Indian waste workers fear loss of income from trash-to-electricity projects

In New Delhi — For five hours every day, Ranjit Kumar and his 10-year-old son rummage through a giant pile of rotting trash with their bare hands, filling bags with ­pieces of metal, plastic and glass to take by cart to the recyclers market nearby.
But an incinerator under construction not far away may mean that he and other waste workers will lose access to the trash, he said, which fetches his family a little more than $5 a day.

The incinerator is one of two projects in New Delhi aimed at turning the city’s trash into electricity and earning carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, the global climate pact designed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Local politicians have hailed the projects for addressing the city’s chronic problems of excess untreated waste and a shortage of electric power.
But for almost 300,000 workers in the city engaged in waste collection, sorting and recycling, the plants mean the loss of their livelihood.
“If all the trash goes to the plants to be processed, how do we feed our stomachs?” Kumar said as foul-smelling fumes rose from the trash and dark-brown water trickled past him. “My work may look dirty, but it keeps my family alive.”
A worldwide campaign
Waste-worker communities have mobilized in Brazil, Colombia, South Africa and India to campaign on behalf of trash dumps and the livelihoods they provide, and against the idea of burning waste. The United Nations, however, has been encouraging incinerator projects that burn waste — rotting trash produces the potent greenhouse gas methane — to produce energy.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, nations can earn carbon credits for such projects; the credits can be used to offset the emissions of coal-fired power plants elsewhere.
This month, hundreds of waste workers gathered outside the U.N. office in New Delhi to protest 21 municipal waste projects for which India has applied for carbon credit. The projects, not all completed, use biodegradable, combustible and inert waste. They include trash-to-compost, incinerators and refuse-derived fuel.
Waste-worker groups appealed to climate negotiators when they met in Mexico, Germany and China in the past year, and they are preparing to protest at the climate meeting in Durban, South Africa, set to begin next week.
Waste workers want access to the United Nations’ $30 billion Green Climate Fund — the effort by developed countries to help the developing world prepare for climate change — for their role in mitigating climate change by recovering recyclable materials from waste.
But advocates of the trash-
to-energy projects say that India’s growing population, changing consumption patterns and urban boom have created a waste problem that must be addressed in a scientific manner.
“It is not an us-versus-them situation. We must frame the debate differently. Do we want the ragpickers to continue working in inhuman, hell-on-Earth, unhygienic conditions at these untreated dump sites? Should their sons and daughters do the same, too?” asked Mahesh Babu, chief executive of IL&FS Ecosmart, which heads several trash-to-energy projects across India, including the incinerator near Kumar’s neighborhood. “The solution lies in integrating some of the waste-workers into the processing activities of the plants.”

But India has a staggering 1.7 million waste workers, and any effort to mainstream them is often just a drop. Babu’s project in the central city of Nagpur has given jobs to 70 people to collect trash, out of a total of 1,700 waste workers in the city.
“The waste pickers are at the lowest rung of the occupational ladder and often the most marginalized, hence they do not have alternative livelihood options to which they can move,” Prema Gera, assistant country director of the U.N. Development Program, said in an e-mail, referring to a study.
Bhojahari Paramni, 41, has worked with waste for 25 years. He removes dirt and twigs from balls of human hair in his home in a large slum of waste workers.
“You cannot take away my job and expect me to become a successful electrician, plumber or mason overnight,” he said. There is no regulatory protection for waste workers in India.
Waste workers say that 80 percent of Indian trash is wet, organic waste and that 30 percent contains recyclable material.
“To run an incinerator, they will burn everything, including the recyclables like plastics. Is that good for the environment?” asked Shashi Bhushan Pandit, secretary of the All India Waste Workers Union. This year, New Delhi residents protested another new incinerator because they feared emissions of dioxin and other toxic gases.
Two Indian waste workers will represent their country at next week’s protest in Durban, which will demand that poor people be factored in climate policies.
Carbon trading’s future
Although the Kyoto Protocol, which the United States has not signed, is facing an uncertain future when it comes up for renewal in 2012, analysts say that its key component, carbon trading for emissions reductions, may survive in some form.
Countries such as China, Japan and New Zealand are developing carbon markets. California recently announced the nation’s first state-run cap-and-trade program. This year, India launched an exchange program for renewable-energy certificates.
“We are hoping that the carbon-trading market will continue in some [form] — both within India and bilaterally with other countries, even if the multilateral arrangements under the Kyoto Protocol are not renewed,” Babu said.
He said carbon credit prices have fallen more than 50 percent in the past year because of the euro-zone economic crisis.

