Vikram Solar

Both Wam and Kai total are built on substantially more automated lines than our legacy capacity and the operating metrics already be out manpower deployment has come down to around by around 40%.

My cousin was happy after the rupee hit a record low of 96.2 against the US dollar. High crude prices, rising global yields and weak investor sentiment have put pressure on the currency. I asked him why he was happy. He said - If the rupee reaches 100, currency conversion will at least become easy. $1 = ₹100 Finally, one calculation in CA Final will be simple. Then he realised the question will still ask him to use ₹95.78 as the exchange rate.

Recently, I visited three different companies different solar plant sites to conduct RCA (Root Cause Analysis) after severe sandstorms and heavy wind pressure caused multiple MMS module tables, along with their piles, to uproot completely. During the investigation, I found some serious quality and execution concerns. In several locations, the actual concrete foundation depth was only around 800 mm to 1200 mm, whereas the approved design depth was 2.5 meters. In a few piles, even the extension columns were not properly fixed. Another critical observation was related to the module tilt angle. Since these plants were designed considering May month wind conditions, the approved design tilt angle was 17 degrees. However, at site level, the structures were installed at around 27 degrees. Because of this higher tilt angle, airflow could not properly pass beneath the tables during the storm, which created excessive upward wind pressure on the modules and MMS structure. Combined with poor concrete quality and inadequate foundation depth, this ultimately resulted in the uprooting of entire tables. This is not just a technical issue, it is a responsibility issue. As professionals, our focus should always be on quality execution and long-term reliability. Short-term financial gains or cost-cutting at the site level should never put a company at risk. Such practices not only lead to huge financial losses but also damage the brand image and client trust built over years. I strongly believe that if any team feels their salary or work conditions are not aligned with their efforts, they should openly discuss it with management. And if things still don’t improve, changing the company is always an option. But compromising on quality and delivering unsafe or incomplete work should never be acceptable. In infrastructure and renewable energy projects, every foundation matters because safety, reliability, and reputation are built from the ground up. Quality is not an expense. It is an investment in trust. #SolarEnergy #RenewableEnergy #Engineering #RCA #QualityMatters #SolarProjects #Infrastructure #ConstructionQuality #WindLoad #SiteExecution #Leadership

India has increased customs duty on gold and silver from 6% to 15% and I think almost every Indian household will indirectly feel the impact of this in some way. Basic customs duty has been increased from 5% to 10%, while AIDC cess has been raised from 1% to 5%. Just days back, PM Modi had appealed to people to avoid buying gold for a year amid pressure on forex reserves and the rupee. India imports most of its gold, so higher imports also mean higher dollar outflows. And when the rupee is under pressure, even consumer buying habits become an economic discussion. A few things that I think could happen now: • Buying gold jewellery may become even more expensive for households. • Wedding jewellery purchases may slow down. • Jewellery stocks could see short-term pressure. • Gold ETFs may see more interest instead of physical gold. Interesting how one policy decision can impact households, investments, stock markets and the rupee together. What do you think - will Indians actually reduce gold purchases?

I’ve been tracking credit card data and one shift is becoming hard to ignore. The reward game in India is quietly being rewritten. Across issuers like HDFC Bank , Kotak Mahindra Bank , ICICI Bank and Axis Bank , players like American Express , benefits are being trimmed and conditions are getting sharper: • Annual fee waivers now need spends of ₹8L to ₹18L in many premium cards • Lounge access is no longer “free” for everyone, it is increasingly spend-linked • Reward rates and airline or hotel transfer ratios are being revised without much notice • Even premium cards like Infinia, Emeralde, Magnus, Platinum Travel are seeing changes in how rewards are earned or redeemed At the same time, newer players like IDFC FIRST Bank and even public sector banks like Bank of Baroda and Punjab National Bank are pushing premium cards with simpler, more transparent structures to capture this segment. The market is expanding fast. Millions of new cards are being issued, but a small set of high-spending users is driving a large part of the rewards cost. I’ve been observing this closely and the intent is clear. Banks are moving from rewarding access to rewarding profitability. Earlier, getting a premium card was enough to unlock outsized benefits. Now, sustaining those benefits needs consistent and meaningful spend. I think this changes how we should approach credit cards completely. As rewards get tougher to unlock, the real question is no longer which card gives more. It is about how spending habits and card choices need to evolve together. What starts working now is far more intentional: - Using fewer cards - Matching cards to actual spending patterns - Ignoring benefits that force unnecessary spending I’ve started looking at my own cards differently. Not as reward generators, but as tools aligned to specific categories of spend. Going ahead, the winners won’t be the ones extracting the most rewards. They will be the ones who don’t need to change their behaviour to earn them. What do you think? Data source: The Economic Times

