Harish Hande: The Man who lighted the street

The Man who Lighted the Street

Selco may not strike a chord to most of us, but to lakhs of households and business who brave the realities of life with a simple on the face, across Karnataka and Gujarat, , Selco is literally the light giver.It gives me immense pride to mention that the man behind this wonderful organization is an IIT KGP alumnus. Let me introduce you to Harish Hande(Energy,NH,1990), an entrepreneur, a leader, and a beautiful human being. He was recently awarded the Boldness in Business in award by the Financial Times Group.

Harish started off with his story after IIT, on how the concept of Selco emerged out of his Ph.D, on rural electrification.(Your’s truly was late to the meet and missed out the initial few minutes, so will continue from there).

By the time I reached the meet, Harish was talking about his experience with the street vendors and how Selco solved their problems. A typical street vendor needs 3-4 hrs of lighting in the evening. He spends about 15 INR/day for renting out a kerosene lamp. A solar charged light with which would last about 6hrs can be made available to him at about 10 INR/day. Surely that is a winner.

But the challenge has not yet started. How does Selco make an expensive solar equipment affordable for the street vendor, who has no fixed income, who does not fit on the loan radar of all the banks, who is deemed a high risk? The answer to these questions is the story of Harish, story of Selco.

Early on they realized that great technology which is not affordable is not useful. They had to understand the cash flows of the poor man. Harish provided a little insight into this. The poor don’t have the cash / financing abilities to make an upfront payment or guarantee a high monthly payments. But that does not mean they cannot pay, in fact they pay more for energy than we do. In the above example of the street vendor, he pays 450 INR/month!!.

How do you solve such problems? Understand the customer.

They sit with the customer, understand their problems both technical, social, financial, observe the conditions and come up with a solution. One outcome of this was the creation of entrepreneurs who provided solar technology at an affordable price and in the process profitable. In the street vendor case, one person provided the vendors with solar charged lights on a rental basis, and he was financed by micro finance institutions.

There were numerous other examples of midwives in Gujarat, the salt farmers in Gujarat, the flower plucker’s in Madurai, the street vendors of Bangalore, the farmers in Karantaka. Each of them a different challenge and each a different solution.

Harish says, that one of their philosophies at Selco has been “Not to take, No as an answer”. They strive to come up with practical solutions, than backing away saying technology does not fit in.

Another interesting aspect that Harish addressed is the people in his company. How he insists that all those who join Selco understand the finances of the poor. Narrated an incident where the CFO rejected a hike in salary as the company did not reach the goal.

Harish has a built a great team with him at Selco, most of his technical staff though low on qualifications are among the best when it comes to what they do. Harish makes it a point that everyone in the company grows. This includes the office peon, who is trained in technology and now is an expert technician, the driver who does sales and so on. This itself speaks of the company culture. Though they can earn much higher salaries, the employees are still with Selco because of their passion to what they do.

If I were to write on what Harish shared and my interpretations of it, I can write a book. Here, I will summarize his speech:

1. Think in terms of a solution, not just a product.

2. Technology is not useful, if it is not affordable.

3. Have respect for individual and what they do.

4. Innovation is finance is a key for creating sustainability.

5. Develop practical solutions.

6. Understand the user and develop products for them.

7. Think long term.

8. Long term takes lot of hard work, no quick solutions.

The following phrase which Harish mentions sums up Selco, “ Solar is expensive for the rich, affordable for the poor”.

TAA Bangalore chapter organized “Interface with Harish Hande” on 18^th April 2009. We started of at 4:30 and by 5:00 There was a motley crowd of about two dozen people. We ended the evening with the senior most alumni present V Seshmani(1969) presented a memento to Harish on behalf of TAA Bangalore.It was snacks and catching up with the junta. It was 3hrs worth the time spent. We congratulate Harish for all the great stuff and wish him good luck in the all his future efforts. You can find the photos from the event on flickr.

The following are a must read to know more about Harish and Selco.

1. Interview with Sramana Mitra .

2. Interview on Live Mint.

3. SELComment, Selco Blog

Ramjee Ganti (NH, 2003)

Photos: Kimi ( RP,1992)

IIT KGP TAA Bangalore Chapter meet, 2nd March 2008

“Meet regularly and meet with a purpose”, is the mantra to bolster the activities done by the TAA Bangalore Chapter. As a part of this we are meeting first Sunday  of  every month.

One such meet happened last Sunday (2nd March 2008) at Koramangala Club, where about 25 alumni met, to learn from Mr. V Seshamani (69′) and Mr.K Raghunandhan(69′) aka. Vardhu and Raghu respectively. Vardhu and Raghu started ERG India in the late seventies, though there entrepreneurial stint started right from the word go after passing out from IIT Kharagpur.

The presentation was very crisp and to the point. They talked about their initial days, the mistakes they made, how they got their first project, and many more. Through out the talk and after that, one thing that was prominent and on which they put lot of stress on is financial prudence. Speaking from their experience, they felt that any setback in the financial matters has a long lasting impact on the business and hence it is a must for aspiring entrepreneurs to pay heed to their finances.
 
Another important take away was the emphasis they laid on planning upfront, and how financial prudence does not mean cutting costs where necessary. They took the example of a plant which needed about 3kv generator but commissioned only 1kv generator, as some of the minor-minor power requirements were not taken care off. This kind of improper planning will result in higher costs and lower outputs later on in the plants life cycle. Though this example was specific to the hardware industry, all of us agreed to the point that it is as relevant in other industries too.
 
