New Delhi, Sept. 28 -- After cracking one of India's toughest examinations, most students of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) often dream of securing high-paying jobs at multinational companies (MNCs), while some aspire to settle abroad. However, Nitin Gupta, who secured AIR 1 in 2000, chose a completely different path, and his decision was influenced, by the Shah Rukh Khan film Swades.

Gupta secured an IIT degree in computer science in 2000. After securing the top rank, he moved to the University of California, San Diego. His PhD at the University of California, San Diego, focused on bioinformatics and systems biology. Following this, he spent time in a cognitive neuroscience laboratory before moving to the National Institutes...