My Story

Intro

The realization that all problems faced, including poverty, health, education, energy and environment, are inter-related because of our unsustainable consumption requires a solutions in a cohesive manner. To action change across all levels of society, Vinay started Switch ON - A grassroot climate action project to take action on climate change using arts to effectively communicate and inspire leadership.

About Me

I am a management student from SP Jain, Mumbai and St Xavier’s College, Kolkata – the city grew up in. I have led international projects in AIESEC, and recently worked with GE in Australia and interned with Grameen Shakti in Bangladesh before starting my venture.

As an entrepreneur I enjoy my independence in decision-making, taking risks and hence enjoy the results – whatever it be. The learning’s and satisfaction is not comparable to being in a job. As an entrepreneur I can choose to explore things I feel passionate about and thus leave a mark, with everything I do.

I am extremely passionate about sustainability and equity, to an extend that it almost borders insanity. I consider myself an adventure enthusiast and have competed in ocean swims, I hold a bronze medallion in surf life saving and I am an active and avid cyclist. I rode my bike across Ladakh up to the highest motorable road in the world and cycled through the coal belt in India from Kolkata to Delhi.

My Venture

I am mostly occupied as founder of ONergy (PE Pvt. Ltd) - a startup committed to deploying renewable energy and water solutions across India.

I realized that because of our unsustainable consumption  key resources were getting depleted, causing a lot of ecological and climatic damage. Sure enough this realization drove me up the wall, which led me to find my “calling”. I quit my job, came back to India and started a project with a few friends by taking theatre, folk arts and short videos to effectively communicate the crisis we face. Along with grassroot action, I started working to influence policy and public opinion on energy for electricity from coal. I realized that energy was the core to most problems, thus becoming the greatest point to focus at for solutions. I prepared a paper concentrating on coal for electricity generation in India and cycled through the coal belt across India to highlight the problems because of our overreliance on fossil fuel.

To sustain this passion and demonstrate solutions I was proposing alternatives to fossil fuel. I have started a renewable energy company and we are running projects to deploy renewable energy in order to providing clean renewable energy and water - solutions across India. I am distributing simple energy lighting products and working on bio-energy in rural india, consulting green buildings and intend to scale up the present activities and introduce more suitable renewable technology and work on large scale solutions for electricity generation, cooking and fuel.

 

Why New Coal from Why New Coal on Vimeo.