Maha to set up Agro Economic Zones on lines of SEZs: Minister

Source: one india
Nanded, Feb 11 (PTI) Maharashtra is planning to set upAgro Economic Zones in the state on the lines of SEZs to boostagro processing industry in districts where agriculture andfarming form the backbone of the economy, Agriculture MinisterRadhakrishna Vikhe-Patil said today.

Buzz up!
Speaking at "Nanded Ahead", an investors meet organisedby the government, Nanded Chambers of Commerce and Industryhere, the minister said the agro processing policy would beannounced soon.


"The agro economic zones would be set up in districtsdepending on the kind of agriculture produce grown," he said.

Vikhe Patil said the Marketing ministry has already setup Terminal and Electronic markets to boost agro processing.

"The agro processing zones will be on the lines of SEZsand Nanded is a good alternative. Development is notrestricted to any particular region. Local entrepreneurs playa every important role in growth of the region and the needof the hour is to expand the MIDCs to accommodate more andmore local industries," he added.

Vikhe Patil called for the need to remove the mentalblock of being backward.

"What is important is that we need to look forwardtowards the road ahead," Vikhe-Patil, a close aide of formerChief Minister Ashok Chavan said.

Chavan is the chief patron of the two day ''Nanded Ahead''convention.

Vikhe-Patil attributed the development of Nanded toChavan and described him as a visionary leader.

The meeting assumes significance as it is being held inthe backdrop of the CBI naming Chavan as one of the accused inthe Adarsh housing scam and the former Chief Ministerattending a meeting of legislators, supporting him in anapparent show of strength. .

Contradictions of ‘development’ in contemporary India

Swapna Banerjee-Guha, 7 February 2011

Is India moving on a path towards segregating society, enclaving economic space in a way that essentially excludes the majority from the development orbit?

About the author

Swapna Banerjee-Guha is Professor of Development Studies in the School of Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Most recently she published Accumulation by Dispossession: Transformative Cities in the New Global Order (Sage Publications, 2010).

Is India moving on a path towards segregating society, enclaving economic space in a way that essentially excludes the majority from the development orbit? A large number of Indians from various cross-sections are currently enraged about this crucial question. While official outlets make frantic efforts to project this tendency as a contradiction between modernity and backwardness and label anyone questioning the validity of the above development model as ‘anti-development’ or ‘unlawful’, innumerable lived experiences go on reflecting heightening inequalities and the increasing expendability of the poor.
Take the case of the resource-rich tribal heartland of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh located in central and eastern India. Mining areas in these states are enthusiastically being leased out to global corporations leaving the poor tribal community homeless; common lands and waste lands in several states that have been traditionally providing livelihood and survival means to the poor are being taken over to make Special Economic Zones; rich coastal areas with enormous bio-diversity are being handed over to corporations like Dow Chemicals for making chemical hubs; natural resources like rivers are being privatised for industrial and commercial purposes, like the Sheonath river in Chattisgarh.  Examples abound. This ‘development’ process that rests heavily on displacement, dispossession and destruction of the environment is creating an irreversible production structure in favour of the rich that is actively supported by all major international financial institutions like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and the like and facilitated by the neoliberal Indian state.

Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand. Demotix / Poul Madsen. All rights reserved.
Specific areas in India – large and small, rural and urban - are being identified as global economic regions to carry out modern hi-tech corporatised activities. Essentially global, these new economic spaces (location choices are made by investing corporations) are carved out from existing agricultural areas, forest lands, mining areas, fishing zones, peripheries of metropolitan regions, villages, even slums and dilapidated areas inside cities. In the process of converting these spaces into newer ones, large numbers of farmers, agricultural labourers, fishermen, in short a huge section of economically active but poor people are being displaced and dispossessed leading to fierce resistance struggles, inviting in response, state atrocities and violence.
The phenomenon has become pan-Indian: whether in Raigad in Maharashtra, Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, in Jagatsinghapur-Kalinganagar in Orissa or Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, the patterns are comparable. The official argument says that as the State is not financially capable of providing ‘world class infrastructure’ in a short time, it is necessary to invite private capital to provide it initially in chosen pockets that will boost economic growth in the surrounding regions. While private capital undertakes this task, it becomes obligatory on the part of the State to offer them concessions and subsidies, in exchange. Land acquisition for such global spaces is undertaken by invoking a Colonial Act of 1894 that says that the State is the ultimate owner of land and can take over any tract for ‘public purposes’ by paying reasonable (sic) compensation. Enclave development, once a mainstay of the colonial state, has made a glorious come back in contemporary Indian economic policy.

The vociferous state 

This newer form of capitalist development depends on global finance and technology and a supportive neoliberal hegemonic discourse. It goes beyond the previous practice of disaggregation and production relocation in areas with lower social reproduction costs to an altogether newer design of total appropriation of space for a novel exploitation process. Set to mutate all existing social relations, it further modifies the non-Fordist labour process, transforms relations between the dominant and the dominated and alienates space-economies from their respective social realities to construct an economic system conforming to its description in pure theory. The common collective interest and the public good start getting negotiated away by ideological, political and economic power-plays that privilege individual accumulation, subordinating the common people and their rights in a way that is even used to underpin justifications for state violence.

Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand. Demotix / Poul Madsen. All rights reserved.
Resting on a contradictory framework of inclusion (of the few) and exclusion (of the many) it materialises a multiscalar, uneven development involving integration of selective regions and sections of societies in a globalised market framework. A destructive ensemble of obsoletism and reconstruction diffuses across the old spaces, displacing the existing use values and altering the discursive as well as the material geography of such spaces, creating a solid, material background for intense conflicts. A typical neoliberal construction of space, place and scale is taking place in India that is reconstructing a new geography of centrality and marginality, making the issues of production and capitalisation of space extremely crucial. The resultant landscapes of conflict invite resistance and contestation from below by those whose livelihoods get jeopardised and who are systematically marginalised by the state apparatus in diverse ways that expose their vulnerability in the current order.
To identify the causal factors, one needs to look at the direction of India’s current economic momentum. There has been a far-reaching shift in her economic policy, facilitating ingress of global capital in all economic sectors, downsizing labour, outsourcing economic activities, and promoting an aggressive urbanism based on gentrification and privatisation. Based on exploitation of the product of labour, pillage of nature and expropriation of social property, such policies have a close connection with international financial institutions, the global corporate sector, and quite significantly, the major capitalist countries. The State, backtracking from its previous role of a provider takes a neoliberal stance, becoming a vociferous facilitator of private capital pitching heavily on a ‘politically neutral’ practice of developmental governmentality. While the country’s growth roars ahead at an annual 8 per cent, growth in regular employment in recent years is found to have exceeded not even 1 per cent. Quite logically India accounts for the largest number of homeless, illiterate and ill-fed people in the world.

Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand. Demotix / Poul Madsen. All rights reserved.
Amidst the euphoria of creating a free market, in practice the contemporary policies are resulting in a dramatic intensification of a coercive disciplinary form of state intervention to impose a market rule that subjugates the majority and protects the ‘strong’.  This is taking place on an aggressively contested institutional landscape  in which newly emerging ‘economic spaces’ stand in conflict with inherited regulatory arrangements, providing a political arena through which subsequent struggles over accumulation by dispossession and its associated contradictions are getting articulated and fought out at various scales questioning the prevailing development path of the country, assuming a national character, often supported by pan-Indian coalitions of regional resistance groups, broadly/basically left oriented but not belonging to mainstream left parties. The resultant negotiating strategy of the neoliberal state creating multi-level contradictory spaces of conciliation, coercion and atrocity is significant in exposing the porosity of the state apparatus.
One needs to emphasise that the contextual embeddedness of the current exclusionist economic policy in India, produced at national, regional and local scales, are not only getting defined by the nexus of policy regimes, disciplinary political authorities and their regulatory practices, but also by resistance struggles, consolidated grassroots movements and mobilisation of progressive forces that are challenging the state sponsored corporatised development paradigm. Peripatetic global capital in collision with state power may exhibit its authority in controlling spaces and territories for some time, but the ongoing struggles clearly point at an emerging discourse in search of an alternate paradigm, based on a democratically oriented sustainable development practice.

