The call for a self-reliant India—Atmanirbhar Bharat—has ignited a new wave of innovation across the country. But beyond policy and production, a deeper principle is taking root: the ‘Freedom to Build’. It’s the power to create solutions tailored for India’s unique challenges and scale them for global impact. To understand what this means on the ground, we spoke to seven pioneers who are turning this vision into reality.
For these leaders, this freedom is not about replicating global models but creating them. As Sumanth Selvarasu, Co-Founder of Buyofuel, puts it, it’s “the space to create solutions that make sense for India, without waiting for global validation.”
This philosophy is powerfully echoed in the electric vehicle (EV) sector. For Uday Narang, Founder of Omega Seiki Mobility, the mission is to “shape its own clean mobility story,” emphasizing that it’s about empowering people. Shreshth Mishra, Co-Founder of Simple Energy, shares this sentiment, focusing on “building a self-sustaining ecosystem that can make India a global EV leader.”
This freedom also means tackling urgent crises. Srikanth Sola, Co-Founder of Devic Earth, sees it as the ability to deploy “bold ideas… from concept to real-world deployment quickly,” while Apoorv Garg, Co-Founder of AltM, connects it to the circular economy, creating “low-carbon biochemicals that are better for the planet and better for business.”
For Ravin Mirchandani of Quench Chargers, this freedom is a crucial defense against dependency, arguing it is necessary to “ensure we do not become a technology colony.” This spirit of foundational innovation is what Raghav Kumar Sharma, CEO of Bharatcell, calls “the liberty to ask ‘what if?’ and then have the courage to create the answer from scratch.” He stresses that true self-reliance is born when we move “past imitation and fostering a culture where our own thinkers and creators can experiment.”
From EV ecosystems to biofuel marketplaces, the message is unified. The ‘Freedom to Build’ is about creating a future where innovation serves not just the economy, but society and the planet—a future that is truly and sustainably Indian.
