away– is don’t place too much importance to self and do not get concerned about self. See your role as an opportunity to serve people at large!