For references and full development of issues see:
Banerjee-Guha, Swapna (1997). Spatial Dynamics of International Capital, Orient Longman, Hyderabad.
Banerjee-Guha, Swapna (2002). 'Critical Geographical Praxis: Globalisation and Socio-Spatial Disorder', Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.37 (44 & 45), pp. 4503-09, Mumbai.
Banerjee-Guha, Swapna (2008): ‘Space Relations of Capital and Significance of New Economic Enclaves: SEZs in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 43(47), pp. 51-60, Mumbai
Banerjee-Guha, Swapna (2009): ‘Contradictions of Enclave Development in Contemporary Times: Special Economic Zones in India’ Human Geography, Vol. 2(1), pp 1-12, Massachusetts
Bhaduri, A (2008): 'Predatory Growth', Economic and Political Weekly,  Vol.43(16), pp.10-13, Mumbai.
Bourdieu, P (1998): 'The Essence of Neoliberalism', Le Monde Diplomatique, December 1998.
Brenner, N and N. Theodore (2002): ’Cities and Geographies of ‘Actually Existing Neoliberalism’, Antipode, Vol. 34, pp 349-379
Conway, D and N Heynen (2006): 'The Ascendancy of Neoliberalism and Emergence of Contemporary Globalisation' in Denis Conway and Nik Heynen, (eds.)., Globalisation's Contradictions, Routledge, U.K.
Cox, H (1999): 'The Market as God: Living in the New Dispensation',Atlantic Monthly, March, pp.18-23.
Gill, S (1995): ‘Globalisation, Market Civilisation and Disciplinary Neoliberalism’, Millennium, Vol. 24, pp 399-423.
Harvey, D (2005): A Brief History of Neoliberalism, Oxford University Press, New York
Sanyal, Kalyan (2007): Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism, Routledge, New Delhi.
 

Say goodbye to kerosene lamps, here's Kiran!

 Source: Rediff
 December 23, 2009 18:39 IST

 Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.

Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.

"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."

He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.

Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.

The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.

The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.

The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.

A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.

For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.

Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

 

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

 

 Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

 

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.

What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

 

 

Image: Children holding the Kiran lamp in India.

 

How has the response to Kiran been?
The response to Kiran has been incredibly strong in India and elsewhere.  We find that customers really like the look of the product and are more willing to adopt this new product because of the lower price point. What kind of impact has Kiran created in countries like India? How has Kiran changed the lives of villagers in India?
Like all of our products, the Kiran has had significant impact for our customers.  We are focussing on Western and Northern India. We have found that children are now able to study more effectively and for longer hours.
They are able to increase their income through the extended workday. They are saving money because they no longer need to buy kerosene as Kiran is a bright, clean alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns. 
Our customers appreciate the light and portable Kiran which can be easily used in the field, at home, or while travelling. Besides helping the needy, it is very satisfying to see that people who are selling the products have been able to lead a better life. . . They tell me that this is a great product and it has helped them change their lives, helped them get a good income, helped them send their children to better schools.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How has the response to Kiran been?
The response to Kiran has been incredibly strong in India and elsewhere.  We find that customers really like the look of the product and are more willing to adopt this new product because of the lower price point. What kind of impact has Kiran created in countries like India? How has Kiran changed the lives of villagers in India?
Like all of our products, the Kiran has had significant impact for our customers.  We are focussing on Western and Northern India. We have found that children are now able to study more effectively and for longer hours.
They are able to increase their income through the extended workday. They are saving money because they no longer need to buy kerosene as Kiran is a bright, clean alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns. 
Our customers appreciate the light and portable Kiran which can be easily used in the field, at home, or while travelling. Besides helping the needy, it is very satisfying to see that people who are selling the products have been able to lead a better life. . . They tell me that this is a great product and it has helped them change their lives, helped them get a good income, helped them send their children to better schools.

