Experience

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  BCCL

  • Mumbai Metropolitan Region

  • General Manager and Head, TAKC

    • Jan 2006 - Present
    • Mumbai Metropolitan Region

    For the past over 18 years I have been working with The Times Group as the Head of Times Archives & Knowledge Centre (TAKC) based in Mumbai by leading a team of 25 staff and catering to the information needs of over 8000 employees of the Group. During the course of my working with the Company, with able guidance, motivation and support from the Top Management Team of the Times Group, I have taken a number of innovative initiatives and revamped its rich Archives and Reference Dept. (has a collection over 5 million items of print media resources dating back to 1838 till date) as the modern Media Knowledge Centre. With a reconfigured TAKC in operation, along with the existing services, I have been consistently offering a new range of value-added Business Information Services. These pro-active services include compilation of useful contents like, business and advertising opportunity leads tracked from national dailies, magazines, websites, etc.; information compilations on emerging companies and SMEs; special update on current market information such as major players, market size, market share, consumer insights, current and emerging trends, forecast etc. on various products and service segments, etc.Besides, from TAKC, I have also initiated yet another type of media information service for fulfilling the various ‘on-demand business information requests’ from our colleagues across all branches, by compiling a range of information resources, covering such as, company profiles, sector information updates, reports, consumer insights, ad spend, etc. Simultaneously, I have also upgraded the Editorial Information Services by following best practices comparable in the International media organizations. These include, a number of initiatives for the digital preservation and providing online access to various types of print media archival resources. In the process, I have helped in making the TAKC as a vital ‘knowledge support facility’ of The Times of India Group.

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  Reliance Communications

  • Mumbai Area, India

  • Head - Dhirubahi Ambani Resource Centre (DARE)

    • Apr 2004 - Dec 2005
    • Mumbai Area, India

    Worked with Reliance Group, Mumbai as the Head of Dhirubhai Ambani REsource Centre (DARE), India’s first digital biographical information centre, by documenting the history, life and accomplishments of Shri Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder CMD of the Reliance Group. I had started DARE from the scratch. Under the high-level advice of Shri Mukesh Ambani, CMD, RIL and with the able guidance of Mr A G Krishnamurthy, Founder CMD, Mudra (then, Adviser , RIL) I had set it up with special collection of over 2 lakhs unique resources on the subject, covering photographs, press clippings, video footage, oral history materials and other personal and biographical resources. The extensive biographical resources collection from DARE Digital Archive facilitated the publishing of one of its kind Coffee Table Book titled "Dhirubhai Ambani: The Man I Knew" by Smt. Kokilaben Ambani. (Please check the related news item at: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/mar/06ambani.htm). This in-house facility is available for the Reliance Group, as the inspirational resources for the generations to come.

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  British Council

  • Chennai Area, India

  • Head, Library and Information Services (S India)

    • Sep 2002 - Mar 2004
    • Chennai Area, India

    Worked with the British Council and was Heading the British Council Library (S. India Region), based in Chennai and was overseeing the 'Collection Development' work in British Libraries in the Southern region, namely Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.Here, under the guidance and support of Ms. Eunice Crook, Director of the British Council in South India and Mr. P. Jayarajan, Head, LIS (India), I was leading the National Project Team and set-up British Council Library online access facility with a host of e-resources (e.g. Ebsco, Emerald, Infotrac, Oxford Reference Online, etc.) and services, including providing access to the union-catalog of BCL Network (11 Libraries) in India with a collection of 400000 volumes of books, DVDs and Home Videos.. Then, it was the first-of-its-kind project in the 110 countries, where British Council was in operation. Through this facility we were reaching out to over 100000 members from all over India. This project and facility remains as one of the best innovative public library and information services facilities in the Country. One can check the latest version of the BCL India website at: www.library.britishcouncil.org.in. Also read a related article published in Infonews, British Council Publication at: http://rvkindia.angelfire.com/index1_files/rvkbcouncil.jpg

