Let’s say you are an accomplished professional having degrees from top business schools and other professional qualifications. Maybe you have already started to chart out a fantastic career and taking up leadership roles in professional life. How can the NUJS business law diploma course help you?

A number of IIT/IIM grads who were already doing great in their professional career have taken up this course in order to master business law and regulatory skills in the last few years. Their stories and how they used these skills are inspiring to say the least.

We have not done justice in terms of sharing these success stories in the past. We have now decided to put these stories out in the universe – so that they continue to inspire others to join this extraordinary program and our dream of empowering the doers, dreamers and entrepreneurs through legal knowledge and skills become a reality.

Let us introduce you to Abhilash Acharya, a versatile professional who started his career as an engineer, then veering towards fashion and finally finding his place in IIM Ranchi. He is active as a consultant in the social entrepreneurship and governance space. He has also taken up important political positions in a national political party and continues to engage with cultural preservation projects and a number of events aimed at promoting Jharkhand as a tourist and business destination.

Abhilash signed up for the course in 2012 and finished it in 2013 while he was doing his PhD at IIM Ranchi. We recently caught up with him to ask if he has been able to use what he learned in the course. What he told us was astonishing. He has been able to use both the qualification (as he received a diploma from NUJS, one of India’s top law schools) as well as the knowledge to his benefit as he participates in new projects and sow seeds of future ventures.

Let’s hear it from Abhilash himself.

I wanted to become a lawyer at one point of time in life and that never happened. I have studied across disciplines and hold degrees in Engineering, Fashion and Management from premier (yes, triple-lettered) institutes and had other serious social and political engagements beyond academics. However, I still nurture my never-lost dream of becoming a filmmaker someday!! It sounds crazy? Well, I’ll be happier if it does 😀

Things do happen in some way, down the line, when you remain patient and have genuine objectives — at times, things even happen as search-ending accidents!!

Well, iPleaders and this course happened to me in a similar way. I was looking forward to take up a programme in law when suddenly I came across a notification informing of the Diploma in Entrepreneurship Administration & Business Laws. As usual, I Googled it up and discovered that this is exactly what I was looking for!! Heavy legal theory that has little practical implications was entirely done away with and as such, the readings became friendlier — the focus remained on learning to get things done as opposed to rote-learning.

This course has been quite a journey for me as at the end of it all, I could turn towards entrepreneurship in a big way — I have a number of projects lined up, of varied nature. Unfortunately, I can’t give away too many details at the moment.

At present, I am working towards skilling the youth for a better nation – and contribute in the areas of sports (especially kabadi & archery), tourism, hospitality, education (including digital literacy) and take a step further in preserving cultural heritage and promoting ethical practices in businesses, services & elsewhere in various capacities. Besides, I also advise political aspirants & even veterans on strategy, community-building, policy-making and frameworks of standardization to carry-out/implement meaningful projects. In the pharma & mining sectors, a couple of growing organizations had communicated their expansion plans on which I provided specific guidelines to undertake the same. All of that has been both inspiring and enriching – builds confidence and makes one a capable, independent individual.

In the future, I would continue to be an entrepreneur – social & otherwise, and try to fill in where the nation would need me the most. Err, does my dream of becoming a filmmaker go into oblivion?! NO — I’m already halfway into the process and also into managing events and promoting social causes (through mini-documentaries or even without those). Perhaps dabbling in film-making won’t be a bad idea at all – specifically the ones that would showcase women empowerment and child rights (such subjects can be both sensitive & entertaining at the same time, just the proper recipe has to be in place)!!

Was it easy for me to pursue this course? Honestly, I have been running too many schedules at my end and it more often than not became really difficult for me to go through the modules over a lengthy stretch — thankfully, the team was generous enough to put the contents in our smartphones via a pocket-friendly version of the same course (and I managed to go through those on the move 🙂 ) Basic tutorials on legal strategy, corporate governance, sources of finance, taxation were the most useful. Also, the nature of start-ups – the way one has to proceed considering future timelines to make it big!!

I was sceptic at some point if I will be able to put into use all the hi-fi skills I was being taught. To my surprise, opportunities sprung up as I learned new things. Any advisory role would demand some exposure to fundamental legal knowledge too. The nitty-gritties of setting up a trust, NGO and LLP were immensely valuable. The relevant modules came in handy whenever a step had to be taken.

No matter who you are, where you are or what you do — in case you seriously wish to make it big in life as an independent brand, then do follow your dreams, and this course is something that would simply catalyze the process and help you in creating the best path for yourself. Being armed with a diploma in law from a prestigious national law school in itself speaks volumes – it gives the signal to the people working with you that your understanding of legal and regulatory situation should be and can be taken seriously. Given the kind of work I’m into, it does help a lot indeed, especially as one climbs the stairs of seniority and responsibility. The early headstart in legal strategy making and insights into dispute resolution is also a superb advantage.

Also, joining the course has given me a new fraternity. It indeed feels great to have been associated with iPleaders…and I would be glad to continue with this relationship. I continue to get professional support from them. You can always reach out to the alumni or iPleaders founders themselves and ask for a favour.

I would strongly recommend this course to people (age no bar, beyond fulfilling the eligibility criteria) who are interested in bringing out something new (in any form) which shall be innovative and meaningful in the long run, and those who are interested in organization building – as the course helps in minimizing the number of legal and strategic hurdles that one may face after taking the plunge. You will be much more educated and smart with respect to a whole range of things once you even go through the course even partially.

This is Abhilash, signing off — until we meet again!! Maybe someday I’ll see you at your nearest theater 🙂

Good luck and best wishes — may all our endeavours see the bright light of the day.