Image: Children holding the Kiran lamp in India.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

 

Image: Solatas being used in a school in Tanzania

How is the market for low-cost solar lighting solutions? How is the market in India? There is incredibly high demand for low-cost solar lighting solutions throughout the developing world. Most of our customers have not previously been exposed to high-quality lighting products, and so they are very receptive to our products.
The greater challenge is ensuring that our products can reach these customers regardless of where they live. The market in India is also very promising, though it does tend to be more competitive than our markets in East Africa and elsewhere.
There are already quite a few solar lighting products on the market in India, but we believe that our products offer the best value for the prices that our customers pay.
Which are the other products on offer?
The Nova Mobile provides high-quality light while doubling as a mobile phone charger. The Solata provides up to 15 hours of light on a full charge and uses highly efficient LEDs. It is 5 to 6 times brighter than a kerosene lantern, and performs exceptionally well for tasks where light is required from specific angles.

t

 

Image: Distribution in rural China.

How do you make these solutions cost-effective? How durable and user-friendly is this product? We know our customers very well, so we are able to design extremely useful, quality products without over designing. We understand what features are important to our customers.
We work closely with our contract manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that we are getting the best prices possible for our components and manufacturing. Our operations in China ensure that we will be able to make our products at high volumes and low cost without compromising quality.
All of our products are designed to be extremely durable.  We understand that our customers live in rugged environments, in which there may be severe weather conditions (heat, typhoons, etc.) and dust.  Our products are designed to last at least 1-5 years (depending on the product and the level of usage).
We believe that all of our products are extremely easy and safe to operate (we find that children are some of the biggest users of the products), and that the little touches we've added, such as ergonomic, multiple-setting handles, make them highly functional for our customers.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How has the response to Kiran been?
The response to Kiran has been incredibly strong in India and elsewhere.  We find that customers really like the look of the product and are more willing to adopt this new product because of the lower price point. What kind of impact has Kiran created in countries like India? How has Kiran changed the lives of villagers in India?
Like all of our products, the Kiran has had significant impact for our customers.  We are focussing on Western and Northern India. We have found that children are now able to study more effectively and for longer hours.
They are able to increase their income through the extended workday. They are saving money because they no longer need to buy kerosene as Kiran is a bright, clean alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns. 
Our customers appreciate the light and portable Kiran which can be easily used in the field, at home, or while travelling. Besides helping the needy, it is very satisfying to see that people who are selling the products have been able to lead a better life. . . They tell me that this is a great product and it has helped them change their lives, helped them get a good income, helped them send their children to better schools.

Image: Children holding the Kiran lamp in India.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How is the market for low-cost solar lighting solutions? How is the market in India? There is incredibly high demand for low-cost solar lighting solutions throughout the developing world. Most of our customers have not previously been exposed to high-quality lighting products, and so they are very receptive to our products.
The greater challenge is ensuring that our products can reach these customers regardless of where they live. The market in India is also very promising, though it does tend to be more competitive than our markets in East Africa and elsewhere.
There are already quite a few solar lighting products on the market in India, but we believe that our products offer the best value for the prices that our customers pay.
Which are the other products on offer?
The Nova Mobile provides high-quality light while doubling as a mobile phone charger. The Solata provides up to 15 hours of light on a full charge and uses highly efficient LEDs. It is 5 to 6 times brighter than a kerosene lantern, and performs exceptionally well for tasks where light is required from specific angles.

Image: Solatas being used in a school in Tanzania
Photographs: Theo Steemers/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

 

Image: Nova lights up a shop in Tanzania.

     Next

Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

     Next

Prev     Next

How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

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What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

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How has the response to Kiran been?
The response to Kiran has been incredibly strong in India and elsewhere.  We find that customers really like the look of the product and are more willing to adopt this new product because of the lower price point. What kind of impact has Kiran created in countries like India? How has Kiran changed the lives of villagers in India?
Like all of our products, the Kiran has had significant impact for our customers.  We are focussing on Western and Northern India. We have found that children are now able to study more effectively and for longer hours.
They are able to increase their income through the extended workday. They are saving money because they no longer need to buy kerosene as Kiran is a bright, clean alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns. 
Our customers appreciate the light and portable Kiran which can be easily used in the field, at home, or while travelling. Besides helping the needy, it is very satisfying to see that people who are selling the products have been able to lead a better life. . . They tell me that this is a great product and it has helped them change their lives, helped them get a good income, helped them send their children to better schools.