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  DDB Mudra Group

  • Ahmedabad

  • Head, Mudra Advertising Gallerie (MAG) and MAGINDIA.COM

    • Sep 1999 - Aug 2002
    • Ahmedabad

    Worked with Mudra Communications, Ahmedabad as the Head of Mudra Advertising Gallerie (MAG) and set-up MAGINDIA.COM, India’s first online advertising library and resource centre. Here, under the direct guidance of Mr A G Krishnamurthy, Founder CMD, Mudra, I had an opportunity to document the Indian advertising history by developing and building a rich archival collection of advertisements (over 3 lakh items) released in India from time to time – in the form of print, TV, radio, Internet, outdoor and other media. By deploying state-of-the-art web-enabled digital preservation tools, MAGINDIA.COM provided online access to its special collection of advertising archives to 1000s of advertising and marketing professionals from India and abroad. Then, this website was very unique and had won over 50 International Web Awards for its content quality and usefulness. It was also widely reported in the India media. This project was online till year 2010. Please read a related news at: http://www.financialexpress.com/old/fe/daily/20001011/efe11030.htmlAlong with MAGINDIA.COM, then I was managing Mudra’s Corporate Website www.mudra.com . Simultaneously, I had also created and managed www.mudra.net – Mudra Online Knowledge Management Centre (MOKMC) by digitally archiving the 100s of business and creative presentations made by the employees of the organization. MOKMC was Mudra’s KM facility on the Intranet, also probably first in the Indian advertising industry.

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  Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India

  • Ahmedabad Area, India

  • Librarian

    • Dec 1997 - Aug 1999
    • Ahmedabad Area, India

    Worked with EDI India as the Librarian (Manager Grade). During my tenure, under the able guidance of Dr. V. G. Patel, the then, Director of the Organization, I had an opportunity to revamp the EDI Library and Information Centre (EDILIC) facilities, (which until then was extensively focussed on Entrepreneurship Training and Development programmes offered by the institute), as a contemporary academic Library and Information Resource Centre to cater to the information needs of the new ‘Post Graduate Diploma in Management-Business Entrepreneurship’ programme launched in 1998. With additional responsibility as a Faculty Member, I had designed the curriculum for ‘IT Applications Paper’ for the PGDM-BE programme and was teaching the Course. I was also the first web-master of the Official website of the institute www.ediindia.org and apart from managing the website, also offered web-based library and information services (LIS), covering the ‘current literature in entrepreneurship and related subjects’ field. This was probably the first Library from Gujarat region (India) to start web-based LIS, then. EDILIC remains as one of the reputed Information Resource Centres in the subject domain

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  Lok Prakashan Limited

  • Ahmedabad Area, India

  • Manager, Library and Documentation - Gujarat Samachar Library

    • Oct 1996 - Nov 1997
    • Ahmedabad Area, India

    I took up the assignment with Lok Prakashan Limited, publisher of Gujarat Samachar (the leading Gujarati Newspaper in the world - www.gujaratsamachar.com ) to manage its Library and Archival facilities. During my tenure with this organization, apart from offering regular media library and archival services (e.g. press photographs access service, press clippings compilation service and current awareness service, newspaper archiving service) by closely working with Mr. Shreyans Shah (Publisher & Managing Editor of the Publication), I had prepared a detailed project proposal to develop the Gujarat Samachar Library And Documentation Centre (GLAD). I also had developed a new customised classification and indexing system for archiving various types of print media resources.

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  Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association

  • Ahmedabad Area, India

  • Librarian (Sr. Scientific Officer)

    • Jul 1992 - Sep 1996
    • Ahmedabad Area, India

    This was my first full-time job. While I was perusing my M.Phil programme at the Annamalai University (S. India), I got selected for this position through a national level interview conducted by ATIRA, an internationally reputed Textile Research Organization (http://www.atira.in/). I was assigned the responsibility of managing the ATIRA Library, which by then had an over four decades of legacy of being a world-class Library facility for ‘Textile and Allied Subjects Research and Development work’. During my tenure with ATIRA, with the support of my team, I had successfully continued the tradition of keeping an up-to-date and high-quality Library and Information Services facility by serving the information needs of over 300 ATIRA employees and hundreds of external users from Textile industry in India by facilitating information resources access to NICTAS (National information Centre for Textile and Allied Subjects). I had also taken forward the Library Automation programme initiated by my predecessor Mr. P. C. Shah (was the then, Head of NICTAS) and achieved some reasonable success in this front, as well. During the last two years of my service with ATIRA, under the advice of Mr. A. R. Garde, the then, Director of ATIRA and under the able guidance of Mr. Mr. Ratna Prabhu, Sr. Dy. Director, ATIRA, I also took the additional responsibility, as the In-charge of its Communication Dept. and was editing its Newsletter called UPDATIRA; publishing its Annual Reports; organising its Annual National Technological Conferences, Seminars, Workshops, etc. Whatever little success that I have achieved in my career today, the first formal credit goes to ATIRA, as this great organization gave me the first break ( I was just 23 Years old then) and offered me a strong professional foundation.