My contribution to a board
I would help directors examine the relationships on which an industrial commitment depends. A supply estimate can include material already supporting another use, a workforce plan can assume returning experience without examining the off-season and an environmental promise can exceed the evidence assembled for it. Those are enterprise questions when they affect capital, customers and continuing obligations. My contribution would be to ask management for a clear account of the dependency and the cost of a different choice, not to prescribe a plant method. I have experience making proposals to a separately chaired board and accepting a narrower commitment after challenge. An external role would require a different discipline: contributing that experience while recognising that another executive team owns delivery. I would expect colleagues with stronger financial, legal, environmental and specialist technical expertise to challenge my interpretation as well.
Judgement in practice
01Choosing a residue programme that recognised existing local uses
The twelve-village review separated 40,000 tonnes into 18,000 already used locally,14,000 supported by the proposed arrangements and 8,000 unresolved. I recommended the ₹4.8 crore narrower programme instead of treating the whole estimate as available feedstock. The board-level question was which assumptions made the larger commitment appear ready and who had authority to resolve them. It was not a finding that every existing use must prevent a future transaction or a measured environmental benefit. I would bring that distinction to oversight while management and qualified advisers retain the actual procurement and site assessments.
02Funding an off-season scope with unfinished preparation visible
The ₹1.1 crore four-month programme covered 52 seasonal workers in defined paid activity and preparation. Forty-six completed the stated preparation and six needed further work. I kept the latter outside the associated task approval rather than let the programme's end date create a universal readiness claim. For another board I would ask what work and authority the completion measure actually represents, what cost has been accepted and how participant choice is addressed. Directors should understand that account without becoming the people who approve individual technical tasks or supervise the programme.
03Withdrawing the public claim I had encouraged
I wanted the carbon-neutral headline before the evidential account was complete. We withdrew it, funded ₹48 lakh of assessment and retained three incomplete source groups beside six with the required traceability material. Neither group count established a verified emissions result. The ₹12 crore conditional enquiries remained enquiries, not orders or revenue lost. The governance lesson is to make executive preference open to an unfavourable assessment and to connect the public promise with its actual support. I would ask whether specialists can change the proposition without being expected to defend language selected in advance.
My first year on a board
My induction would begin with the business's actual commitments: its customer undertakings, supply dependencies, workforce model and the professional authorities needed to deliver them. I would learn how the board distinguishes an opportunity under review from approved capital or a public promise. The chair should help me adapt my executive habits, particularly the impulse to suggest an operating solution before the management account is understood. I would examine a small number of decisions whose scope changed after evidence or stakeholder challenge, using the board's approved information process. Contact with teams would follow agreed channels; I would not create instructions outside management. Financial reporting and the company's specific legal and sector duties deserve preparation beyond familiarity with an industrial setting. A useful first year would demonstrate that my questions make commitments easier to assess while leaving execution with the people appointed to carry it out.
Conflicts and their management
The producer federation, growth investor, employee vehicle, customers and feedstock counterparties can create relevant connections even though I have no personal equity allocation. I would map those relationships with the proposed company and obtain the necessary consent before receiving private material. My current statutory seat also belongs in the assessment of duties, time and applicable limits. A role repeatedly requiring withdrawal from its central procurement or customer decisions may be unsuitable rather than merely administratively inconvenient. I would not share private supply terms, workforce records, plant findings or unapproved assessment material from Zemquri. Independence and eligibility require competent appointment-specific review. The eighteen-day allowance must cover induction, papers, meetings, travel and exceptional demands alongside a continuing CEO role. A board needs a participant able to engage in its consequential choices, not a relevant name whose conflicts or calendar prevent meaningful contribution.
My independence statement
My current CEO employment and executive directorship require review together with producer, investor, supplier and customer relationships against applicable Companies Act independence conditions, SEBI LODR requirements where relevant, committee duties and directorship limits. I make no advance claim of independent status. The absence of personal equity does not remove other interests. Qualified advice and the prospective company's process must assess the actual appointment.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Strategy or risk committee where industrial commitments fit the remit, after induction and competence review |
|---|
Board and committee exposure
Served as a director
Zemquri Bioenergy
Executive board seat under a separate chair; no external independent seat
January 2019 onward
I serve as CEO and one executive director, with Arvind Jelqethi chairing separately. My executive proposals and statutory participation are connected but do not amount to an independent appointment.
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 18 days per year
- Current directorships
- 1
- Sectors
- Resource-based industrial businesses · Producer-linked enterprises · Energy suppliers with material workforce and procurement obligations
- Company type
- An enterprise with a separate chair and complementary financial, legal, operating and technical expertise
- Company stage
- Reconsidering how growth commitments affect supply relationships and continuing obligations
The seat I am pursuing
I am interested in a resource-based industrial company, producer-linked enterprise or energy supplier reconsidering the obligations behind its growth plans. A strategy or risk committee could fit after the actual remit and required competence are understood. I do not claim external independent-director experience or committee-chair service. My existing executive seat supplies a perspective, not a conclusion about another appointment. The nomination discussion should identify the questions the board wants me to help examine and the complementary skills already present. I would need to complete relevant preparation, confirm a realistic calendar and secure consent before accepting a role. The attraction is a collective discussion in which an operating fact can change the enterprise decision while there is still a choice, with management respected as the owner of delivery and specialists able to give evidence that narrows an attractive proposition.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The fictional career includes no IICA independent directors databank registration yet. I have neither completed a proficiency assessment nor claimed an exemption. Relevant preparation and appointment conditions remain matters to resolve before pursuing the proposed external role.
- Executive director at Zemquri since January 2019 under a separate chair.
- Further preparation must address the change from proposing enterprise action to contributing to another board's collective oversight.
- Databank and applicable assessment preparation remain ahead; no automatic eligibility is implied by existing executive service.