The factory's need was only one use of the material

The procurement paper called the material waste, and that word made the proposed expansion look simpler than it was. Our plant needed more feedstock. The twelve-village review appeared to offer 40,000 tonnes. When local uses were examined, 18,000 tonnes already supported fodder or bedding, 14,000 could enter the proposed arrangements and 8,000 remained unresolved. The issue was not whether agricultural residues could ever support an energy business. It was whether our particular proposal had treated the factory's demand as though it displaced every other use of the same material by definition.

I grew up in Bhubaneswar and completed mechanical engineering at the fictional Dazqeri Engineering College in June 1992. The next month I joined Tavqemi Rural Processing as a process engineer. The business employed ninety people and recorded ₹7 crore revenue for FY ending March 1993. I worked in a seven-person engineering group without staff or spending authority. Senior engineers approved process changes and safety arrangements. I learned that the properties described in a supply agreement and the material arriving at the plant needed to belong to the same account, rather than become separate commercial and technical conversations.

In June 1998 I became plant manager. Tavqemi then employed 180 people and recorded ₹21 crore revenue for FY ending March 1999. I led sixty-eight plant employees through four supervisors within ₹8.2 crore annual operating expense. The role introduced the consequences of a production plan built around assumptions that had not been agreed with suppliers or workers. A machine's capacity did not establish what could reliably arrive, and a seasonal operating rhythm affected people as well as inventory. I had to connect delivery ambition with qualified technical authority rather than use a commercial date to decide what the plant should accept.

I joined Zemquri in September 2005 as head of residue procurement. The company had one plant, eighty permanent employees and ₹14 crore revenue for FY ending March 2006. Fourteen procurement colleagues worked through two leads, with ₹1.1 crore annual function expense. Supply commitments required separate approval through the commercial and finance arrangements. The move took me closer to the communities and intermediaries whose decisions shaped the plant's inputs. I became more careful about language such as available and unused. A material can be outside one buyer's existing market and still be important to someone else's livelihood.

The COO appointment followed in July 2011. Zemquri had two plants, 170 permanent employees and ₹37 crore revenue for FY ending March 2012. I led 122 operating employees through five heads with ₹26 crore annual operating responsibility. Seasonal workers were recorded separately rather than added silently to permanent headcount. I worked on the relationship between procurement, preparation, production and customer commitments. The job also taught me that a centrally attractive efficiency can move inconvenience onto a supplier or worker without making it disappear. I wanted those consequences in the operating review before they became a problem the plant was asked to solve alone.

I became CEO and an executive director in January 2019. Seven executives now report to me across a business with three plants, 286 permanent employees and 220 seasonal workers counted separately. FY ending March 2026 shipments were 96,000 tonnes and revenue ₹86 crore. Our producer federation owns 46%, the growth investor 39% and the employee vehicle 15%. I have no direct holding or vehicle allocation. Arvind Jelqethi chairs the board separately, and Razia Qorvani leads operations with qualified technical and safety owners retaining their responsibilities. My FY2026–27 operating envelope is ₹74 crore, alongside a distinct ₹12 crore capital programme approved by the board.

The moisture review cost ₹38 lakh and kept six of eighteen disputed delivery treatments unresolved after twelve were settled through the agreed process. We did not treat a dry-material calculation as proof of equal usable heat or customer performance. The twelve-village procurement review led to a ₹4.8 crore programme covering the supported 14,000-tonne scope, with existing uses and unresolved material kept outside the commitment. A later ₹1.1 crore paid off-season programme covered fifty-two workers; forty-six completed the defined preparation and six still needed further work. Completion was not permission to perform every technical task.

I also had to withdraw a public claim I had encouraged. An unqualified carbon-neutral description exceeded the evidence for our product and supply chain. A ₹48 lakh assessment found the required traceability material complete for six of nine source groups and incomplete for three. Even complete traceability would not by itself establish a full emissions result. We retained ₹12 crore of conditional enquiries as enquiries, without treating them as orders lost or an environmental benefit already delivered. A narrower account was less convenient commercially and more honest about what the company could support.

My only statutory seat is Zemquri's executive directorship, held since January 2019. I have not yet registered with the IICA independent directors databank and claim no assessment result or exemption. Eighteen days is a provisional allowance for one outside role, subject to board and employer consent, conflicts and a workable calendar. I work in Odia, Hindi and English. An external board could use my experience of commitments whose consequences extend beyond a factory boundary. I would also need to learn the discipline of contributing that experience without carrying executive authority into another company's operations.

Open to Board appointments

Languages / Odia · Hindi · English