Brands
India’s first sneaker & street festival is back!
Mumbai: Soledition, India’s first street & sneaker festival, makes a comeback for a spectacular second edition. Catering to the rising sneakerhead subculture, the festival will be organised at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi, on 24 and 25 February 2024.
The one-of-its-kind festival will bring together sneakerheads, skateboarders, basketball players, gamers, musicians, dancers, rappers, graffiti artists, and like-minded street and sneaker culture enthusiasts in one place.
Building on the success of the inaugural event, Soledition is gearing up to create an even more immersive experience, offering attendees a unique opportunity to delve into the vibrant tapestry of street and sneaker culture. The Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, a symbol of India’s sporting prowess, will transform into a heaven for sneaker enthusiasts and streetwear aficionados alike.
Speaking about the festival, Soledition the curator & founder Siddharth Pal said, ” Inspired from the b-boying and sporting trends of the early 70s and late 80s, the sneakerhead culture gradually took over the world. Over the years, sneakers have evolved to become more than just a comfortable footwear option. There is a deeper meaning associated with them. They reflect individuality, creativity, and have become a canvas for self-expression.”
Soledition will exhibit some of the world’s iconic sneaker brands and Indian labels, providing an opportunity for sneakerheads to explore and celebrate their shared love for fashionable kicks. It is an ideal space for shoe aficionados to buy sneakers and a platform for collectors to showcase their exquisite collections. For art enthusiasts, there is a DIY zone for sneaker customisation.
He added that “Soledition is an effort to collaborate with street and sneaker enthusiasts, where they showcase their shared love for the rising street and sneaker culture. It is a platform where like-minded people come together to exchange ideas and immerse themselves. The first edition of the street and sneaker festival was a huge success, so this time, we have returned with more elements and activities to engage the community. We expect enthusiastic participation this time as well.”
In the dynamic graffiti zone, individuals can engage in the innovative graffiti workshop and immerse themselves in the magnificence of some of the selected creations of renowned Indian graffiti artists.
Indian electronic music producer Nucleya and Victor Ruiz, a Brazilian-born artist who has made his mark as a talented DJ and techno music producer will perform at the festival.
There are activities curated for DJs, beatboxers, and freestylers to showcase their talent. Additionally, a special performance has been organized on both days of the festival to entertain the visitors.
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.
