Roti, Kapda aur Makaan (food, clothing and shelter) are still the three most important necessities for people in rural India. But one more important thing they need is a source of light at night. The only affordable source which they had till now was a kerosene lamp, which always ate up a large share of their incomes and was also unsafe for use. A kerosene lamp is a health hazard when one sleeps with a kerosene lamp in a closed room, and they are the most usual source of fire accidents in rural areas. Everyone was well aware of the situation, but no one was able to find a way out of this problem. The main challenge here was not to just create an innovative lighting solution, but to make that innovative invention safe and cheap enough that families earning as low as $1 per day living in villages with no electricity could also afford it.
When we took a peek at the market players, we found many companies jostling side-by-side to capture this open and challenging market. Before they could jump into the market with their products, they needed some reality check. We have tried to list down a checklist which each of them should have done before they introduced their product. Here goes the list:
- Innovation in technology as well as profit generation
- Availability of a range of products and the scope of customizability
- Capacity to provide financing as the target segment has a very low per-capita income
- Capacity to provide after sales service in the remotest locations to retain the trust and faith of customers
Let us analyze some of the leading enterprises and see how good are they fairing based on our checklist.
D.light Design (2004)
- They are focused mainly on solar powered lanterns, using LED lighting and an optional ac charger. Their lamp ‘Kiran’ is priced as low as $10, and can provide light for 8 hours on one day’s charge. Their products also have the flexibility of adjusting the brightness level to make the luminance suit the prevailing conditions, and save power.
- D.light has a range of products spanning over a wide price range. They are also aiming to broaden their alternative energy expertise to other domains like mobile phone charging. Their latest base light model also charges mobile phone batteries. They have products which provide both unidirectional as well as 360 degree lighting.
- They have started to tie-up with rural banks to provide easy loans for their products.
- Not much information is available on how they are managing the after sales services.
Overall rating: 6/10
Selco India (1995)
- Apart from solar power, they are also looking at locally available alternative sources of energy.
- Apart from solar lanterns they also provide street lighting, solar water heater etc. They have also customized their products for people from different sections and professions, like solar powered sewing machines, solar lamps for cashew nut labourers, solar head lamps for silk worm farmers, solar LED lanterns for coal mine workers, solar lights for street vendors, etc.
- They provide financing through cooperative societies, commercial banks and micro-finance institutions.
- They have built a strong service network through their own dedicated service centers and staff. They have also created other small entrepreneurs who use solar panels to charge batteries and lend them to street vendors at nominal daily prices.
Overall rating: 9/10
Cosmos Ignite Innovation (2004)
- Solar lighting is the only source of energy they are looking at.
- They offer only one product, named ‘MighyLight’, which is priced at around $50. This product provides only unidirectional lighting. They also have luminance setting option for their lamp.
- They don’t seem to have put any effort for consumer financing.
- They don’t even have any after sales service centers or franchisees.
Overall rating: 3/10
Intelizon Energy Pvt. Ltd. (2007)
- They also have only solar energy on their minds.
- They launched their first LED based solar torch Zonlight in 2008. This is a unidirectional lighting equipment and priced at Rs. 700. This product’s luminance can be adjusted on need basis at two levels viz. low and high. They have two other products in the pipeline.
- They are in a very nascent stage and have not done much about consumer financing.
- After sales seems to be secondary right now, with sales being the primary focus.
Overall rating: 4/10
Another agency which has done a significant amount of work in this field is the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. They had done a good job of distributing about 0.5 million solar lamps in about a year’s time. They had some very consumer friendly schemes like subsidy of upto Rs. 2400.00 on each solar lamp, free solar lamps to families having a school going girl child, Rs. 100 after sales service charges per lamp sold to the nodal agencies distributing these lamps etc. But the government’s plan was marred by lack of any motivation and the hidden conditions in the fine print, like – the subsidy was available only to ‘eligible beneficiaries’, which did not have a very clear definition., the girl child had to be studying in class 9 to class 12, etc. The government also did not implement the after sales service channel very effectively. Due to this the rural consumers lost their faith in the solar devices, ultimately giving these companies some tough time persuading the rural folk.
Not only more technical but also financing and process innovation needs to come out of these factories so that this new and alternate source of energy can become a part of the mainstream. The ‘sarkaari’ solar lantern needs to come up with a LED version rather than the less energy-efficient CFL version. The leading companies need to introduce technical variations in their products based on the local conditions, like crystalline solar cells are more suited to the clear weather of Rajasthan, and on the other hand amorphous solar cells are more suited to the cloudy conditions of Assam. Such innovations could lead to more energy-efficient and low-maintenance products. This thing is important, but the success of this new technology totally depends on good consumer-support by agencies to its users.
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