This letter strongly recommends Ms. Swasti Srivastva for admission. It provides background on the author, a tenured professor at a top Indian technical institute, who has authored over 350 research articles. The author has known Ms. Srivastva for over two years through an internship and professional collaboration. Ms. Srivastva is described as bright, dedicated, and intelligent with an innovative problem-solving approach. She demonstrated strong academic performance in her undergraduate degree and high school. During her internship, she made significant contributions to a research project through data analysis and reporting. She is humble, committed to her goals, and demonstrated strong work ethic and interpersonal skills during the internship.

1. LETTER OF RECOMMENDATION
Before I present my reasons for strongly supporting Ms. Swasti Srivastva’s application, I
would like to provide a brief introduction/background about me. I am a tenured Professor at
the Department of Management Studies at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India, which
is top-ranked Technical and Management Institute in India. My research and teaching is in
the area of Operations and Supply Chain Management, Business Analytics and Technology
Management. I have authored over 350 research articles in leading academic journals
including European Journal of Operational Research, IEEE Transactions, Computers and
Operations Research, International Journal of Production Economics, International Journal
of Production Research, etc. In two recent working papers by leading researchers of
Germany and India, I am ranked as the top-most productive researcher in India in
management disciplines by virtue of my research impact. My research has been funded by
International Grants from the British Council, European Union, Ministry of Science &
Technology, etc. In teaching, I have won numerous awards including the Best Professor
Award in Supply Chain Management area by prestigious World Education Forum.
Professionally, I have known Ms. Swasti Srivastva for over two years. Since she worked with
me as an Intern and also maintained the professional linkages later in my area – Supply
Chain Management, I can comment knowledgeably on Swasti's expertise and strengths.
Ms. Swasti Srivastva is a bright, dedicated and intelligent person. Her core-strength lies in
innovative approach towards problem solving. She has a unique "knack" for analyzing
complex problems and then synthesizing creative "takeaways" from her domain expertise
and experience. More specifically, I have following observations to offer.
Academic Proficiency:
On reviewing Swasti’s materials, I was particularly impressed by her Undergrad marks
(CGPA: 8.6/10) in her Bachelor’s Program in Information Science. Her consistency in her
academics is also reflected in her high school grades of 90% (it is called as 10th Grade
Exam in India) and pre-engineering grades of 94.12% (it is called as 12th Grade Exam in
India). By any yard stick, it should be among top 5% of students qualifying in these exams.
Potential for Higher Studies:
Swasti worked with me as an Intern for 03 months during June to September 2013, which
was soon after completing her under-graduation and just before joining Tata Consultancy
Services as a software engineer. She worked on a project “Next Generation Sustainable
Freight Transportation (NEX-GIFT),” which is funded by British Council as a trilateral UKIERI
Project, involving University of Sheffield UK, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
USA and Temple University Philadelphia USA. Her involvement was during the early stage
of this project, when we were conducting the pilot study and developing a framework for the
project. Her contributions were significant, despite the fact that she was raw in this area. She
worked on the data gathering, data cleaning and data visualization aspects of the project.
She proactively came up with new ideas. Through her good understanding of DBMS and
Analytics concepts, she made a significant contribution during the early stage of my project. I
have all appreciation for her commitment and urge to learn. She was quite regular and

2. sincere to the work assigned to her. I still remember her excellent ability to compile and
analyze data. She can write a good report for the analysis that she does. Personal Traits:
Swasti is very humble and down to earth individual. She is very committed for her goals in
life. She is soft spoken and a good team worker. Of course, on some occasions, I found her
too much involved in the work assigned to her. I remember asking her to remain relaxed.
She improved much on this account, especially, the balance between work and personal life.
Throughout the project, she demonstrated exceptional work ethics and strong interpersonal
skills. In every meeting, she updated me with the progress made and discussed the further
plan of action. She used to take my suggestions carefully and execute them appropriately.
This shows her sincerity and ability to plan and execute task assigned to her.
Thank you for utilizing my services as a referee and I hope you find my evaluation useful.
Dr. Ravi Shankar
Professor
Department of Management Studies,
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi