The warehouse record taught me to question the total

I studied statistics at Parquvi Science College and joined Zalvuni Distribution Services in Guwahati in June 1996, after completing my degree in May. The company moved books between publishers and retail channels. My first responsibilities were records and reconciliations under a distribution-data manager. I worked with catalogue descriptions, dispatch notes and returns. The quantities looked simple until I asked what each one meant. A box leaving the warehouse was a physical movement; it did not establish that the same number of readers had bought the books inside it.

The early work taught me to keep the account close to its source. A title could be abbreviated differently on two documents, and a return might refer to a particular edition or binding. I did not have authority to decide the commercial terms or the publisher's accounting treatment. I could identify an inconsistency, ask for clarification and preserve the record that explained the answer. That distinction between maintaining evidence and taking another person's decision has remained important throughout my career. Data leadership does not become more credible by quietly absorbing every responsibility around the data.

I became catalogue and movement-data lead in April 2003. I supervised eight colleagues and managed ₹1.1 crore annual team expense by the end of the appointment. We had to make recurring questions manageable without forcing unlike records into a single convenient category. A common title helped people search, but it was not enough to identify the product a shop had ordered. Similarly, a dispatch total could be useful for operations without answering a question about reader demand. I learned to explain those distinctions to commercial colleagues in ordinary language rather than treating them as technical objections.

In April 2009 I joined Ruqneli Publishing Systems as data modelling manager. The software company served publishers and distribution businesses with different practices. I led thirteen data specialists and worked with product engineers to represent those differences explicitly. A field name could make a local assumption appear universal once it was built into a report. I wanted our models to retain the original event, the relevant product and the status of any unresolved interpretation. Moving from one operating business into software made that discipline more important because a mistaken shortcut could be repeated across many customers.

I became head of publishing data in April 2015. The remit grew to twenty-seven colleagues through two leads, with ₹6.9 crore annual expense at departure. I was responsible for prioritising data-quality work alongside new features and for explaining why a correction sometimes needed customer review rather than an automatic replacement. The present ownership structure developed during that period: the invented UK Brelqavi Publishing Systems holds 70% and an Indian employee trust 30%. I am a trust beneficiary, which would be relevant to any outside relationship assessment. It does not make me a director of either company.

My CDO appointment began in April 2021. I now lead thirty-nine colleagues through three heads with ₹10.8 crore annual operating expense and a separate ₹2.4 crore platform programme. Ruqneli employed 230 people in March 2026 and recorded ₹96 crore FY 2025–26 revenue. Pavitra Nelquvi is CEO, and Nelin Qarpavi leads product. Customers remain responsible for their publishing, commercial and accounting decisions. I present data-product matters to directors without holding a statutory seat. The role requires me to connect the meaning of a record with investment and product commitments, not merely with a cleaner table.

In 2022 I withdrew a summary that had described sixteen thousand dispatched copies as reader sales. The reviewed account supported 9,700 reader sales after opening stock, receipts, returns, promotional copies and closing stock were reconciled. I had approved the simpler label. A later catalogue review found 35 suspect groups that contained distinct products rather than duplicate descriptions. Those products needed to remain distinguishable even when their titles looked alike. Neither correction could be reduced to a generic instruction to remove duplicates or improve accuracy.

The late-record case added a question about time. A user reviewing an earlier decision needed to see the report available then, as well as a later account incorporating accepted records. We retained both and showed the revision basis. I speak Assamese, Hindi and English. My next contribution should keep this practical concern for what a number represents while broadening the business decisions it can support. I have no statutory board appointment and my formal board preparation is unfinished. I would bring useful questions to another enterprise, but I would first need to learn how its own records acquire meaning.

Open to Board appointments · Executive opportunities

Languages / Assamese · Hindi · English