The image workflow I endorsed in 2020 saved a cropped version over its working source. In a rehearsal using sixty synthetic catalogue files, twenty-four source files were overwritten after the crop action. The demonstration looked successful because the screen displayed the requested crop. The next editor could no longer begin from the same working original. We still held separate pristine test copies, and no customer photographs were involved, but the result exposed an assumption I had failed to question: that a completed transformation was enough evidence of a sound editing process. I held the affected release and funded a design that kept the original asset separate from its derivatives.

I now lead twenty-eight engineering colleagues through three leaders at Delqerni Camera Retail in Lucknow. Our eighteen shops serve customers choosing photographic equipment and accessories, supported by online product guidance. The enterprise has 318 employees and recorded ₹126 crore revenue in FY 2025–26. My remit includes ₹6.2 crore annual operating expense and ₹1.8 crore separately approved development authority. CEO Rhea Qervnali holds enterprise direction, while CIO Vikram Zelqnari owns internal information services. My team’s responsibility is the software through which product evidence becomes a customer-facing experience. An attractive comparison must still preserve what the evidence actually supports.

Subsequent decisions have concerned colour profiles in exported comparison images and unsupported statements in an experimental product-answer assistant. Those are not interchangeable technical defects. One concerns interpretation of image values; the other concerns claims that can sound convincing without a dependable source. Both require specialist judgement alongside engineering and commercial ownership. I am interested in CTO mandates where that collaboration has time and authority to challenge a polished release. I would also consider a first outside contribution after further governance preparation. I do not hold a statutory board seat, and a future appointment would need its own assessment of suitability, relationships and capacity. A senior engineering title does not settle those questions.

Current focus

Engineering product guidance that preserves original evidence, interprets images carefully and refuses unsupported certainty.

Conversations I welcome

A retail or consumer-product CTO mandate; a prepared first non-executive contribution with clear boundaries.