Harish Hande's SELCO-India project for rural electrification

Read the article and view the video of an interview with Harish Hande, who won Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2007. From livemint.com. Excerpts:

The next logical step was to set up Selco and to see how sustainable energy like solar can be diffused/ disbursed to rural areas in a way that allowed people to pay and maintain it. A sustainable venture, both in terms of social and commercial returns, it was set up in 1994-95 it rested on three tenets: poor people can afford sustainable technologies; poor can maintain sustainable technologies; and the poor can support the running of a commercial venture profitably.

We have forged partnerships with nine regional rural banks, commercial banks, NGOs and rural farmer cooperatives to develop financial solutions. With a force of 78 deeply committed technicians our management holds its fort, even against the cruelest odds. Employee commitment has been the single most reason why we are still around.