Megha
Student, Jaipuria Institute of Management
“Make AI your best friend — it's the best interpreter we have in the world right now. — Zarin Maruf, Eli Lilly”
Full session video
Session recap
In a first for the FDP, Vice Chairman Sri Shreevats Jaipuria moderated a candid 90-minute conversation with two current students and four alumni — the only voice the FDP had not yet heard from in 14 years. The line-up spanned campuses, cohorts and sectors: Megha (Noida, current Year 1) and Aditi Soni (Jaipur, 2026, placed at ICICI Prudential AMC and founder of Mombatti); Abhyuday Singh (Noida, PayU, ex-Starwood/Marriott); Aashi Tyagi (Noida, 2021 batch, now at BCG); Priyal Shrivastava (Indore, Regional Manager — HR at Pidilite); and Zarin Maruf (Lucknow, 2019, IT talent at Eli Lilly). The format was deliberately direct — "the rule of the game is, you have to be honest" — and the panel delivered. Three themes ran through every story. Mentorship outranked curriculum as the longest-shelf-life takeaway: alumni named specific faculty (Abha, Manisha, Singhvi, Akash, Devika, Megha, Pooja, Rekha, Dhaneshwar, Pragya, Rahul Meena, Shrikant, Varun) and what those faculty did outside the syllabus — listening, giving honest feedback, never backing down. Student governance — class representative, SRC, ARC, IRC — repeatedly came up as the place where confidence, ownership, ambiguity-handling and stakeholder management were actually learned. And AI is not a future tense — every working alumna described AI as a daily tool: Zarin lives in Claude; Aashi cited a fresh BCG survey showing 81% of 33,500 staff using AI daily; Abhyuday talked about agentic AI behind every NPCI/RuPay payment. The "what should change" round was where the panel earned its keep. Aditi asked Jaipuria to retire the sir/ma'am protocol. Megha asked for the 1.5-credit Gen AI elective to be promoted to a 3-credit cross-stream core, and for life-projects to count for credit. Priyal asked faculty to reward process over the final answer. Abhyuday asked for a structured alumni buddy programme — "something defined as a process; we'll show up." The session closed with felicitation by Shri Sujeet Kumar (Member of Parliament and Day-2 Chief Guest, who had been in the audience the whole time).
Editorial summary compiled by the FDP team — not a verbatim transcript. Spotted an inaccuracy? Let us know.
A tree has been planted in their name in the Sundarbans as part of Jaipuria's green-certificate initiative. The plantation is geotagged and trackable — certificate emailed.
A tree planted in his name
A Bountiful Tree at Trees for Tigers, Sundarbans National Park
As a token of gratitude for Megha’s presence at the 14th Annual Faculty Development Programme, Jaipuria Institute of Management has planted a tree in his honour. This tree will provide flowers, fruits, fodder and fuel to living creatures and help improve water catchment areas in the Sundarbans tiger habitat.
- Planted on
- 9 May 2026
- Certificate №
- 5533750
Geo-tagged green certificate · issued by Grow-Trees.com
Key takeaways for faculty
- 1
Mentorship has the longest shelf life of anything we teach
Alumni didn't remember syllabi — they remembered specific faculty who listened, gave honest feedback and never backed down. Exposure + repetition (CR → SRC coordinator → SRC President) turned an introvert into an HR Regional Manager.
- 2
Student governance teaches what classrooms can't
CR, SRC, ARC and IRC roles were named as the single biggest accelerator of confidence, ownership, ambiguity and stakeholder management — the same skills used every day in HR, consulting and product roles.
- 3
Honest feedback is the Jaipuria USP
"Faculty here don't sugarcoat. They give you the true reality check." A Blackrock rejection became the hard reset that landed Aditi a 2-minute ICICI Prudential interview and the offer.
- 4
AI is a present-tense reality at every workplace
Zarin (Eli Lilly) lives in Claude. Aashi (BCG): 81% of 33,500 staff are using AI daily. Abhyuday (PayU): agentic AI is already behind every UPI/RuPay payment — "90% of users don't even know it."
- 5
Cross-section gathering matters more than we think
In an era of shrinking class sizes, the auditorium-sized sessions that brought all sections together were where alumni found role models, peer-models and the network that still serves them seven years later.
- 6
The actionable register from "what should change"
Promote Gen AI from 1.5-credit elective to 3-credit cross-stream core; award credit for life-projects; reward process over final answer; drop the sir/ma'am formality; build a structured alumni buddy programme. Agentic AI is already added as a Year-2 core for next year.
Speaking at One Jaipuria FDP
- What changed at Jaipuria across cohorts — and what should change next
- Mentorship vs. curriculum: which one actually compounds in your career
- Student governance (CR, SRC, ARC, IRC) as the unsung leadership lab
- Quickfire round: most-remembered moment, never-change, must-change
- AI in 2026 workplaces — Eli Lilly, BCG, PayU, Pidilite, ICICI Prudential
- Faculty Q&A: how to actually get alumni to show up — define a process
Q&A captured
Q. How do we increase alumni connect with each campus? When we call, you don't come back. What's the best time?
Define a process, not just an open invitation. Zarin: "If you have something structured — a panel, a guest series, a regular alumni-engagement format — we'll find time and show up. It's the absence of a defined process that loses us."
Q. Can we have alumni on the board as mentors, the way faculty currently are?
Aashi: Yes — life suggestions and real examples beat theoretical knowledge every time. Abhyuday: "At BCG, my buddy is 10–15 years senior and walks me through every step. Pair Jaipuria students with working alumni in their target sector. That's the unlock." (This buddy-mentor idea is already being scoped post-LDP; alumni consents are being collected.)
Q. What should change at Jaipuria? — quickfire from the panel
Aditi: retire the sir/ma'am protocol. Megha: more GDs on real corporate cases. Abhyuday: push faculty + students out of the comfort zone, jointly. Aashi: more AI-led processes to make students ready. Priyal: faculty should reward the process, not just the final answer. Aditi (closing): don't change — transform through AI.
Q. What should never change?
Zarin: the way we connect students with industry experts. Priyal: faculty encouragement, professional and personal. Aashi: the feedback culture, never-backing-down, industry readiness. Abhyuday: equanimity — treating every student equal. Megha: the honest-feedback mentorship. Aditi: the institution's positive attitude towards change.