District Collector of Chandrapur and National Law School of India University (NLSIU) graduate Ashutosh Salil has been granted the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Master’s Fellowship. He is all set to take a year off from being an administrator to pursue an LL.M. at Harvard University.
“I am in my third year as a District Collector, and being in the position that I am in, my word is usually the last word. I am looking forward to meeting different people with different perspectives; people who are smarter than me, and who will challenge me,” said Ashutosh when asked what prompted him to apply.
This is only the second year that the Fellowships are being offered in the legal space; Ashutosh said that he had heard about this from a friend. He said that that the application process in itself was fairly elaborate, and quite a task for a working professional. It took him about a month to complete
Ashutosh, will be returning to service after his one year stint at Harvard, and that is no surprise given how well he has done.
He received the best Collector award for 2015-16, and 2016-17 (Maharashtra), and has been lauded for openly declaring his assets to the public via a poster in print outside his office.
He said that being a trained lawyer had helped him immensely in his profession.
“A big part of a civil servant’s job is to either make laws or interpret them. Receiving a firm grounding during my time at NLS helped me cope with understanding and interpreting government and sub-ordinate legislation.
One of the complaints one hears frequently is that laws are drafted badly. It is bureaucrats that make cabinet notes, and are involved in the wording of legislation. I think my time at Harvard will help to this end as well,” he added.
Ashutosh, who is a 2006 NLSIU graduate, worked with the Capital Markets team of the erstwhile Amarchand Mangaldas for a year, before taking his first crack at the Union Public Service Comission (UPSC) exam in 2008.
He secured the 194th rank in his first attempt, and was well on his way to becoming a police officer. But he then found out that he was partially colour blind, and hence medically unfit. He took the ultra competitive exam again in 2009, and was ranked 54th, making him eligible for the India Administrative Service (IAS).