Image: Children holding the Kiran lamp in India.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

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How is the market for low-cost solar lighting solutions? How is the market in India? There is incredibly high demand for low-cost solar lighting solutions throughout the developing world. Most of our customers have not previously been exposed to high-quality lighting products, and so they are very receptive to our products.
The greater challenge is ensuring that our products can reach these customers regardless of where they live. The market in India is also very promising, though it does tend to be more competitive than our markets in East Africa and elsewhere.
There are already quite a few solar lighting products on the market in India, but we believe that our products offer the best value for the prices that our customers pay.
Which are the other products on offer?
The Nova Mobile provides high-quality light while doubling as a mobile phone charger. The Solata provides up to 15 hours of light on a full charge and uses highly efficient LEDs. It is 5 to 6 times brighter than a kerosene lantern, and performs exceptionally well for tasks where light is required from specific angles.

Image: Solatas being used in a school in Tanzania
Photographs: Theo Steemers/D.light Design.

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How do you make these solutions cost-effective? How durable and user-friendly is this product? We know our customers very well, so we are able to design extremely useful, quality products without over designing. We understand what features are important to our customers.
We work closely with our contract manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that we are getting the best prices possible for our components and manufacturing. Our operations in China ensure that we will be able to make our products at high volumes and low cost without compromising quality.
All of our products are designed to be extremely durable.  We understand that our customers live in rugged environments, in which there may be severe weather conditions (heat, typhoons, etc.) and dust.  Our products are designed to last at least 1-5 years (depending on the product and the level of usage).
We believe that all of our products are extremely easy and safe to operate (we find that children are some of the biggest users of the products), and that the little touches we've added, such as ergonomic, multiple-setting handles, make them highly functional for our customers.

Image: Distribution in rural China.

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Which countries will you be targetting?

Currently, our primary markets are India and the 13 countries within East Africa, with Tanzania being our main base of sales and marketing operations.

D.light products are already being sold in nearly 30 countries around the world, in regions as varied as the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa.

Is this a profitable business?

The kerosene is a $38-billion-a-year-industry.  So we certainly entered into this business expecting to be profitable. We expect to break even in the near future.

 

 

Image: Nova used during harvesting in India.

How important is innovation for a start-up to be successful? Innovation is essential in giving a start-up a competitive edge, and in keeping ahead of the curve. D.light is not the first company to develop portable solar lighting products, but we believe we are on the leading edge due to our creative product design process, distribution strategies, and business model.
A part of innovation is also flexibility; when customers respond in a way you don't expect, or new market opportunities suddenly open up, it is imperative for a company to be able to adapt and capitalise on these opportunities.
What is the future for innovative solutions like Kiran?
We believe that there is room for tremendous growth in the solar lighting industry in general, and the bottom-of-the-pyramid space in general. We expect competitor products to continue come onto the market in the coming months and years, and so D.light will continue to push the envelope in terms of product development and distribution.

 

