Pranav Khedkar

✈️ The H-1B Dream Just Got Pricier — And Indians Are Looking Elsewhere For decades, the H-1B visa has been the holy grail for Indian techies. But with steep hikes in fees (touching $100,000 in many cases), the equation is changing fast. 💡 According to The Economic Times, immigration attorneys are already preparing for a surge in L1 (intra-company transfer) and O1 (extraordinary ability) visas because they are now: ✅ Cheaper → L1 costs ~$7,000; O1 ~$12,000 (a fraction of H-1B fees) ✅ Less risky → No lottery, higher approval rates (O1 at 93%) ✅ Flexible → O1 allows indefinite renewals, is skill-based, and can even lead to an EB-1A green card pathway 🌍 What This Means for Indian Talent L1 visas: Good option for employees in Indian arms of global companies. But you need at least 1 year of overseas employment with the company. O1 visas: For professionals who build a strong portfolio — publishing, patents, leadership in projects, awards. Indians on O1 have already grown from 2% to 8% in a decade. It’s clear: the future of global careers will not just depend on jobs you do, but the brand you build around your skills. 💭 Key Insight The “safe path” of H-1B is becoming unaffordable and uncertain. The new path is merit + credibility. Upskilling Publishing work Building thought leadership Documenting achievements In other words, your career story will decide your visa story. 🚀 Question for you: If you were advising a young Indian techie today, would you tell them to still chase the H-1B… or to start preparing early for O1/L1 alternatives? #Immigration #H1B #L1Visa #O1Visa #FutureOfWork #IndianTechies #GlobalCareers #Upskilling #CareerGrowth

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Great insight for leadership: stop thinking about organizing priorities while you try to do everything, and START UNLOADING less relevant activities, completely. Focus and agility seem to be far more relevant these days than organization, procedures, standard rules. Having semiconductors available also helps, of course.

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When Vehicles Begin to Think Just as phones evolved far beyond calling and texting, Kanakasabapathi Subramanian believes that #AI in vehicles “will grow into something much bigger than the limited ideas we hold today.” To explain this, he used a monsoon analogy. India may build canals and waterways, he said, but unless water is intelligently predicted, stored and released, the system won’t work. Similarly, cars today already have the connectivity and sensors; what they lack is intelligent allocation and decision-making. That is where AI steps in, he pointed out. READ: https://lnkd.in/gwk6Zucv Ashok Leyland Rajesh Mani Motorindia Magazine Aftermarket & Service EV Tech News Balasubramanian Natarajan

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I learned a lot from Mukund C. talking about Rivian's RAP1: - Why autonomy is so demanding for the SoC - Why custom silicon over merchant - TSMC’s automotive process - Build vs. buy decisions - Sizing 800 TOPS of compute https://lnkd.in/gM_MhmiH Check it out! Chapters: (0:00) Introduction (0:31) What does an autonomous vehicle have to do? (2:52) The R2 sensor suite and 5 billion pixels per second (4:29) Sensor fusion and the large driving model (7:24) Real-time and safety constraints (8:28) Response time, determinism, and ASIL D (11:51) TSMC N5A and automotive process maturity (14:32) Determinism: latency budgets and repeatable outputs (16:06) Inside RAP1: the building blocks (18:52) Build vs. buy: custom NNE and RivLink, licensed ARM cores (21:10) RivLink and designing for extensibility (22:28) Physical AI and Mind Robotics (24:10) How much compute is enough? Sizing 800 TOPS (28:10) Why custom silicon over merchant? (33:35) Shift left and the benefits of vertical integration (34:43) Team and timeline: ~2.5 years to silicon (37:27) Celebrating RAP1 and what’s next

