Field Note 13 of 22

Hyderabad, Telangana

“He built the vehicle. The government couldn't decide how to buy it.”

He'd identified something real: street vendors across Indian cities need small, affordable electric vehicles suited to their specific work — not a scaled-down car, not a repurposed scooter, something built for the job itself. He built it.

Government procurement looked like an obvious first customer — a large, stable buyer that could validate the product and give the company its first real scale.

That process has now stretched on for years. Not years of negotiation over price or specification — years of the process itself simply continuing, without a clear point at which a decision gets made.

He is still waiting. The vehicles are still built. The market they were built for is still there, unserved.

Field Note 13