Courtesy: Nihit Goyal
The concept of the village, or ‘gram’ forms the core of India. Over seventy percent of her population is rural. There are more than half a million villages across the country, as opposed to five thousand or so urban settlements. And still many of us, such as me, have no direct experience of life in a village.
Since I have never lived in a village, I find it all the more fascinating to listen to people describe their rural experience. Regardless of the side of the Deccan Plateau they come from, there is a lot in common in what they say. Lively place. Full of colour. Fresh air. Smell of the soil. Tasty food. Closely-knit community. Very little electricity.
The last bit of this stereotype is what Husk power Systems (HPS) is working on changing. Husk Power Systems is a startup that has developed a proprietary technology to convert rice husk into electricity. They setup and run “mini power plants” that work on this technology. A typical mini power plant can provide electricity to villages of about two to four thousand people. This method of generating electricity is financially sustainable and environment friendly. Also, the ash of burnt husk can be sold as an ingredient for cement.
HPS is already powering tens of thousands of people. They plan to expand their operations to one hundred villages this year, and to two thousand five hundred villages by 2013. HPS has won several awards including the 2009 DFJ/Cisco Global Business Plan Competition and the FastCompany “Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, 2008″. If they continue to light so many lives at this pace, many more will surely follow…
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