Why People Like Me Leave India
People ask me why founders like me end up building somewhere else. I don’t answer with a speech. I answer with the work — what we actually made, in India, from nothing — and with what India handed us in return. Everything below is real: the surviving posts of the Su-Kam Solar Facebook page, the real photos, the real dates, the real words, before they are erased for good.
Built in India, from scratch
Before it went anywhere in the world, Su-Kam was engineered in India — and it said so, plainly.
“Brainy-S is India’s First Solar UPS and the world’s first zero-change-over-time solar UPS — the perfect system to run all kinds of sensitive appliances.”
Real India, going solar
Homes, hospitals, schools, petrol pumps — ordinary places in towns the grid had forgotten. Each is a real customer story Su-Kam posted, exactly as it happened.
“The maker of this solar rickshaw is Su-Kam’s solar distributor, Mr. Kapil, who sells Rs. 25 lakh worth of solar products per month in Punjab. Read how this man is solarizing Punjab. We are proud of him!”
“This Solar System in a Hospital in Hardoi Runs 15 Tubelights, Fans and Medical Equipment.” Dr. S.K. Singh’s Rani Katiyari hospital in Hardoi, UP had been running on costly diesel generators. Su-Kam installed a 6.25 KVA solar PCU with 4 KW of panels — ~20 units a day, running 15 fans, 15 tubelights and a full operation theatre, with near-zero changeover for the sensitive medical load.
“We Run Our Home on Solar Power and So Should You.” Deepak and his wife in Vaishali installed Su-Kam’s Brainy Eco 1100 with 300W of panels — an intelligent off-grid system running on both solar and mains — powering 3 fans, 3 CFLs and a TV.
“My 2BHK Home in Punjab Runs 100% on Solar.” Jai Chand’s home in Garhshankar had received zero government electricity for two years. A 3 KVA Su-Kam system with 3 KW of panels now runs the whole house — fridge, TV, fans, lights — on ~15 units of solar a day.
“10 KVA Off-Grid Solar System Runs 3 Fuel Dispensers in this Petrol Pump in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.” Mr. Sethi replaced a noisy, expensive diesel generator with a 10 KVA online UPS and 6 KW of solar — ~30 units a day, zero changeover, running all three dispensers.
“Great! School in Maharashtra Sets Example by Going Solar.” Sandeepani Public School in Nanded faced frequent power cuts. A 2 KVA/48V Su-Kam solar PCU with 2 KW of panels now runs its load. “We want to lead by example and help our environment.”
“Ex Chief Minister of Haryana’s Home Goes Solar.” Mr. Hukum Singh of Charki Dadri installed a 7.5 KVA Su-Kam solar inverter with 5 KW of panels — ~25 units a day, running his entire home load.
From India, to the world — a real exporter
Su-Kam did not import a brand and stick its name on it. It built the technology in India and carried it to 90+ countries — and the world came back to Gurgaon to see how.
“Su-Kam decided to spread the knowledge of solar power and established its service centres and authorised outlets in Afghanistan. Slowly people turned to solar to light up their homes.”
“Proud to Solarize the Indian Army with our 1 MW Solar Power Plant, which provides 24×7 power to the Assam Rifles. Our salute to the nation.”
“Su-Kam Solar launches BrainyS 1000 and Falcon+ 1250 with LCD display.” — the Mega Launch event in Malaysia.
“Su-Kam’s business partner meet in Dubai.”
“Su-Kam Business Partners Meet in Nigeria.”
“Ambassador of Bolivia, H.E. Mr. Sergio Dario Arispe Barrientos, visited Su-Kam Solar.”
“An international delegation of representatives from 18 countries visited Su-Kam’s Head Office and R&D facility in Gurgaon — taking keen interest in the AI and IoT techniques Su-Kam was using to revolutionise the power-backup and solar-energy industry.”
The projects the archive still remembers
The wall of proof
Not a highlight reel — a fraction of the surviving posts, each a real day of real work. Tap any image to open the original post.
A selection from the archive · the full record of surviving posts is preserved on solarmanofindia.com
…and what India gave back
Why people like me leave India
You just scrolled through years of it: homes lit in villages the grid forgot, hospitals kept running through the night, an Indian brand standing on stages in Munich, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, delegations from 18 countries flying in to study what we built. All of it designed and made in India. All of it from scratch, without a rupee of government help — and often against the very system that should have been proud of it.
And what did the founder get at the end of it? Legal cases to fight. Not a medal, not a thank-you — years in courtrooms. That is the part these posts never got to tell.
This is the honest answer to the question. People like me don’t leave India because we stop loving it. We leave because in India, a person who dares to build something the world respects is treated as a problem to be managed, not a maker to be backed. The world offered a stage; home offered a summons. Celebrated abroad, litigated at home — that is the choice too many Indian builders are quietly handed.
I am keeping this archive alive for one reason: so the record stays honest, so no one can pretend this wasn’t built here, and so the next person who dares to build in India — and there must be a next person — is valued while they are still here, not remembered after they’ve gone.
— Kunwer Sachdev
