{"id":689,"date":"2026-08-04T07:18:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T07:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/?p=689"},"modified":"2026-08-04T07:18:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T07:18:05","slug":"nptel-redefined-me-hs-sureshchandra-where-age-is-literally-just-a-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/nptel-redefined-me-hs-sureshchandra-where-age-is-literally-just-a-number\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cNPTEL Redefined Me\u201d: HS Sureshchandra, Where Age Is (Literally) Just a Number"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Sureshchandra H.S.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the exam centre gate, the security guard tried to stop the silver\u2011haired man in a neatly pressed shirt, assuming he was there to drop off a student. More than half a dozen times, HS Sureshchandra had to produce his hall ticket to prove he was the candidate, not the parent, there to take another NPTEL exam alongside learners young enough to be his sons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 60, he had recently retired as COO of QUEST, where he oversaw nearly a thousand engineers. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics from RV College of Engineering; a Master’s from BITS Pilani in Telecommunications & Software Engineering; an MBA from IIM-Bangalore; and a PMP certification. On paper, there was little left to prove – and yet the books kept calling. Since 2017, he has taken NPTEL exams in nearly every semester, accumulating 40+ certifications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suresh’s relationship with NPTEL began well before the exam halls and certificates. Back in 2007, while doing his Master\u2019s at BITS Pilani, a colleague sent him a link to the NPTEL portal. “I knew I had hit a treasure trove,” he recalled.The portal’s lectures and course materials mapped almost perfectly onto his coursework, helping him earn a strong CGPA. Then promotions came, responsibilities grew, and NPTEL receded into the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But around 2017, as his role grew more managerial, he felt increasingly disconnected from the technical foundations he valued. Lectures alone weren’t enough. He needed what he calls “positive stress” – the rigour of assignments and exams that forces knowledge to stick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He signed up for nearly every NPTEL semester thereafter – rising before dawn to study, and on project travel, letting hotel rooms in Pune, Hyderabad, and Delhi double as midnight classrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across nine consecutive years, Suresh built a record that is hard to overlook. He became the topper in more than 20 courses – including securing first rank in Entrepreneurship Essentials, taught by Prof. M.K. Mondal, scoring 98 out of 100. He earned a Domain Certification in \u2018Data Science\u2019 in 2022. Then in early 2026, he topped six out of eight exams in a single semester – earning his NPTEL Megastar and Domain Certification in \u2018AI\u2019, and with them, completing every star recognition the platform offers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from the rankings, NPTEL brought Suresh words he’d never forget. When Professor Prabhakar of IISc – who taught his first NPTEL course, \u2018Design of IoT\u2019 – wrote to IIT Madras’ Prof. Mangala Sunder about his certifications, the response stayed with him: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“I’m shaken with joy – if there were a president’s gold medal for online learning at IIT, it should go to you.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Industry peers took notice too; DRDO’s then-chairman, Dr. Satheesh Reddy, expressed admiration that a director-level professional was pursuing learning so actively..\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suresh never studied at an IIT or IISc, and he knows many learners from tier-2 and tier-3 colleges who carry that same quiet regret. In his view, NPTEL closes that distance – giving any sincere student<\/em> access to the country’s best faculty, and a credential that reflects effort industry can respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the structured professional chapter has closed, Suresh, a self-described \u201cfree bird\u201d, is sketching the next one – a social enterprise that puts his years of learning to work on problems to society. From those years of 3:30 a.m. mornings and exam halls full of people half his age, he carries one conviction: that there is far more latent potential in each of us than we allow ourselves to discover.<\/em> NPTEL, for him, was simply the place where he chose to find out. “NPTEL redefined me,” he said. Not many people, at sixty, can say something changed them. He can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

~written by Nehansh Kesharwani<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sureshchandra H.S. At the exam centre gate, the security guard tried to stop the silver\u2011haired man in a neatly pressed shirt, assuming he was there to drop off a student. More than half a dozen times, HS Sureshchandra had to produce his hall ticket to prove he was the candidate, not the parent, there to … <\/p>\n

Read more “\u201cNPTEL Redefined Me\u201d: HS Sureshchandra, Where Age Is (Literally) Just a Number”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nptel-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":692,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions\/692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.nptel.ac.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}