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The 2026 EV Chessboard: Why VinFast is Winning the Throughput War against BYD and Tesla 🏎️⚡ ​The February 2026 data reveals a seismic shift in India's EV landscape. While VinFast has officially surged past BYD, and Tesla struggles with inventory, the real story is found in Dealership Throughput—the "Sales Per Outlet" (SPO) metric. ​Here is the data-driven breakdown of the three competing strategies. ​1. The Retail Pulse: February 2026 Performance: Refer pic below 2. Deep-Dive: Three Divergent Strategies ​VinFast: The "Asset-Heavy Velocity" Play ​VinFast is winning because they treated India as a Production Hub, not an Export Market. ​The Data Edge: By launching the VF6 (₹16.5L) and VF7 (₹20.9L) from their local Thoothukudi plant, they achieved a price point that BYD (taxed at 70%+) cannot touch. ​Throughput Strategy: VinFast’s SPO of 11.0 is driven by high inventory turnover. Because they manufacture locally, their "Lead Time" from factory to dealer is days, not months. ​ Takeaway: They have lower Working Capital requirements for dealers because they don't need to stock 3 months of "Imported Inventory." BYD: The "Regulatory Friction" Trap ​BYD has the best tech (Blade Battery) but a "clogged" sales funnel. Tesla: The "Ecosystem Skimming" Model Tesla is operating as a D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) entity, ignoring the traditional dealer model. The Data Edge: Their SPO of 21.2 looks dominant, but it's concentrated in just 4 cities. The "Veblen" Strategy: Tesla is keeping the Model Y at ₹59.9L to maintain brand exclusivity. They are using their Supercharger Network as a "Lock-in" mechanism. The Risk: Data shows 30% of their imported stock is currently sitting in inventory. High SPO in Mumbai doesn't offset the lack of a "National Footprint." 3. The "Franchise ROI" Analysis (Dealer Perspective) If you are an investor choosing a franchise in 2026: VinFast offers the best Payback Period due to high volume and local spare-parts availability. BYD offers the highest Technical Moat but carries high Regulatory Risk. Tesla is an Asset-Light play (mostly digital sales), but requires the highest upfront real estate cost in Tier-1 ​The Data Edge: With 47 showrooms, they have the widest reach, yet their SPO is the lowest (6.5). ​The Bottleneck: BYD is hitting the 2,500-unit import cap per model. Dealers have the footfalls, but the brand lacks the "Quota" to deliver. ​The Strategic Pivot: To survive, BYD is moving to SKD (Semi-Knocked Down) assembly, aiming to drop duties from 70% to 30%. Until then, their dealers are "High-End Showpieces" rather than "Volume Hubs." Strategic Verdict For BYD to regain the #1 spot, they must stop being a "Chinese Exporter" and become an "Indian Entity" via a JSW-style Joint Venture. Without it, VinFast’s localized supply chain will continue to eat their lunch. #EVIndia #BusinessStrategy #VinFast #BYD #Tesla #MBA #DataAnalytics #Automotive2026 #programmanagement #projectmanagement

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In India, we often speak with pride about our “essential services.” But behind that phrase are people. People whose roles are meant to heal, educate, protect, and uplift society. What we rarely see is how far many of them are being pushed beyond what their profession was meant for. 👨‍⚕️ Doctors Some doctors are handed targets, not for treating patients better, but for prescribing specific medications or diagnostic tests available only in the hospital’s own pharmacy or lab. A profession built on ethics and healing often finds itself tangled in commercial expectations. 👩‍🏫 Private School Teachers Private teachers, instead of using summers to upskill or plan better lessons, are sent door‑to‑door to “generate admissions.” They are educators, yet the system forces them into the roles of sales executives. 🏫 Government Teachers Government teachers carry an even heavier load. Election duty, census work, ration counting, midday‑meal audits, administrative paperwork, and more. Teaching becomes only one part of a long list of responsibilities that have little to do with classrooms. 👮 Police Personnel Our police forces are stretched thin: 👉 handling enormous caseloads 👉 working long, unpredictable shifts 👉 being assigned menial tasks driven by political influence They are expected to maintain law and order while also fulfilling duties far from policing. 👉 The Core Issue Across sectors, professionals are being asked to carry the weight of tasks far outside their job descriptions. 👉 The consequence? 📍 Burnout 📍 Reduced effectiveness 📍 Declining morale 📍 Compromised quality of public service And a system where the real purpose of each profession slowly gets diluted 👉 Why This Matters A society thrives when: 📍 Doctors can focus on healing 📍 Teachers can focus on teaching 📍 Police can focus on safety 📍 Public servants can focus on service When we overburden people with unrelated tasks, we don’t just strain them we weaken the systems we rely on. #WorkCulture #IndiaWorkforce #EssentialServices #TeachersOfIndia #DoctorsOfIndia #PoliceReforms #PublicServiceChallenges #SystemicIssues #WorkloadCrisis #RespectProfessionals #ReformNeeded #VoicesFromIndia #LeadershipThoughts #SocialImpact #GovernanceMatters #HumanizeWork #IndianEducationSystem #HealthcareSystemIndia #LawEnforcementChallenges

