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Srisht Singh
Srisht Singh

Srisht Singh

consultant

nuclear power plant

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Srisht Singh is a member of:

Current Job description
I retired as Head, Nuclear Safety Division, AERB 16 years back. I am now working as a consultant in nuclear power plant technology, my area of specializing is in nuclear safety and Quality Assurance.
Ensuring Growth
I have retired from service since last 16 years, so as a consultant, I advise my customers to integrate my ideas in their management systems arrangements.
Leadership skills
A leader must be a person of integrity, ability and patience. His character must be unquestionable, his conduct above board and considerate. It is easy for a leader to lose his temper in a trying situation. His subordinates must feel assured that their leader will tackle any emergency with a cool head, listen to the bitter truth, assess the situation, consult the concerned parties to arrive at the solutions. He should routinely consult his senior colleagues before taking important decisions. For important technical decisions, he should establish senior advisory groups to make informed and expert recommendations. He should create procedures to evaluate experiences of errors and to learn to avoid future mistakes.
He has to see the motivations of his subordinates when they interact with him. Some subordinates are quite expressive, even demanding, others can be reserved. A good leader controls the voluble ones, gets the reserved ones to open up, so that he can prepare them for their intended assignments. A good leader tries to forestall coming events wherever possible, rather than allow events to overtake him. A good leader prepares a line of succession for all important positions under him, including his own.
Important decision
My first important decision in my career as a chemical engine graduate from IIT Kharagpur was in joining atomic energy department, even though I had job offers from chemical industry. Ofcourse atomic energy employed chemical engineers after giving them post-graduate training in nuclear technology in the BARC training school.

After post-graduation from BARC training school, I made another change in joining the Tatapur Atomic Power Project, in preference to chemical engineering divisions of BARC. This meant that my chemical engineering knowledge would go into cold storage and I would have to delve deep into nuclear reactor engineering and apply it to the most recent reactor types (in 1961) for their application in the Tarapur Atomic Power Project.

My next important change occurred in 1984, when I opted to join the Indian regulatory body, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, for overseeing the safe use of nuclear energy in our nuclear facilities.

Each change in my career required of me to master new technologies and develop new approaches to my assignments. In the last change, even a change from power plant performance to assurance of safety was involved.
Avoiding mistakes – both in your personal as well as profession
In nuclear power technology, it is common practice for management to set up expert groups and procedures for evaluating experiences, their own as well as those of our peers. Such procedures and provisions enable the management to analyze important failure events, determine their root causes and remedies to eliminate them and prevent their recurrence. Such arrangements also highlight examples from which lessons for future improvements can be derived.
Handling Grievances
Grievances are generally due to inequities that subordinates may feel, or genuine complaints about misconduct, misuse of official powers, corruption, etc. Where subordinates feel they have not been equitably dealt with, the matter needs to be dealt with sensitivity. The leader must be careful not to be hasty in arriving at any conclusion, nor seem aloof towards the complainant. It is best to wait, observe and discern for any justification for the complaint. The complainant needs to be made to feel that his or her complaint is being considered on its merits.
Where misuse, misconduct or corrupt practices are intimated, the leader should carefully, systematically and with all possible speed and secrecy assess the suspected action, collect evidence, and act to secure punishment for the offender. Noting inspires confidence in a leader than his expedition and thorough pursuit of law breakers.
Advice to upcoming leaders
Upcoming management leaders should pay attention to the indicated in response to the ideas and approaches to query number 2 above.
Influenced by
I started my career under Dr M R Srinivasan, who was then the Chief Project Officer for Tarapur Atomic Power Project. I was impressed by the way he tackled complex technical challenges almost from scratch. He was a demanding, but hard-working manager who went into details of technicalities, made bold decisions after careful review of the issues, and backed his judgement.

My next ideal manager was the late Mr J C Shah, then Chairman & Chief Executive, Atomic Power Authority. Like Dr Srinivasan, Mr Shah was very sharp, bold and decisive. He would consult his subordinates as a matter of routine on all technical issues, subject them to thorough cross-examination, and then take his decisions. He almost never lost his cool when confronted by any mistake that was admitted to him, but was severe on anyone who hid unpleasant truths. His cross-examination skills were outstanding, his conduct
Impeccable and polite, but he never brooked nonsense from anyone.

My third and last ideal manager was Prof. A K De, Chairman, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). He, like my earlier ideal managers, was very keenly safety interested in his work, and devoted considerable time and effort to understand nuclear energy engineering and science. He also followed a strong consultative process in regulating safety in nuclear facilities. Most importantly, he had procedures prepared and organizational units set up to formalize multi-level reviews of safety issues as well as issuance of nuclear safety standards. He strongly supported training and qualification of scientists and engineers in utilities as AERB. He made AERB accessible to news media, peer organizations and concerned government departments.
My family background
I was brought up in a middle class working family. My father was a power station engineer, and my grand-father was a freedom fighter, and one-time associate of Gandhiji, Jawahar Lal Nehru ji, and other such veterans. From this lineage, I inherited a strong trait of honesty, integrity and dedication.

I graduated in chemical engineering from IIT Khargpur in 1960. I worked in nuclear power projects/plants upto 1984, when I joined AERB.
My prospective towards India Technological development
This is a very important question as well as a challenge to our scientific community. It requires a major effort, from scientific community leaders, to business leaders and government leaders to realize that no nation has become great by importing cutting-edge technology while our scientists work just to check, inspect and accept imported technology in PWD style.
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