Social entrepreneurship is the way forward for a bright and vibrant world. Several individuals have recognized this and started walking onto this path of sustainable development initiatives. One such social entrepreneur who can serve to inspire several young entrepreneurs onto this path is Mr. Sunshine- Harish Hande.
Harish Hande co-founded Selco India in 1995 to light up the lives at the bottom of the pyramid. Selco India provides solar energy solutions to the rural populace of Gujarat and Karnataka which is customized according to specific needs. It also has collaborated with several regional rural banks, credit cooperatives and commercial banks to provide easy credit to purchase the solar equipments.
Harish Hande believes that the energy needs of a pani puri walla are very different from those of a paddy field farmer. He says, "One requires a certain type of light and fuel on a daily basis, while the other requires it on an annual basis. Yet, we continue to apply standardised procedures that have worked with the 1 million haves, to the 5 million have-nots. It’s the inefficient processes that cause losses, and solar power bears the blame. SELCO helps lightning up by decentralizing the process and creating personalized solutions based on people’s different needs. Their simple but effective innovation has killed the fallacy that solar energy is expensive and impractical."
Harish Hande has been awarded the prestigious Magsaysay award in 2011, social entrepreneur of the year award by Schwab Foundation for social entrepreneurship and several other awards recognizing his contribution.
Kalpavriksha hopes that there are several other young people around the world who follow in the footsteps of such social entrepreneurs to carve out a name for themselves with their sharp wit and dedicated effort and at the same time make a positive impact on the society to make it a better place.
Kalpavriksha wishes to encourage and guide all these young minds of today to stand up and find solutions to the various problems in the society rather than just wishing for a change.
As Mahatma Gandhi put it, “Be the change that you want to see in the world.”
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