What is your professional background?
I work as a business development consultant for the non-profit sector. My expertise includes business development mapping, operations process management and enterprise solutions.

Why did you apply for the iVolunteer India Fellow Professional Programme ?
I was fascinated by the opportunities of sharing my technical and professional skills with the needy rural community and learning from them the traditional vernacular knowledge upheld by rural communities.

What was your project at the NGO?
The project was focused on agricultural marketing, solutions to avoid distress selling and optimising benefits for the farmers while they sell their products.

How was your experience as a Professional Fellow?
The most important part of iVolunteer India Fellow project is trust in your professional skills to shoulder the responsibility. Though, I realised that my approach to the project proved to be incorrect and needed detailed discussion with the host NGO. In the limited time I had, taking up issues holistically was not possible and the host NGO expected instant output out of the research rather than to build up the system. I would say that the experience was not a rosy picture but the experience of delivering results while working within constrains of time and resources left a long lasting impact on me.

How do you think the Professional Fellow experience is adding value to your career as a professional?
It has added many dimensions to my approach. Today my approach is characterised by the 360 degree perspective to indulge the work in the given situation.

Ranjit Singh is a journalist, and an iVolunteer India Fellow Professional in 2007.

What is your professional background?
I work as an Executive Editor with Sikkim Now; a leading daily based in Sikkim. I have experience in writing project proposals, people and project management while working with an NGO.

Why did you apply for the iVolunteer India Fellow Professional Programme ?
I am looking forward to understanding people's difficulties, the challenges they face and the social development scenario through hands on experience.

What was your project at the NGO?
The project was focused on understanding and assessing the progress as well as success or failures of watershed development in rural Maharashtra and its other impacts, social as well as economical.

How was your experience as a Professional Fellow?
Certainly the experience as a professional fellow was very educative and interesting. I started with apprehension about my capacity to contribute towards the NGO or community. Going out to rural Maharashtra was a new experience and it was something I was looking forward to. The project called for high analytical skills especially for planning and execution.

How do you think the Professional Fellow experience is adding value to your career as a professional?
The experience has enhanced my professional capacities with new insights. It made me more mature with new and varied awareness and allows for a sympathetic man-management interaction in my present professional career. The work experience itself, especially the intense research and analysis involved has certainly made me sharper and more confident.