Social Entrepreneur: India – Lights On in the Indian Countryside

57 percent of the population in India has no electric light, and many would be unable to afford regular electricity even if it were available. But Harish Hande is working to improve the situation. He set up a company called Selco in Bangalore, which now supplies some 80 000 people with solar power. He's helped improve life for many in Karnataka and Kerala, making it possible for children to study for school by lamplight and allowing small independent businesses to keep working even after nightfall. His project has been very successful - and it's environmentally-friendly, too. Report by Dagmar Zindel . ______________________________________________ Silk worms in southern India love mulberry leaves. There are scores of them and they are hungry. Harish Hande has given them some light to dine by. That makes raising them easier. Harish Hande explains teh production: "They eat every four hours. And some of the caterpillars are big enough to spin silk have to be taken out of the group. If you use candles or an oil lamp, then it's dangerous. Just one drop of wax can destroy the worms. That can really put a dent in the income of someone raising worms here. That's why using solar energy is the best solution. It's portable enough to use to feed the worms and to pick out the biggest ones for spinning silk." The solar panels are on the roof. Harish Hande has already sold 25 of them, which is a lot for such a small village. All it took was one to start with. The neighbours saw that the system was cheap and reliable .. in short, worth the investment. Harish Hande: "The interesting thing is that people here don't by a solar energy system here because it's environmentally friendly. That's sort of a positive side effect. They buy them because they're under pressure to produce at lower cost. And the solar energy systems simply mean they have more income." And thanks to the panels on the roof, there's also solar powered lighting in the house as well. In the beginning, Harish Hande really had to convince people of the new technology. That's why he lived in a small Indian village after completing his engineering studies. He wanted to know how it is to live without electricity, and what people in rural areas need. Millions of Indians earl less than two dollars a day. More than a decade ago, Harish Hande established his company - at the time he was in his mid-20s and didn't have much money himself. Harish Hande, chief executive of Selco: "When I think back on it, I think that it's good I only had about 30 dollars in start up capital. Because when you've got such a small amount of money, then you've got to be very inventive, innovative - particularly when it comes to means of financing projects. You've got your back to the wall so you look around and figure out how to survive. That's how you develop innovative ideas." . It's from Bangalore, a thriving city in southern India, that Harish expanded his company Selco. In the meantime, he and his employees have some 80 thousand customers. They receive special low interest loans from regional banks to finance their solar energy systems. Selco works closely with these banks. The firm gets some 80 percent of its earnings from selling solar power systems. Harish Hande: "Many bank managers had never seen a solar energy system before. They didn't know to begin with what they were issuing loans for. So to start with, it was difficult to make it clear to them what the people were paying for. It took us four or five years to convince the financial institutions to grant credit for these systems." Harish Hande went to the outskirts of Bangalore to meet with his customer Vijay Kumar. He has used his solar power system to become self-employed. Vijay Kumar charges batteries and then rents them out. His business is making money. So he expanded his solar energy system. Harish Hande, Social Entrepreneur India 2007: "Here at Selco we want to put pay to the myth that modern technology is not for poor people. So we've killed two birds with one stone ... we're reducing poverty and doing something for the environment at the same time." Vijay hits the road at about four in the afternoon. He loads his rickshaw with merchandise. Vijay Kumar says, he is happy with the soler energy business, and that they don't have the same problems getting electricity that they used to have. The greengrocers are already waiting at the curbside. More than 100 of them are Vijay's customers. He rents out a battery for 15 rupees a day, service included. This merchant complains that his lamp keeps flickering. The contacts are loose and they're quickly repaired. Harish Hande: "If this was a private household, you could probably say, we could wait a day or two to repair it. But the solar generated electric light is important for the merchants' earnings. It's got to be fixed immediately. Otherwise they will lose their confidence in this technology." As dusk falls, the lamps are connected to the batteries ... which will provide enough energy to give five hours of light. That's enough for the evening. The best business is done after the offices close and the customers are able to see what they're buying.

DW-World | January 15, 2008

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