MAM
Test before trust as Aludecor puts ACP claims under the scanner
MUMBAI: When buildings speak, weak materials whisper and Aludecor wants contractors to listen before it’s too late. India’s ACP major Aludecor has rolled out a new television and digital campaign that swaps glossy promises for gritty site realities. Built around everyday construction scenarios, the films spotlight common material failures, colour fading, fire safety gaps and panel delamination and the long-term damage they can cause to safety, reputations and livelihoods.
Set on active construction sites, the campaign features Amit Sial as a seasoned contractor quietly putting his assistant through a reality check. The message is blunt and memorable: “Iss liye test nahi toh… trust nahi.” The films underline how cost-led choices and unchecked claims often come back to haunt those on site.
At the core of the campaign is Aludecor’s emphasis on proof over promises. Its ACPs undergo 205 mandatory quality and performance tests, covering durability, fire resistance and structural reliability in real-world conditions. The films translate these lab processes into outcomes that matter on site colours that don’t fade, fire-retardant and fire-resistant panels that limit flame spread, and sheets that hold their form over time.
Going beyond advertising, Aludecor has thrown open its fully equipped in-house R&D centre complete with NABL-accredited fire-retardant testing facilities to the wider ACP industry, free of cost. Samples are to be lifted directly from materials supplied at site, ensuring what’s tested is exactly what’s installed.
To protect credibility, all tests will be conducted in a brand-blind and anonymised manner. Neither the testing team nor the facility will know the brand, customer or project involved. The company describes this as the Indian ACP industry’s largest voluntary open testing initiative positioning it as a trust movement rather than a certification drive.
Aludecor is calling on fabricators, architects and builders to question claims, demand evidence and treat testing as a shared responsibility, one that can prevent accidents, avoid financial loss and protect professional credibility.
Commenting on the initiative, Aludecor founder and CMD Ashok Kumar Bhaiya said the highest risk of material failure is borne by fabricators themselves. The goal, he said, is to arm them with facts and the confidence to insist on transparent testing because when materials are tested honestly, trust follows, and lives are safer for it.
The campaign is being rolled out across television and digital platforms, supported by billboards and on-ground outreach, reinforcing a simple message the industry cannot ignore: in construction, trust is built only after the test.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