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Just wrapped up the Generative AI Workshop by @Vaibhav Sisinty and @GrowthSchool — and here’s my unfiltered take: If you’ve been curious about how to actually use tools like ChatGPT beyond just “fun prompts,” this workshop hits the mark. It didn’t just skim the surface — the sessions were well-structured, packed with use cases for productivity, marketing, content creation, and even automation. What I liked: ✅ Real-world applications ✅ Simple, actionable frameworks ✅ No fluff — just focused, practical learning What could be better: 🔁 A bit more hands-on practice would have taken it to the next level — but considering the time constraints and large audience, I understand the format. Maybe specific deep-dive sessions or smaller cohorts could be a great next step for those wanting more immersion. Overall, a solid experience for beginners and intermediates wanting to explore the real potential of Generative AI. 👇 Link to explore it for yourself below. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gfyQFkc3 #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #AIWorkshop #GrowthSchool #VaibhavSisinty #AIForEveryone

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Building from Zero to One : Lessons from creating engineering centres from Scratch “Every time we create something new, we go from zero to one.” I recently read Peter Thiel’s Zero to One, and many ideas resonated with my last few years leading engineering at Luminar, Velodyne, Open Silicon and prior. In the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of building centers from scratch — taking them from a blank whiteboard to high-ownership organizations. And I’ve realised something simple but powerful: Execution takes you from 1 → n. Creation takes you from 0 → 1. When you start from zero : an empty room, an undefined org chart, and goals, you’re not just hiring or planning. You’re building belief. Belief that something great can emerge from nothing. Here are a few lessons that have stayed with me 1. The first 10 hires define everything. Your first few hires aren’t just employees : they’re founders of your culture. They set the tone for ownership, and excellence. I’ve learned to hire people who don’t just execute well, but who build systems around their excellence, people who multiply capability. 2. Don’t scale what you haven’t yet perfected. Many leaders rush to scale before defining what’s truly unique about their setup. In Thiel’s terms, they go from 1 to n too quickly. Real value creation happens when you discover your “secret” : that sets your center apart, and then scale it. At Luminar and at Velodyne India, our “secret” wasn’t cost; it was the ability to own at the system level and fill the gaps in the ecosystem. 3. Build for monopoly, not for competition. Ask: What can we do uniquely well that no one else can? That’s what creates pride and ownership. We aimed to be a COE : not a support site. By owning System, EE, firmware, and validation, we became indispensable, not interchangeable. 4. Frugality fuels innovation. Both Luminar and Velodyne were built under lean budgets and high expectations. Frugality wasn’t a constraint : it was a forcing function for creativity. When you strip away excess, innovation emerges. 5. Culture builds itself : unless you build it first. Culture is formed as much by what you tolerate as by what you celebrate. From day one, we made respect, transparency, and ownership non-negotiable, not through posters, but through decisions. 6. Trust is the only real scalability lever. You can add people and processes, but without trust, you’re just increasing friction. Trust builds when teams deliver before they’re asked, and once it compounds, everything accelerates: ownership, empowerment, innovation. Building from zero to one isn’t about hiring people or renting space. It’s about designing a self-sustaining system , of people, trust, and belief. You build a place where innovation compounds because everyone believes they’re building the future. Every organization begins as a story. What’s yours? #Leadership #ZeroToOne #Engineering #Innovation #Culture #Teams #IndiaEngineering #Leadership #FoundersMindset

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