R. Sivarajan Joined Su-Kam from IIT Delhi
When Sanjeev Saini joined Su-Kam in 2001 as our first R&D engineer, we were building something from scratch. Within a year, it was clear we needed to grow the team with people who could contribute to genuinely original technical work. In 2002, I hired R. Sivarajan from IIT Delhi.
He held an M.Tech in Power Electronics with Distinction, with a project from IIT Delhi — exactly the background you want when you are pushing the boundaries of power conversion technology in India.
He joined the R&D team alongside Sanjeev, and the three of us — Sanjeev, Sivarajan, and I — became a working unit. We spoke almost daily. About new ideas. About the status of ongoing projects. About what the technology was capable of and what we had not yet figured out how to do. R&D was my first passion, and those conversations were the lifeblood of how Su-Kam’s technology actually got built.
The three of us — Sanjeev, Sivarajan, and I — spoke almost daily about new ideas and the status of projects. R&D was my first passion, and those conversations were how Su-Kam’s innovations actually got built.
The Brief Detour to GE — and Why Sivarajan Came Back
At one point during his time at Su-Kam, Sivarajan left briefly to join GE Power and Energy — one of the most demanding environments in the world for a power electronics engineer. At GE, he worked on a 100kW Online UPS — a project at a scale very few Indian engineers had the opportunity to work on. He also earned a GE-certified Six Sigma certification.
But he came back to Su-Kam. And I think that says something — both about him and about what we were building. The work at GE was world-class, but the work at Su-Kam was his own. He came back to a place where his ideas had a shorter path from whiteboard to market, where the ownership was real. That kind of return — walking away from a global brand to come back to something smaller and more meaningful — takes a particular kind of clarity about what matters to you.
He came back to Su-Kam after GE. Walking away from a global brand to return to something smaller and more meaningful takes a particular kind of clarity about what matters to you.
What Made R. Sivarajan Different
Within the R&D team, Sivarajan had a quality that set him apart from the purely technical engineers around him: he had flair. A natural ease with people and ideas — a polished manner that made him effective not just in the lab but in conversations with the outside world. He could explain a complex technical concept to a non-technical person without losing the essence of it.
This combination — deep technical ability alongside the communication skills to bring technology to market — is rare. His acumen for newer technologies was particularly strong. While others focused on refining what already existed, he was thinking about what was coming next. At Su-Kam, he worked on the grid-tied inverter and the hybrid grid-tied inverter — products genuinely at the frontier of what Indian manufacturers were attempting at the time.
The Rhythm of Daily Ideas
I want to say something about what those daily conversations meant — the ones between Sanjeev, Sivarajan, and me. In most companies, R&D sits in a room and periodically presents to the founder. That is not how it worked at Su-Kam. I was in those conversations every day — not to micromanage, but because I genuinely wanted to know what we were building, to argue about the direction, to be part of figuring out what was possible.
Sivarajan was a full participant. He brought ideas, challenged ideas, and translated ideas into execution. Sanjeev with his patience and depth, Sivarajan with his polish and forward-thinking, and me with the market sense and the willingness to push for something ambitious — between the three of us, we built most of what defined Su-Kam’s technology during those years. Those conversations were a privilege. I am glad they happened.
After Su-Kam — Microtek, then Inteli Energi
After Su-Kam, Sivarajan worked at Microtek International, where he developed the off-grid MPPT product. And then, alongside Sanjeev Saini and Dhananjay Sharma, he co-founded Inteli Energi Technology Pvt. Ltd., based in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, where he serves as Director of Technology.
The fact that Sanjeev and Sivarajan — two people who worked together in Su-Kam’s R&D for years — are now building Inteli Energi together is not surprising. They built their working relationship across hundreds of project conversations over more than a decade. That kind of understanding does not disappear when an office changes.
Also read: Jagdeep Chauhan | Venkat Rajaraman | Sanjeev Saini — The Man Who Built Su-Kam’s Mind
Sivarajan — you came from IIT Delhi with an M.Tech and a mind full of ideas, and you put both to work at Su-Kam for years. The grid-tied inverter, the hybrid inverter, the hundred conversations about what the technology could become — all of that is part of what Su-Kam built and what it stood for. You left, came back, left again, and kept building. I hope Inteli Energi gives you the space to build what you have always wanted to build. Keep going.