A Chess Champion Handed Me the Trophy. Then I Spoke to a Room Full of Foreign Semiconductor Companies.
Bangalore, 2011. ENERGY / SOLAR. Su-Kam. I was the one who walked up and took the award.
By Kunwer Sachdev · Founder & Managing Director, 1988–2018 · Published September 24, 2026 · Historical era: February 2011
Primary sources: Facebook Archive — ISA / Anand · PC Semicon — winners list · Pradeep Chakraborty — awards evening
The Night India's Semiconductor Industry Named a Solar Winner
The India Semiconductor Association's Technovation Awards are not a solar trade-show ribbon. They are the electronics and semiconductor industry recognising product innovation on its own stage.
In February 2011, in Bangalore, that stage put up a board that still matters to me: ENERGY / SOLAR — Winner — Su-Kam Power Systems Ltd. — Solar PCU. Five-time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand felicitated the winners. Contemporaneous industry blogs recorded the category and the company. Our Facebook archive preserved the moment for the solar community we were building.
I was there. I personally received the award for Su-Kam. Not a proxy. Not a press kit. My hands on the certificate and the plaque.
Why This Award Was Prestigious — and Why Su-Kam Stood Alone
This was a prestigious award in a room that did not usually look like us. The gathering was full of semiconductor manufacturing companies — and most of them were foreign companies. India's electronics and chip ecosystem, then as now, was dominated by global names. Su-Kam was something else: an Indian power-electronics and solar company that had built its own products, its own R&D, and its own export story.
At that time, Su-Kam was effectively the only company in electronics from India making serious exports the way we were — shipping into about 45 countries. That was not a vanity number for a brochure. It was the reason the award landed differently. We were not only inventing a Solar Power Conditioning Unit for Indian power cuts. We were proving that an Indian electronics brand could stand in export markets — and that the semiconductor industry's own awards body would put Energy/Solar and Su-Kam on the same board.
The ISA did not give us a participation trophy. They named the Solar PCU in the Energy/Solar category — and I walked up and took the award for the company that had built it.
Then They Asked Me to Speak
Receiving the award was one half of the evening. The other half was the microphone.
They asked me to speak at the function. I gave a presentation on the company and its achievements — the products, the R&D, the exports, the path from an Indian power-backup company into solar. I was not speaking to a dealer meet. I was speaking to a hall packed with semiconductor manufacturing companies, almost all of them foreign.
That is a different kind of audience. They measure you by technology depth, by whether you are a real manufacturer, by whether your story survives export scrutiny. I wanted to leave a mark on that gathering — to make sure that when they walked out, they remembered that an Indian company in power electronics and solar had earned a Technovation award on their stage, and that the man who took the trophy was the same man who stood there and told the story.
I believe I did leave that mark. Not because of volume. Because the facts were unusual enough to stick: Indian company. Solar PCU. Exports to ~45 countries. Award from ISA. Handed over with Viswanathan Anand in the room. Founder on stage afterwards.
What I Want on Record
Later the export map grew further. The Solar PCU story continued into Intersolar Europe and markets beyond those first ~45 countries. But this chapter is about Bangalore in 2011: the board that said ENERGY / SOLAR and Su-Kam, the certificate I held, the chess champion who felicitated the winners, and the speech I gave to a semiconductor hall that was not built for companies like ours — until we made them notice.
The Facebook archive, the industry blogs from that week, and this photograph are the public record. My account is simple: I personally received the award. Su-Kam was the rare Indian electronics exporter in that room. Then they asked me to speak — and I made sure the gathering remembered why we were there.
Verified Sources
- PC’s Semiconductors Blog — ISA Technovation Awards 2011 (Su-Kam Solar PCU, Energy/Solar)
- Pradeep Chakraborty — ISA Technovation awards 2011: Anand, the top draw
- Facebook Archive — ISA Technovation Award / Viswanathan Anand
- Recognition — Solar Man of India
- Library Archive — Su-Kam ISA Technovation Award
- Solar blogs — solarmanofindia.com
FAQ
What is the ISA Technovation Award Su-Kam won?
In February 2011, Su-Kam Power Systems won the India Semiconductor Association Technovation Award in the Energy/Solar category for its Solar Power Conditioning Unit (PCU).
Who presented the ISA award to Kunwer Sachdev?
World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand felicitated the winners at the Bangalore ceremony. Kunwer Sachdev personally received the award on behalf of Su-Kam.
Why was the ISA award unusual for a power-backup company?
ISA Technovation honours electronics and semiconductor innovation. Su-Kam was a power-backup and solar company — and at the time a rare Indian electronics exporter to about 45 countries — winning in a room dominated by foreign semiconductor manufacturers.
Did Kunwer Sachdev speak at the ISA ceremony?
Yes. After receiving the award he was asked to present on Su-Kam’s achievements to the gathering, which included many foreign semiconductor manufacturing companies.
