In the News
A businessman’s crusade against darkness
Business Standard; December 04, 2007
By BS Reporter
Summary/Excerpts
Harish Hande, who has been honoured recently with a prize for social entrepreneurship, has made it his business to take solar power to every un-lit home.
Harish Hande, CEO, Selco, who has been selected social entrepreneur of the year by the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation this year, has been in the business of solar electrification since the past 12 years. At last count, his clients numbered 85,000 in 220 villages in Karnataka and 2,000 clients in Gujarat where he started operations recently.
Hande says he is into business only because that is the only way he can take solar power to the largest number of people. That has been his dream and main occupation for the last 12 years when he started doing his Masters and PhD in Massachusets Institute of Technology. His subject was rural electrification and whether solar power makes sense.
He says he came upon the idea during a brief visit to the Dominican Republic as a student in IIT Kharagpur. “Those two hours of what I saw there—people using and paying for solar energy changed my way of thinking totally. I haven’t touched technical applications after that,” says Hande.
His strategy for making solar energy succeed has been two fold: doorstep service and doorstep financing. He first started creating solar service centres in all the places he was setting up solar panels.
© 2007 Business Standard Ltd. All Rights Reserved
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