I wanted to be a Radiation Scientist; NCUI Chief Executive opens up

In his first media interaction after taking over as the Chief Executive of the apex co-op body NCUI, Sudhir Mahajan explained how joining a govt job was an accident for him. Inclined to academics from his student life, Mahajan has several prestigious degrees under his belt.

Nursing an ambition to become a Research Scientist, Mahajan had enrolled himself in a Bachelor of Science course in one of the colleges of Delhi University. But the personal incident of his mother falling prey to cancer forced him to study an advanced course of radiation science.

I have seen the negative impact of radiation on my mother and I wanted to come up with a method of the same which has lesser evil results, said Mahajan going down memory lane.

Mahajan enrolled himself in JNU in M.SC (Radiations). Later he even completed Phd from JNU itself despite being active in govt services. A man whose first choice was academic Mahajan also later joined LLB from Delhi University and acquired the degree.

Mahajan’s only regret was that he could not finish off MBA course, which he had also joined. The hustle and bustle of civil services left him with little time to pursue the course, he lamented.

But as luck would have it, Mahajan got into the govt service by clearing UPSC’s Civil Service Examination in the year 1987. He got into DANICS, which means he was an officer with UT cadre. He got IAS cadre known as AUGUM in 2005.

“Though I do not claim to be an expert of cooperative matters but it is also not so that I am innocent of the sector”, said Mahajan who worked with then Cooperative Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan in the Sheila Dixit govt in the past.

Tuesday was in a way the first day for him at NCUI when Indian Cooperative team met him. Though he had joined on Monday, he left soon for the Ministry. Mahajan was welcomed by the employees and during the interaction the newly appointed Chief Executive impressed upon the idea of work commitment in enhancing the image of the organization and its growth.

Mahajan was also taken around the campus by NCUI employees. He visited NCCE Centre which is actively imparting training not only to co-operators of the country but also SAARC nations. He also visited the NCUI hostel and its sprawling auditorium—the biggest for any cooperative organization in the country.

The NCUI officials accompanying him and explaining things to him included V K Dubey, Ved Prakash Setia, Ashish Dwivedi, Kutty and others. In a brief interaction that this correspondent had with the new Chief Executive, he came across as straight and uncomplicated.