A Training Workshop on SELLING SOLAR LIGHTS: TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE was held on the 15th February 2014 at Center for Management Development, UPES, Village- Bidholi, Dehradun. Here is what happened at the SELCO Workshop.

1. Training Workshop
on
SELLING SOLAR LIGHTS: TECHNOLOGY AND FINANCE
15th February 2014
Center for Management Development, UPES, Village- Bidholi,
Dehradun
A Report
University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun in collaboration with Center for
Management Development (CMD) organized a Training Workshop on Selling Solar Lights:
Technology and Finance for 56 participants from 11 different districts of Uttarakhand. The
workshop was part of an initiative under the project funded by GIZ and Uttarakhand Renewable
Energy Development Agency (UREDA) in lieu of technical cooperation between Germany and
India to promote private investment in providing access to clean energy in rural areas from
renewable energy sources.
In the one day workshop, Mr. A.K. Tyagi, Chief Project Officer (CPO), UREDA, Dr. S.J.
Chopra, Chancellor, UPES, Mr. Onkar Nath, Project Officer, GIZ and Dr. Kamal Bansal,
Director, College of Engineering, UPES were present in the inaugural session. Mr. Sudhir
Kulkarni, Mr. R.N.Dixit, Mr. Rustam Sengupta from SELCO and BOOND, an incubator of
SELCO and Dr. Ajit Nigam from UPES are the instrctors for the workshop. Dr. Prasoom
Dwivedi, Associate Professor and Head, Center for Energy Economics Research, Dr. Pankaj
Kumar Sharma, Associate Professor, College of Engineering and Dr. Rajeev Sharma, Assistant
Professor (Selection Grade), Department of Economics and International Business, Colllege of
Management and Economics Studies alongwith Archit Agrawal, Rajat Gupta, Sarvesh Sahu,
Megha Singh, Sneha Thambi, Dushyant Parihar, Vindyachal and Himanshu Shekhar students of
MBA (Energy Trading), 2nd Semester and Rahul P C, M.Tech (Energy Syetems- 2nd Sem)
orgnaised this event. Dr. Neeraj Rawat, Assistant Director, Center for Management Development
is the overall coordinator of this event.
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2. Different stakeholders shared platform to build capacities of technicans, Ashkay Urja Shop
Owners, NGOs in the state in terms of technical up-gradation and developing financial linkages
for promoting solar lighting technologies and solutions to entrepreneurs engaging in this activity
in the state. Mr. Onkar Nath (GIZ), Mr. A K Tyagi (UREDA), highlighted positive features of
adopting solar technologies and shared an example of BOOND (Karnatka) which could be
termed as one of the benchmarks when Uttrakhand government is trying to promote this
technology in the state. Mr. Sudhir Kulkarni (SELCO foundation, Bengaluru) facilitated the
workshop and shared the model of SELCO Solar Lighting (Pvt) Ltd., which is recognized as one
of the pioneers in India in this field and has been in the business of selling solar lighting
solutions in rural areas of India for the past 15 years. Mr. Rustam Sengupta (BOOND) shared his
experience while implementing similar program in Karnatka. He also addressed the issues and
challenges faced by his team to develop a self sustainable model while utilizing solar
technologies which can play significant role in development of rural areas. Mr. R N Dixit
appraised participants about the schemes introduced by banks for supporting young
entrepreneurs and technicians undertaking initiatives to establish solar technologies in rural
areas. He did encourage them to make use of these schemes for significantly contributing to the
society and benefit themselves too in the development process through self employment. Dr. S.
J. Chopra, Chancellor, UPES reinforced the need of capacity building for self employment
generation in the state of Uttarakhand. He also mentioned that we sould also strive to help these
rural youths in starting their own business. In this regard, he introduced the incubation center of
UPES and said that UPES is always committed for development of state therefore, UPES can
offer its services to help the rural youth in setting up their own business. Dr. Kamal Bansal,
Director, College of Engineering presented vote of thank for the guests and dignitaries.
The participants from different districts of Uttrakhand including, Haridwar, Dehradun, Almora,
Champawat, Tehri Garwhal, Pitthoragarh, Uttarkashi and Udham Singh Nagar. They were keen
to learn about critical inputs on technical and financing aspects of selling solar lighting solutions
to entrepreneurs engaged in this activity in the state. They also expressed their desire for
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3. participating in more such programs to further engage and develop more human resources for
spreading awareness across the region. After the workshop, a brainstorming session was done to
decide a way forward to encourage the entrepreneurial effort in this regard in the state.
We are thankful to Dr. S.J.Chopra, Chancellor, Dr. Kamal Bansal, Director, CoE, Mr. Arun
Dhand, Director, GRMA, Dr. Sreekanth Venkataraman, Vice President, Incubation Center and
Dr. Sanket Goel, Vice President, R & D for gracing the occasion. We are grateful to Dr. Parag
Diwan, Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Utpal Ghosh, PVC, Dr. Shri Hari, Campus Director, Dr.
Anirbansen Gupta, Dean, and Dr. Anshuman Gupta, HOD, Economics and International
Busines, CMES for their countinuous support and guidance. We appreciate the unstinted help
of Mr. Manish Yagnik, Mr. Anjul Khanduri, Mr. Michael, Mr. Vinay Chhetri, CMD staff and
security staff.
Group Photograph
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