He looks like the typical studious scientist who spends most of his day in research and has time for little else. Reticent in his interactions, he is soft spoken, to the point of being apologetic, and a good listner. But, the difference is that although Dr Ashok Kaushal takes his work and responsibilities very seriously. He obviously enjoys interacting with his team members and the bonhomie and team spirit amongst them is very evident.

Dr. Kaushal joined C-DAC in 1988 as Member Technical Staff. Subsequently, he was Team Coordinator of the Image Processing and Signal Processing group. He was also Center Coordinator of C-DAC, Pune and Chief Vigilance Officer during 1994-96. Presently, he is the Project Co-ordinator of the Geomatics Group where he is leading a team of young professionals.

Dr Kaushal has spent a good twelve years of his professional life with C-DAC. Ask him the secret of his loyalty to C-DAC and pat comes the reply “I like the environment. I feel that my college days are back. Here, one has the freedom to express oneself, freedom to work at any time, even on holidays. The open door policy is a motivating factor, wherein one can interact with seniors and juniors and exchange knowledge & experiences without any hierarchical obstacles. The key is ‘flexibility’. This is the biggest strength of this organization. I always feel young here even at the age of 40”.

According to Dr Kaushal, another strength of C-DAC is its niche area of operation- that of high end or advanced information technology developments. The pride in his voice is evident when he recalls C-DAC’s achievements of meeting the almost impossible challenge of building a supercomputer and doing the country proud.

Reminiscing about some insecure and hard moments in C-DAC, he recalls with distress, the time when some members of the First Mission team left C-DAC, “I felt very bad and was shaken about it. However, I soon learnt to live with the reality, that members will come and go and one should view it with detachment. It is important that the exodus of people never hampered our work or project. Now, this has become a common phenomenon. It never bothers me much. But I wonder what is this energy that makes C-DAC live up to its commitment in such adverse situations.” He observes quietly.

Coming back to the present, Dr Kaushal reiterates, “What we need to do is work towards the ISO 9000 certification. This certificate itself will give us stability in all our work. There will be a lot of efficiency tools; documentation will be available for reference at any given point of time and will certainly help the new members joining C-DAC. The certification will definitely reduce the project completion and delivery time, much to the satisfaction of clients. Simultaneously, I do feel that C-DAC must sustain its advanced computing R&D and its commercial activities.” he adds.

And what does Dr. Kaushal enjoy other than his work? “I love travelling!” he exclaims. “I have travelled to as many as forty countries and to almost every city in India except the Northeast. I started travelling since the days of my schooling, which began, from my journey to participate in the International Children Camp at Arctic, Black Sea and USSR,” he adds.

Commenting on his expectations from his juniors and new members, he remarks ‘ Commitment to work and assignments must come first. Each member must take responsibility for his on her efforts. What is important is not the focus on the time spent but deliveries. Their performance must speak for itself. They must be result oriented, not time oriented.”