Learning what the shorter test could not establish

My most useful technical correction began with a claim I had approved. In 2019 we used a ten-minute check to support an intensity-stability statement for an inspection-lighting assembly. A ninety-minute review later found twelve failures among forty-eight assemblies against the project's agreed criterion. The problem was not that the shorter result had been fabricated. It was that I had allowed evidence from a limited period to stand for a longer operating condition without establishing the connection.

I began work in Nashik after completing electronics studies at Telqvashi Engineering College in May 1993. Orqevni Lighting Systems developed industrial lighting products, and my first role involved circuits, measurements and design support under a senior engineer. I had no independent release authority. I learned to describe a test setup precisely enough for another colleague to understand the result, including what had been held constant and what the exercise did not examine.

Promotion to development lead in April 2000 gave me eight engineering colleagues and responsibility for coordinating experiments and design changes. Industrial lighting was becoming more closely connected to electronic control and customer equipment. A result on a development bench could be useful without answering every question about the eventual application. I began working more closely with applications colleagues, who could explain the constraints around the product rather than treating the component specification as the whole account.

I joined Nerqathi Inspection Lighting in April 2008 as head of applications engineering. The role brought me into discussions about cameras, exposure settings and the way an inspection image was used. Our lighting was part of a larger arrangement. A human observer's impression of steadiness did not necessarily describe what a camera would record. I learned to ask which combinations had been examined and what the customer was entitled to infer from a qualification statement.

As head of engineering from April 2015, I led eighteen colleagues and coordinated development and applications work. The pressure to make a concise launch claim was real: commercial colleagues needed a clear offer, and the team wanted its work to reach customers. I sometimes let a successful demonstration carry more weight than its conditions justified. The 2019 stability review forced me to acknowledge that tendency and fund a correction before the preproduction units were released.

We held 240 units and spent ₹46 lakh over ten weeks on redesign and retesting. Forty-five of the forty-eight reviewed assemblies subsequently met the same defined ninety-minute criterion; three remained held. I did not describe the result as proof of product lifetime or performance in every customer's environment. Quality retained acceptance authority. The episode changed how I asked engineers to report progress: the conditions and unresolved cases should accompany the result rather than be treated as qualifications to remove from the final slide.

I became CTO in April 2021, reporting to CEO Renu Dalqvani. I now lead twenty-four engineering colleagues through three leads, with ₹6.1 crore annual expense and ₹2.8 crore separately approved development capital. Nerqathi employed 180 people in March 2026 and recorded ₹76 crore revenue and ₹6.2 crore operating profit in FY 2025–26. Founder owners hold seventy per cent and an industrial investor thirty per cent. I have no personal equity or statutory directorship; my board presentations remain executive exposure.

The controller make-or-buy decision added a different kind of discipline. Internal development would have required ₹2.8 crore and twelve months. A supplier route required qualification effort and a higher recurring unit cost, but a smaller initial programme and a shorter proposed period. I supported the supplier option after comparing the actual scope and dependence, rather than defending internal design as an end in itself. Four lighting variants were qualified and two remained outside the offer.

I want my leadership record to show how technical and commercial judgement meet without erasing their boundaries. A narrow qualification can support a useful product. A supplier component can be the better choice while leaving an ongoing cost and dependency. An outside board contribution would require me to examine those choices through management's evidence, not take over its engineering decisions, and to complete further governance preparation before claiming readiness for a statutory role.

Open to Board appointments · Executive opportunities

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