From campus, I joined Nelco at Mumbai, and worked for a few months with Mr Ratan Tata. The corporate journey traversed Cibatul in South Gujarat, Century Enka at Pune, Torrent Pharmaceuticals at Ahmedabad, and finally (thanks to our Gem N. D. Joshi) Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals at Pune. 

 

Along the way, helped introduce new technologies / new products, and set up joint ventures. Participated in Rakesh Mohan Committee to create post liberalisation policies (in 1992) for petrochemicals. Helped run the Association for the synthetic fibre industry. Got a British Council scholarship to attend a senior management course at Manchester Business School. In recent years, helped nurture research, under the aegis of CSIR, at a national laboratory to develop a novel process to make a green chemical; it is now at pilot plant stage. 

 

Our WAC exercises proved their value when I started writing on energy matters. In 2012, our Professor, who was by then “Hon’ble C Rangarajan”, Chairman of Economic Advisory Council to the P. M, described my scheme for reducing fuel subsidies as a ‘good alternative’; it was implemented for diesel in Jan 2013. My articles on pricing of Natural Gas also seem to have made an impact on policy. 

 

Inspired by the teaching of our Maths professors, Dr VL Mote and Dr Meenakshi Mallya, I formulated a comprehensive Linear Programming model for monthly production scheduling at a large chemical complex with continuous process plants. I continue to dabble in related fields. 

 

In the 1990’s, headed the Pune chapter of IIMA Alumni, and arranged several programmes. Later, headed the Association of British Scholars at Pune. 

 

In 1978, got married to Suhasini. She steers the family ship skilfully. We have two sons. Aditya is a software engineer with a start up that offers the popular Android app ‘Walnut’ for expense tracking. He is an avid wildlife photographer, and has won second prize from the prestigious Sanctuary Asia magazine. Younger son, Mihir completed the dual degree course (B Tech & M Tech) from IIT Bombay; he is now studying for a PhD in Telecom from University of California at Los Angeles. 

 

We live in Pune. E mail: vslaghate@yahoo. com