Pictured LtoR Lavanya, Anant N.,Anant A., Lawrence, Josh, Gabby, Raisa and Chitra

It’s hard to that I have been in India a little over a month now. It’s been a whirlwind of an experience working with Shahi. The first weeks have been spending time familiarizing with the interworking of Shahi. We have been exposed to the entire process of making garments. After watching the process I can proudly say anyone who believes the garment industry is a low-skilled industry, clearly has not tried any of the various tasks required to make a garment! Shahi in partnership with Ministry of Textiles provides training to people interested in joining the garment industry. The training last for a little longer than a month, afterward the trainees graduate to Shahi employees.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Shahi is one of the largest garment companies in India! As a result Shahi has many factories, scattered across India. As interns we have been shown many of Shahi’s factories around Karanataka by Anant A., Chitra, and the rest of the Organizational Development (OD) team. Visiting the factories often feels like road trips for us. Between the Bengalore traffic and the distance between factories, I’m pretty sure that we Shahi interns must rank high on the most traveled interns. These journeys have provided me an opportunity to read books that have been on my reading list for a while now. It has been eye opening to see the differentiation between both neighborhoods in Bangalore, and differentiation between city life and bucolic life.

OD and me

As CASI interns we have been placed under the guidance of the OD team. Chitra heads Shahi’s OD team for South India. Words can’t convey how valuable she has been in acclimating us to Shahi. After spending a few weeks learning the ropes, I have decided to focus my energy on a few areas, developing a marketing strategy for OD, conducting research on some of Shahi’s longest serving employees and working on a curriculum framework for Shahi’s daycare centers (crèche) with my fellow intern Raisa.

I chose these specific projects because they allow me to both challenge myself with new tasks and allow me to utilize skills I have learned from Penn. Both the marketing plan and research will use skills I have learned at Penn. As a bonus it gives me the opportunity skills I have learned in my marketing classes. I’m really excited about the opportunity use these, as I know my heart and mind is set on pursuing a path in law, rather than business. The crèche project will challenge me most. It’s actually one of the reasons I was most excited about joining Shahi this summer. I know the vital role that education plays in early childhood development. Every child deserves the best opportunity for success, and that starts with daycare. Shahi’s crèche facilitates must provide the foundation for education for thousands of children. I will lean on the assistance of OD, my fellow interns and educators here in India and back in the US to make the best contribution to crèche that I can. I look forward to updating my progress in future posts.