Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu

Entrepreneur | IIT Madras | Farmer | Angel Investor| Founder, KisanRaja | |

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

This is the sad reality of bootstrapped entrepreneurs, @vinaykumarrai ! The CGTMSE scheme doesn’t work without collateral guarantee. The Govt support is negligible or sometimes takes away lot of our energy/motivation to work with.

[VINAY RAI @vinaykumarrai]

As a professional engineer turned Agri-entrepreneur, I'm facing road blocks for getting bank loans. Govt Banks reject my loan application for scaling my Agri startup, focused on promoting organic food & building farmer networks, citing 'low sales' and Initial losses. They're missing the point: Agri isn't about quick wins, it's about VOLUME. Building sustainable farmer networks & scaling organic production takes investment and time. It’s a volume game! They give loans to Fintechs, they funded a friend of mine Good !! , but Agri and Food ?? . @PiyushGoyal @ChouhanShivraj @nsitharaman , we need policies that reflect the unique needs of Agri startups and creating farmer networks. Are we truly supporting sustainable agriculture & empowering farmers, or pushing them into a system that sets them up to fail? We need banks to understand that initial investments are crucial for building volume, not a reason for rejection. Let’s talk real solutions for scaling Agri startups & farmer empowerment. #AgriLoans #StartupIndia #OrganicFarming #SustainableAgriculture #AgriFinance #PolicyReform #FarmerNetworks #AgriStartup"

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

Food for thought in the wake of DeepSeek AI success story!

[Amitabh Verma @amitabh26]

Sam Altman - founder of OpenAI and ChatGPT - is in India and VCs are asking some tough questions to him

[Amitabh Verma @amitabh26]

Sam Altman - founder of OpenAI and ChatGPT - is in India and VCs are asking some tough questions to him

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

Good habits - Try to build your own habits sustainably!

[Sridhar Vembu @svembu]

Up by 4 am. Work till 6 30 (tweeting not included in "work" 😅). Walk and yoga. Breakfast that includes fermented old rice daily.

Work day begins by about 9 30 am. Meetings, chats, now code reviews!

Late lunch by 2:30 am. The. more work. I do meetings while walking in the evenings. I try to get at least 15K steps a day, often 20K.

No dinner. That also saves time! Late evenings, on some days I visit our local temples. Other days I listen to chants or carnatic music. Other days I read a book. Other days simply sit still.

Usually after about 7 pm, I try to avoid phone/computer. I sleep by about 9 pm. I automatically wake up by about 3 30 am, without an alarm.

I try to drink plenty of water throughout the day. I avoid sweets entirely. I have a slight addiction to snacking on our traditional snacks like murukku etc that I have tried to reduce. I consume a lot of nuts - I am nuts about peanuts!

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

@muralibulusu Destiny Vizag!

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

@svembu SANKHYA Teraptor MAS platform is one great indigenous platform built from Visakhapatnam, AP, India @muralibulusu 👏👏

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

@svembu We at @KisanRaja have been helping farmers with technology: https://t.co/k8ktejXuKH

[anand mahindra @anandmahindra]

Maa, Tujhe Salaam… #Pragg

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

@anandmahindra Yes! What we need the most is the "SPIRIT of INDIA".

[anand mahindra @anandmahindra]

Really?? The truth is that, in large part, our poverty was a result of decades of colonial rule which systematically plundered the wealth of an entire subcontinent. Yet the most valuable possession we were robbed of was not the Kohinoor Diamond but our pride & belief in our own capabilities. Because the goal of colonisation—its most insidious impact—is to convince its victims of their inferiority. Which is why investing in BOTH toilets AND space exploration is not a contradiction. Sir, what going to the moon does for us is that it helps restore our pride & self-confidence. It creates belief in progress through science. It gives us the aspiration to lift ourselves out of poverty. The greatest poverty is the poverty of aspiration…

[Tarun Mehta @tarunsmehta]

https://t.co/FvC1s1KmRF

Quite agree with Director Kamakoti.

This is a two sided problem though.
A small story:

Part 1: Getting a chance to Build

Most of us coming to IITs dreamt of a great job at the end of it. This was THE ticket - low cost, hard earned and guaranteed high paying jobs at the end of it.

For most of us by the end of the first year itself it was quite obvious that engg jobs weren't a prized lot except for computer science and some electronics graduates. Most of us the dream job already was a McKinsey, or a BCG or a Credit Suisse/ Goldman. No alternate reality for all practical purposes. If you were academically inclined - a masters/PhD in US was the logical choice.

I was no exception. I dreamt of getting that sweet consulting gig and hopefully a MBA from a Stanford/Harvard to cement my life's success.

I looked at my leadership role in the entrepreneurship club or the umpteen engg projects from a perspective of whether it will help to convince a consulting company that I had 'breadth'. And that I was truly 'smart'. A decent CGPA helped.

The idea of picking up an engg job seemed like a loser's cause for many of us. Low pay, poor career prospects, super slower growth - nothing to offer.