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Manu A B in Mumbai

Their mission is to bring light to millions of households that do not have access to electricity. Betting big on solar lighting products, Sam Goldman and his team have embarked on an enduring journey to remove darkness from the remotest corners of the world.
Sam was moved by an unfortunate incident, while working as a US Peace Corps volunteer in the West African nation of Benin between 2001 and 2005, which led him to focus on this segment.
"My neighbour's son in Benin was badly burned by a kerosene lamp. It was disturbing to see that when we made so much progress in terms of technology, we still did not have a solution to this grave problem. So I had made up my mind to provide a source of light that is safe and cheap."
He then joined Stanford University to pursue an MBA in social entrepreneurship. The idea got a fillip at the 'Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability' class at the Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
Sam Goldman then joined hands with classmate Ned Tozun to start D.Light Design, a company that makes affordable solar lighting solutions to serve the bottom-of-the-pyramid households in India and other markets across the globe. The initial research and early prototyping of what became D.light products, began in 2006.
The company was officially founded in mid-2007 with the ambitious mission to reach out to about 1.6 billion people in the world without electricity, and another billion or more who have unreliable electricity.
The company's latest product, Kiran (which means a ray of light), is a low-cost solar lighting solution, designed especially for households without access to electricity. Dubbed the 'kerosene killer', Kiran is priced at Rs 499 ($10) making it the most affordable, quality solar lantern in the world.
The company's mission is to replace every kerosene lantern with clean, safe and bright light. "The Indian market is complex, competitive and difficult to tap. By 2010, we plans to serve 10 million people across the world," says Sam Goldman.
A Silicon Valley venture, the company has received a funding of $6 million from both US and Indian investors, including Mahindra & Mahindra, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund, Garage Technology Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and Gray Matters Capital.
For Sam, India is an exciting place to be in, a land of infinite opportunities. No other country is as diverse, complex and as interesting as India, he says. There are fantastic ideas among start-ups in India and in the social entrepreneurship sector as well, he adds.
Sam Goldman, CEO and co-founder, D.Light, and Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, director (communications), share their views on how the company plans to transform the lives of people with simple and cheaper solar-powered gadgets.
Click NEXT to read further...

Image: Sam Goldman (left), with co-founder Ned Tozun.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

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How is the experience of being a social entrepreneur?

I was really lucky to find like-minded people to help me in this venture. Everyday we deal with brand new ideas and I learn new things. It is satisfying to hear that many people in the rural areas have hugely benefited by our products.
Most people find finance a major constraint to start a venture. How was it for you?
We were fortunate as we sought funding prior to the current economic crisis.  At that time, we found a significant number of venture capitalists who were very interested in investing in social enterprises. 
Investors were also attracted to the phenomenal social returns on such an investment, given that fairly straightforward solar lighting solutions can benefit families by increasing household income, reducing expenditures on kerosene, and improving education and health outcomes. 
In addition, the market potential is huge.  Kerosene is currently a $38-billion-a-year industry.  So investors clearly saw the great potential of D.light and were actually very enthusiastic about investing. I, along with Ned Tozun, participated in several business plan competitions and won $275,000 in prize money, which helped kick-start our funding.

Image: Nova S200 (also known as Nova Mobile), with mobile phone charging feature.
Photographs: D.light Design

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Prev     Next

What are the challenges that you face?
D.light is trying to do what no one has done before: to build a global consumer products company that is focussed exclusively on serving bottom-of-the-pyramid households.
One of the most significant challenges for D.light is distribution.  Our customers are naturally in some of the remotest areas of the world, many of which have never even seen electricity, let alone solar-powered products. Therefore, we need to be especially innovative in our marketing and distribution strategies in all our markets.
We have rural marketing campaigns in, both, India and East Africa. We have also developed a thriving and fast-growing rural entrepreneurship programme in India, whereby individual people sell our products to their family, friends, and neighbours on a commission.
This significantly increases our reach into the most rural areas and provides the important supplementary income for rural households.
Are you looking at making products cheaper?
The challenge is always to keep the price as low as possible to tap a large market. We continue to look at ways to make our products more affordable and accessible. We have done several pilot projects with microfinance institutions and have found this to be an extremely effective strategy to make our products more affordable. We haven't yet been able to do financing on a large scale, though, and we still want to develop products that are even more affordable.

Image: Product Design staff in the field in India, talking to potential customers
Photographs: D.light Design

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

What was the reason for developing a product like Kiran?
D.light has strategically chosen to first focus on solar lighting because we have found that bright, modern lighting has huge benefits.  We have invested our resources in building out an entire product line of solar lanterns, offering products with different features and at different prices. The Kiran is our most affordable product yet, and was based on hundreds of hours of field research. We wanted to develop a low-cost product that still had the features that our customers most desired.
Each feature of the Kiran -- its two light settings, the brightness, the colour, the shape, the handle -- were deliberate decisions based on customer feedback.  Our desire in developing the Kiran was to make a 'kerosene killer', an affordable and high-quality replacement for kerosene lanterns.
Could you tell us more about the making of Kiran? How many people were involved? How long did it take to develop it?
It took several months for Kiran to move from concept to completion.  Both our product design team (based in India at the time -- they have since moved to Hong Kong) and our product engineering team (based in China) were closely involved in the process to ensure that the product was well-designed, functional, and affordable.
There were also scores of potential customers involved in providing feedback to us in every step of the product development process.

