-Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)
Sriya Sainath (25), a computer science engineering graduate of NIT-Rourkela and currently a first year MBA student of the blue-chip IIM-Bangalore, was adjudged Young Analyst 2022 of the London-based Institute of Analytics (IoA) in early March. IoA is a global organisation established to encourage responsible and ethical data science professionals.
Earlier in 2018 while interning with Adobe Research, Mumbai after she bagged the Adobe India Women in Technology Scholarship besting 4,000 contenders, Sriya secured a patent supported by Adobe for a novel dynamic pricing mechanism she designed for data enterprises. Subsequently during a three-year stint with Microsoft India, Hyderabad (2019-2022) after graduation, she worked on integrating privacy safeguards into data storage systems.
“I’m very grateful to Prof. Dinesh Kumar, chairperson at the Data Centre and Analytics Lab of IIM-B’s Decision Sciences department for nominating me. Now as a youth ambassador of IoA, I am committed to promoting responsible use of data and fostering a culture of ethical data usage and professionalism within the community,” she says.
Although born and raised in non-metro Bhubaneswar (Odisha), the younger daughter of Basant Nanda, a senior sales executive in a private firm, and mother Lali Rath, a rural development trainer, Sriya was inspired to achieve by her grandmother Debjani Mishra, the state’s first woman mountaineer, and grandfather Rabindranath Rath, a former IAS officer as much as by her parents. “My grandmother taught me to scale new heights even with sub-standard equipment. Since then, I have never been shy of aiming high,” says Sriya, a school and college topper and winner of InsideIIM’s ‘Most Promising Incoming MBA Student’ award against 3,000 applicants from India’s top B-schools last August.
Evidently, there’s no stopping this young winner who aims high and devises ways and means to get there. “ I intend to apply my learning to start my own venture. It is entirely possible to create value for others and do it while respecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” says this driven achiever.
Wind beneath your wings!
