Anisha Pandeya: Leading with Innovation, Delivering Technology

Anisha Pandeya is a seasoned technocrat with over 18 years of experience in software  industry. She is an engineer by mind and a poet at heart. The blend of art and science fuels  the innovator within her. Coming from a small village in Bihar, her journey has been a true  roller coaster. From glimpsing a computer mouse just in newspaper articles to becoming a  lead architect of software – she has come a long way. Her work is an extension of her  personality and she writes to express herself.

From Farm to Technology: A Journey of Rapid Transformation

Anisha has been brought up in a small village of Bihar – Surrounded by the intricacies of  village life, yet raised in a thoughtful and progressive family. Her schooling was simple, like  that of any other child in the village. However, her mother always wanted her to excel  academically and kept pushing her to do better.

During her childhood, her grandfather wanted to make her a super woman by exposing her to  all basics of a village life – from farming to gardening to stock raising. She believes that the  first-hand experience of all these essentials of village life have helped her a long way in her  life and profession. Her resilience and tenacity comes from the rusticity and earthiness of that  rural life.

She now humorously tells her story of very first encounter with computer system, where she  could not make out the difference between a CPU box and UPS box. That how she was not  able to control mouse on screen whereas all other students were drawing and colouring some  shapes on MS paint with ease.

From knowing little about technology to becoming a seasoned technocrat reflects a  remarkable transformation in her life. Today, while juggling the binaries of 0s and 1s, she  often fondly recalls the versatility of agrarian life.

The Perfect Fit for a Misfit

Anisha was always a misfit to the general norms of society. During her school days, she used  to be the best student in a co-ed class where girls students were just a handful, (remember that  till today we are at “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao”). Despite being the best student in the class,  the tabu of girls not being good at Mathematics hounded her. On opting for Advanced  Mathematics in Ninth grade – her teacher asked – are you able to understand the subject. She  tells “I did not understand motive of the question at that time, for me it was a regular question  being asked from a student, until the teacher himself told one of the boy student that he  should be ashamed of himself that being a girl I am able to understand and he is not.”

On asking about discrimination faced by her during her career or life in general – she says “I  do not see any problem as specific to women; I see it as a challenge for every human being. The issue I am facing might be an issue for my fellow male counterpart as well. The day we  begin to view all genders simply as human beings, the discrimination that arises in our minds  will begin to disappear.”

Delivering technology for Social Impact

Anisha is working in Centre For Railway Information Systems (CRIS) – An organisation  under Ministry of Railways as Associate General Manager. Since her joining, she has created  several software products for improving train journey experience of fellow citizens. 

One of her recent work is the RailOne App – SuperApp of Indian Railways. The RailOne  App is a one-stop platform for all public facing services of Indian Railways. It eliminates need of downloading multiple apps to avail different services of Indian Railways and also  eliminates the need of remembering different credentials.

While the concept itself is not unique, implementing it within a vast service provider like  Indian Railways is a first, supported by an intuitive and easy-to-use interface. The entire  range of services like ticketing (reserved, unreserved, platform), enquiry services (PNR and  train related), RailMadad and Single-Sign-On facility was integrated within months of formal  sanction of the project by the ministry.

She and her team has developed and delivered such a vast App within a span of just 1.5 years with unwavering quality. She takes great pride in delivering this service to fellow citizens,  contributing to a smoother and more convenient rail journey.

The paradox of figurative thinking

Anisha loves to express herself through her Hindi poems.. She has a distinct style of writing  wherein she tries to tell a short story in form of verses.. Her writing style denotes  completeness with no lose ends to guess.. Although, the profession in which she is demands  logical thinking which contradicts with the figurative thinking of poetry, yet she writes at  times, either to cleanse her thoughts or for motivation. She aspires to publish her first  collection of poems soon.

Her message to every girl who dares to dream

It does not matter from where you come from. People will say many things – they will  ridicule you, they will typecast you, they will even denigrate you for your background, do not  listen to them – focus on yourself, keep going.. keep dreaming… in the end nothing matters more than what you dared to do in your life… We all have only one life – everyone around  matters and we should have respect and care for every living soul… but, foremost, be honest  to yourself… respect yourself and care for yourself…