My contribution to a board
I would help a board examine whether the service its enterprise reports is the service it has actually undertaken. A visually persuasive transfer may not fulfil the intended reference; a stable digital file may preserve an initial omission; a delivered copy may leave an original in custody. These distinctions affect commercial claims, capacity and expense as well as technical work. I would ask management to explain the evidence for its completion account and the authority behind any change to an entrusted asset. My experience would contribute one perspective within collective oversight. It would not make me the board's preservation specialist or a substitute for financial, legal and other expertise. I would also expect the company to show how the necessary professional work is funded, because an obligation excluded from the operating economics can become difficult to sustain even when everyone agrees that it matters.
My first year on a board
My first months would focus on learning the prospective enterprise's complete service chain and financial model. Through arrangements made by the chair, I would follow a commission from its intended purpose through acceptance and any responsibilities that remain afterwards. I would listen to qualified practitioners, commercial owners and finance rather than assume that the COO's report provides every relevant view. That preparation would support board questions, not a parallel management channel. I would complete the required governance and assessment preparation and examine the actual charter before joining a committee. At the first annual review I would ask whether my contribution had helped the board understand the enterprise's obligations more clearly, whether I had learned enough beyond my operating background and whether the twenty-four-day allowance still described the real demands of the appointment.
Conflicts and their management
Before receiving confidential papers, I would map the proposed enterprise against Tevqori's clients, specialist partners, suppliers, investor relationships and ownership vehicles. Current employment consent is necessary, and recurring conflicts may make an otherwise interesting role impractical. Qualified advisers would examine the Companies Act's independence conditions, applicable SEBI LODR requirements, directorship limits and committee responsibilities for that company. I have no statutory directorship; my functional title in 2014 did not create one. IICA registration is recorded here, but assessment is unfinished and no exemption or appointment clearance is implied. Preparation, travel and exceptional demands belong within the availability discussion, not outside an optimistic meeting-day count. Customer collections, source material and private operating records entrusted to my employer would remain outside another board's resources. If meaningful participation repeatedly depended on access I could not appropriately provide, I would explain the limitation and decline rather than promise an effective contribution I could not deliver.
My independence statement
Tevqori's customers, preservation partners, suppliers, ownership vehicles and professional relationships may affect a prospective appointment. I hold no shares personally or through a vehicle, but that alone does not establish independence. The actual connections and applicable conditions must be examined for the proposed company.
Judgement in practice
01Ask which purpose the promised improvement serves
The sixty-work programme separated forty-four reference-led transfers from twelve authorised presentation versions, leaving four undecided. It cost ₹62 lakh and preserved the source and processing account. I would ask directors whether management can explain what its offer means and who has authority to decide where the purpose remains uncertain. A persuasive demonstration is useful commercially, but it should not silently make a choice that belongs to the customer and qualified specialists. The board should understand the business consequence of a more precise offer, including additional review and unresolved work. It should not select treatments itself or claim that a documented process settles every historical question. My own support for the cleaner-picture default would help me recognise how senior approval can give a narrow observation more authority than its evidence warrants.
02Keep each control attached to the question it answers
All 920 files matched recorded transfer checksums, while content examination cleared 892 and held 28: twenty for incomplete sound and eight for a picture-format issue. The review cost ₹37 lakh. I would ask whether management understands the difference between evidence that a file remains consistent with a recorded state and evidence that the initial transfer fulfilled the commission. The useful response preserves both checks and their limits. A board can examine that reporting discipline without instructing technicians or treating a held file as proof that the original has been lost. It should also hear what remains unresolved and how the authorised customer process handles it. My contribution would be to challenge an overly broad completion claim while respecting the value of the control that had been asked to support it.
03Follow the obligation beyond the revenue milestone
In 2025 we approved ₹62 lakh annual specialist storage expense and ₹28 lakh setup cost while owners considered the appropriate future of originals after digital delivery. I would ask a board whether the enterprise's margin and capacity account includes that continuing responsibility. The decision was not a commitment to hold every source forever, and the expenditure was not certification of perpetual preservation. It funded an arrangement while the relevant authority and terms were examined. Directors should understand the commercial cost as well as the custody concern. If the enterprise needs a more limited service model, it must agree that model with customers rather than assume that space pressure supplies a new disposal right. Oversight should make the continuing obligation visible without taking over the specialist or contractual decisions needed to conclude it.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Risk committee examining entrusted assets and specialist service obligations, after eligibility review and induction · A board committee whose actual charter includes the quality and sustainability of commissioned services |
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Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Specialist archive and preservation-service enterprises · Businesses entrusted with customer assets or records · Professional services where acceptance depends on qualified judgement
- Company type
- An established service enterprise willing to examine responsibilities that continue beyond its headline deliverable
- Company stage
- Revising its service definition, capacity commitments or account of continuing customer obligations
The seat I am pursuing
A suitable first seat would involve a service enterprise that can identify a particular question about entrusted assets, acceptance or continuing obligations. I could contribute to relevant risk or service-quality oversight after induction and eligibility review, alongside strong commercial, financial and technical perspectives. I do not claim readiness to chair a committee or broad expertise in every preservation practice. The company should be willing to discuss the cost of a responsible service definition and the unfinished decisions behind its reported results. I would welcome a credible challenge from directors with different experience. That setting would let me bring practical operating judgement while learning the enterprise's own responsibilities, with enough time and independence to participate meaningfully in its collective decisions.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Tevqori Archive Services
Executive operating presentations; no committee membership
September 2020 onward
Presents service commitments, programme expense and continuing custody through CEO Nandita Qelzori. No statutory seat; the earlier director-of-operations title was functional.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Registered
Fictional IICA databank registration in June 2026. Proficiency assessment remains unfinished, no exemption is claimed and this account does not assert completed appointment eligibility.
- Complete the relevant assessment preparation and examine appointment requirements
- Strengthen whole-enterprise financial and governance understanding
- Study the prospective company's committee charters and entrusted-asset responsibilities