Things stared to change for us at IIT Madras for a few reasons. I met @swapniljain89 and started working on his idea of Sterling engines in our free time and started dreaming of building a decentralized energy company. This was followed by some amazing years at the Dept. of Engg Design with Professors like Dr Sandipan, RKK and others building robots, construction equipment and filing patents. For Swapnil equally rewarding was his years at @CFI_IITM building FSAE cars and other cool stuff.

It was years of building, breaking and learning in the process that changed our perspective. It gave Swapnil and me the opportunity to discover each other, find the cofounder that worked, discover our values and principles and build a shared dream. Classes that encouraged us to go meet customers, pitch, fabricate and build that product - it might seem common for engg graduates but I can guarantee you it isn't. Heck I don't think even our own department was able to continue the same coursework after our batch. It's super hard to create this environment and IIT Madras has come pretty close to creating it a few times now.

There's a reason that IITM has the highest density of hardware and product companies in the country today. I think some of it might have been accidental but there's a learning for our educators. That practical experience is very, very critical. Those years should not be wasted in learning books or writing the CAT. Those are the times to form your mental models, develop your ideas and form life long partnerships.

Part 2: Make it Worth it - JOBS

The second part is equally important. One may want to build much but if the industry that they are stepping into is stuck in a rot then there’s little hope for them. Engine design is very, very complicated. But the industry is older still. There are people 3X your age who have been designing engines for the last 40 years and even if you are smarter, they have 40 years of experience that’s super valuable. You are up against knowledge and pure smarts won’t be enough, not until you earn the experience over decades. This guarantees a slower growth and hence by extension a poorer pay.

You need an external situation where talent can create a larger impact over experience.

Like EVs.

Automotive platforms have existed for decades but when a seismic shift like electrification hits the industry ALL platforms need to be REBUILT. And they now need to built differently for a newer technology. A perfect opportunity for talent to potentially shine through and capture a serious upside. While @atherenergy was the first one, there are literally hundreds of EV startups staffed with tens of thousands of engineers hoping to hit gold with their stock options and career progressions doing stuff that otherwise would have meant a promotion every decade in the ICE world.

That opportunity attracts talent. It incentives young and bright engineers to actually stick to engineering because there’s a potential pot of gold at the end of their journey.

++++++++++++

I believe we are at a point in India where engineers can unlock a lot of value across industries, not just the internet.
Not just EVs, but semiconductors, drones and aviation, agri-tech, pharma - across the board there’s disruption due to new tech bursting up. And a lot of that’s happening in India now.

Pure experience is not holding all the keys. There’s an entrepreneurial energy that’s pushing for changes faster and wants it done locally with Indian talent, not joint ventures.

I think more and more engineers will choose ‘core’ jobs out of IITs and across colleges in the coming decade. Exciting times!

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

Case study of @kisanraja got featured part of “Digital agriculture in action” by FAO and ICRISAT

https://t.co/r1h2C8CTGA (page:161 to 164)

Heartfelt thanks to @DhulipalaRam, Madhuha Devarakonda and @dharanikoganti2 🙏

#digital #agriculture #iot #icrisat #fao

[FAO Investment Support @FAOInvest]

Across India, the digital agriculture revolution is empowering farmers to #adapt, making farms more profitable and productive, strengthening livelihoods and #foodsecurity. Find out how in the new @FAO/@ICRISAT report on #digitalagriculture
👉 https://t.co/Q5tgzikJil

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

@jibuelias @debjani_ghosh_ https://t.co/LVGxYC3jcE @kisanraja

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

We are glad that our work at @kisanraja @AgwiqTech @vinfinet got featured by @OfficialIndiaAI https://t.co/LVGxYC3jcE . Thanks a lot @sindhuja109 @jibuelias @nasscom @debjani_ghosh_ @SiddiquiAsna 👏🙏

[Jibu Elias @jibuelias]

Amazing 2 years of INDIAai. Thank you @abhish18, @debjani_ghosh_ , @sangeetagupta29 and @SiddiquiAsna for all the guidance and support, and for inspiring us to do more. @OfficialIndiaAI

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

10 minutes of Ambulance makes lot more sense

[Mahua Moitra @MahuaMoitra]

10 minute deliveries need to be regulated/outlawed.
No civilised society can be incentivising delivery executives to break traffic rules & put own & other’s lives at risk. All for a quicker pizza.

Am going to raise this in parliament.

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

“Climate and sustainability is going to be the new computer science,” Mr. Doerr https://t.co/ekEW4Jxq1i

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

Just posted a photo https://t.co/PK8KfQUlCa

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

Thank you Chetana Koulagi and team LetsTagOn for the opportunity! 💐🙏 https://t.co/ZEu4pF1Jtl

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

*Morality: This will also Change (whatever it is)*:

https://t.co/plI19m1B8z

[Vijay Bhaskar Reddy Dinnepu @vijaybrd]

LUCK FAVOURS THE PREPARED! 👍🙏😊

https://t.co/UGk1RhcWwQ...

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

Here’s how luck finds you:

1. Work harder than expected
2. Stay teachable
3. Give without expecting a get
4. Read and write more
5. Show up on time
6. Focus on your customers
7. Develop good manners
8. Be humble
9. Be kind and generous
10. Surround yourself with smarter people