Image: Kiran: The cheapest solar lamp at Rs 499.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How has the response to Kiran been?
The response to Kiran has been incredibly strong in India and elsewhere.  We find that customers really like the look of the product and are more willing to adopt this new product because of the lower price point. What kind of impact has Kiran created in countries like India? How has Kiran changed the lives of villagers in India?
Like all of our products, the Kiran has had significant impact for our customers.  We are focussing on Western and Northern India. We have found that children are now able to study more effectively and for longer hours.
They are able to increase their income through the extended workday. They are saving money because they no longer need to buy kerosene as Kiran is a bright, clean alternative to polluting kerosene lanterns. 
Our customers appreciate the light and portable Kiran which can be easily used in the field, at home, or while travelling. Besides helping the needy, it is very satisfying to see that people who are selling the products have been able to lead a better life. . . They tell me that this is a great product and it has helped them change their lives, helped them get a good income, helped them send their children to better schools.

Image: Children holding the Kiran lamp in India.
Photographs: Robin Chilton/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How is the market for low-cost solar lighting solutions? How is the market in India? There is incredibly high demand for low-cost solar lighting solutions throughout the developing world. Most of our customers have not previously been exposed to high-quality lighting products, and so they are very receptive to our products.
The greater challenge is ensuring that our products can reach these customers regardless of where they live. The market in India is also very promising, though it does tend to be more competitive than our markets in East Africa and elsewhere.
There are already quite a few solar lighting products on the market in India, but we believe that our products offer the best value for the prices that our customers pay.
Which are the other products on offer?
The Nova Mobile provides high-quality light while doubling as a mobile phone charger. The Solata provides up to 15 hours of light on a full charge and uses highly efficient LEDs. It is 5 to 6 times brighter than a kerosene lantern, and performs exceptionally well for tasks where light is required from specific angles.

Image: Solatas being used in a school in Tanzania
Photographs: Theo Steemers/D.light Design.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

How do you make these solutions cost-effective? How durable and user-friendly is this product? We know our customers very well, so we are able to design extremely useful, quality products without over designing. We understand what features are important to our customers.
We work closely with our contract manufacturers and suppliers to ensure that we are getting the best prices possible for our components and manufacturing. Our operations in China ensure that we will be able to make our products at high volumes and low cost without compromising quality.
All of our products are designed to be extremely durable.  We understand that our customers live in rugged environments, in which there may be severe weather conditions (heat, typhoons, etc.) and dust.  Our products are designed to last at least 1-5 years (depending on the product and the level of usage).
We believe that all of our products are extremely easy and safe to operate (we find that children are some of the biggest users of the products), and that the little touches we've added, such as ergonomic, multiple-setting handles, make them highly functional for our customers.

Image: Distribution in rural China.

Prev     Next

Prev     Next

Which countries will you be targetting? Currently, our primary markets are India and the 13 countries within East Africa, with Tanzania being our main base of sales and marketing operations.
D.light products are already being sold in nearly 30 countries around the world, in regions as varied as the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, South America, Southeast Asia, and West Africa.
Is this a profitable business?
The kerosene is a $38-billion-a-year-industry.  So we certainly entered into this business expecting to be profitable. We expect to break even in the near future.

Image: Nova lights up a shop in Tanzania.
Photographs: Theo Steemers/D.light Design.

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Image: Marketing van in India, which drives around to rural areas to market the products.

What are the five things entrepreneur must have to succeed?

Entrepreneurs must have flexibility as everything is constantly changing. One must be committed and be tough as the path is often very difficult. They must be able to tell a compelling story. It is good to have mentors and advisors to guide you. One must be very passionate about the venture.

What are your company's future plans?

D.light wants to become the leading consumer products company for bottom-of-the-pyramid markets.  Therefore, we will continue to develop innovative, high-quality, low-cost solutions that encompass light but also other important needs of our customers.

We also plan to expand distribution significantly in all of our markets in the coming months and years.  D.light's goal is to impact 10 million people by the end of 2010, and to reach 50 million by 2015.