Anurag Meshram is the Joint Director of the Transformation Cell of the Indian Railways. A state owned national transporter, Indian Railways is responsible for rail transport in India and is owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. Meshram completed his Master’s Degree at Cornell University in Industrial and Labor Relations, and used Coursera to fill the gaps in his studies. Here is his story:
I am an officer in the Indian Railway Personnel Service which is one of the branches in the civil services group. As a director in the transformation cell of the Ministry of Railways my main focus is driving the transformation initiatives of railway for HR. The most important project I am working on is setting up the National Rail & Transportation University.
The immediate impact Coursera had on my life was that it helped me get into a Masters program at Cornell University. Since my early education in mathematics ended after 10th grade, I was finding it difficult to get accepted into grad programs, and that’s when Coursera came to the rescue. While searching for certification courses, I came across Coursera and was immediately impressed by the content and quality of courses offered. I earned certificates in Pre-Calculus: Trigonometry and Pre-Calculus: Functions and mentioned those in my statement of purpose when applying for my graduate degree. I believe that this had a big impact on being accepted into the Master in Labor and Industrial Relations program at Cornell.
Now I am hooked to Coursera, and at any given point in time I am taking various courses related to my job. This year I have completed the course Data-Driven Decision Making by PwC and have learned the importance of data in decision making, which I am applying to my work at Indian Railways. Thanks Coursera!