Every year, we add around 20 million petrol two-wheelers on our roads. I used to look at this as a simple growth number. Now it feels very different. Each of these vehicles is a 10–15 year commitment to oil consumption. At this pace, India is heading towards a 300 million+ two-wheeler fleet very soon. That is not just scale. That is locking in petrol demand for a generation. I don’t think this angle gets enough attention in the EV conversation. We spend time debating upfront costs, subsidies and infrastructure. But the real lever is timing. Once this fleet is built, it stays for over a decade. I find the three-wheeler segment interesting here. It did not wait for perfect conditions. The moment running economics made sense, adoption flipped. Today, electric three-wheelers dominate new sales in many parts of the country. This is where the incentives to the right players, especially startups in the Gov of India’s Auto PLI scheme under Ministry Of Heavy Industries can unlock massive potential that can quicken the EV adoption in the country. The EV 2W and 3W industry is still nascent, which means the window to shape this transition is open right now. The longer we delay, the more we are committing ourselves to future oil imports that become very hard to undo. That is why electrifying two-wheelers feels less like a climate choice and more like a strategic one. #India #Linkedin #EV #Energy

Last week, I was having a discussion with two friends about the Kharghar project. One was thinking about shifting with family. The other was running numbers on Excel for investment. Same property. Completely different lenses. The first one was talking about roads, greenery, commute - how the area feels on a daily basis. The second one didn’t care about any of that. His questions were around appreciation, rental potential and exit timelines. That’s when it clicked. Kharghar is one of those rare markets where both of them were… right. If you’re buying to live, the value is visible immediately. Better planning, wider roads, improving connectivity - things you feel every single day. If you’re investing, it plays out differently. No sharp spikes, but that 5–8% annual appreciation keeps compounding quietly… along with LTCG benefits over time. Also, when developers like Godrej Properties Limited are active in a location, it adds a layer of predictability - both in execution and in how the area shapes up over time. So Kharghar right now isn’t really about choosing between living or investing. It’s one of those places where your reason to buy matters more than the decision itself.

When I read that Pocket FM took 6 years to reach $200M ARR, and then added the next $200M in just 12 months with AI changing how content is created and scaled… It felt less like growth, more like a shift. That’s $200M to $400M ARR, with half of it coming in a year. And it tells you a few things most people are missing - India didn’t just adopt a new format, it scaled it globally. Long-form audio across 20+ countries is now mainstream, not niche. This isn’t virality led growth. 80,000+ hours of content every month only works if people stay. I think this is a pure retention play, not a reach game. Monetisation is the real signal. Not just ads anymore, people are directly paying for what they want to listen to. 300,000+ creators, but this isn’t a random UGC. This looks more like a studio system at scale - structured, repeatable, exportable. And then the most interesting part - speed with profitability. 2x ARR in a year and ~5% EBITDA positive is rare to see, especially at this scale. Also explains why one creator can make ~$50,000 in a month from a single story. I don’t think we’ve fully processed what that unlock means yet. I believe that India is no longer just a content market. It’s becoming a content engine. Rohan Nayak Prateek Dixit

If you have taken a home loan or are planning to take one, don’t expect your EMI to reduce anytime soon. The Reserve Bank of India kept the repo rate at 5.25%. Your EMI isn’t going up. But more importantly - it’s not coming down anytime soon. Also, the benefit of earlier rate cuts continues - so EMIs are already lower than last year. I see it like this - West Asia tensions → crude moving closer to $100. Higher crude = higher inflation risk for India. And that’s exactly what RBI is watching I feel this is a calculated move. I don’t think cutting rates now would have been the right call. For borrowers, businesses and investors: Rates bring stability, but the next move depends on inflation. And right now, inflation is being driven more by global factors than domestic ones. I think this pause is less about today… and more about being ready for what comes next.