After the presentation there were lots of questions , apart from Raghu and Vardu, we also had Mr. Anal Jain, who gave his perspective to some of the questions. Questions ranged from “Should founders start with their own money or have an investor?”, “What is future of manufacturing in India?”, “Why we are lagging China?”, etc. Some real good points came up in this discussion.
 
We wrapped up the proceedings with vote of thanks from Kimi, we will meet again on 6th April. The details of the venue will be intimated in a few days.

Enterprise KGP and post event bash

Thanks to all those who made Enterprise KGP a big success. There were about 150 people who joined in the pavilion area of Chinnaswamy Stadium on 6th October 2007. The event started with 4 of the business plan entries presenting their plans before the panel. The panel consisted of Mr. Anal Jain, Dr. Sridhar Mitta, Mr. Rajesh, Mr.Pawan Kumar, and Prof. P. Iyer. Dr. Damodar Acharya, Director of IIT Kharagpur was also present.

From my interaction with the presenters, they felt it was worth the time spent. The actual stuff started with Prof. Iyer introducing the panelists and IIT KGP Director. Dr. Damodar Acharya then addressed the gathering. He spoke about the progress made by IIT and how we the Alumni can help the spirit of entrepreneurship. It is not money that he wanted us to give, it’s our time.

Then Dr. Sridhar Mitta and Mr. Anal Jain addressed the gathering on entrepreneurship. Some of the points they made were right on bulls eye and a must for every entrepreneur to keep in mind. I will see if I can reproduce their speech in any of the later posts.

We had a few questions from the audience to the panelists. After that Satnam and team conducted a quiz. It was time for some excellent music and Dhananjay was simply superb with the mike.

There was food, there were drinks and you all.It was good to catch up with friends and talk to new people. Those of you who were not there, just ask the people who were there, You really missed out on some good fun and learning.

Before I close, let me thank all the team behind this for their effort. Prof. P. Iyer, his enthusiasm was matchless and his guidance and vision was one of the main ingredients of Enterprise KGP. Kimi was the executioner, he made things look so simple. Priyanka and Ritesh for their helping hand in marketing the event, maintaining the site, collecting the entries and don’t know what. There are many other folks who pitched in with many things. (An event of this size does not happen all by itself). Mukesh, Satnam, Setu, Manas, Rohit, Tarun, KK, Dhanajay, Nirmala, Sudarshan, and many others (I am very sorry if I missed out on any one, please excuse me) thank you all.

This is not a flash in the pan, we will keep continuing to meet and grow to become one of the successful Alumni Chapters. Keep tuned to this blog for more on what’s happening at TAA Bangalore.

—

rAm (aka. Ganti, 2003)

The Big Day is on

Tomorrow at 3:30pm the event is going to kick start. A lot of people have contributed to this and I would like to thank them all for their contribution. “Enterprise KGP” is the first KGP Alumni Professional meet, that I am attending. Am sure quite a few interesting stuff will come out of this.

We have more than 120 people who have registered for the event(more are still dropping in). Come join and have fun.

KGP ka Tempo High hai!!

PS: Post event coverage will include photos, and lot more details of the event.

Enterprise KGP in Full Swing

October 6th is just a month away and the preparations for the event are in full swing.  Eight of us spanning over 30yrs or more of KGP batches met this saturday to get things going.

The tempo is high to get the act for this event. We got the final draft of the poster.  We divided among ourselves on who will spread the word among the kgpians in various organizations in Bangalore. Also were thoughts on how to spread the word among the “original Silicon Valley” KGPians, so that those who are in India about this time can attend this event.

The tickets for the event are real cool to look at. I guess Tarun or Kimi said, people will attend the event just to lap up the tickets(check out yourself for the cool stuff). Wanna check out the ticket, then register yourself  or contact us or leave a comment over here and we will see to it that you have the ticket.

You can see some snaps from this meet in the sidebar of this blog or at the following link.

Keep tuned to this blog for more inside details on what’s happening inside the IIT KGP TAA  Bangalore chapter.  Drop in your comments on what you want to see in this space.

—

rAm (aka. Ganti, 2003 Batch)

Calling All KGP Entrepreneurs

In my earlier post I referred to an event to be organized by TAA Bangalore Chapter, in October this year. In this post I will give you some snippets into what it is and why you must be there.

IIT KGP has a produced a lot of entrepreneurs and am sure a lot many are in the pipeline. Why not have a platform where these both come together. Let the seasoned guide the newbies.This very thought led to the idea of an event, where the newbies , wannabes meet the seasoned. On 6th October 2007, we all will celebrate Entrepreneurship.

What’s In it For you?

For Newbies: If you are someone who just started out. You must be here. This is a golden chance to present your business and get a chance to market,advertise, your firm to a niche audience. It is also a golden chance to present your business to alumni who are also VC’s. Isn’t this a wonderful opportunity? There are limited openings, so rush in your entries.

For Seasoned: You have been there and done that. Isn’t it time that you bring a youngster under you and guide them to success? Isn’t it time that you use your experience to build again from scratch? Apart from the emotional satisfaction of mentoring, this an opportunity for you to evaluate some of the innovative ideas by people, who you know can take on the world. A great investment opportunity.

For Wannabes : If you are planning to take the jump, this is the place for you.It’s time that you stop carping about that great idea. It’s action time folks.

For the Rest: Bored with the regular job, this place might help you to find that dream challenge you have in mind. It’s a place where your set conventions will be challenged. Where your horizons will broaden. Know what other Kgpians are up to. You never know, at the end of it you might decide to join the party!

Have a peek at this draft created by Mukesh Ghatiya (2002 Batch). He runs his own firm “Pixel n Ink”. This posterbrings back all the memories of the endless bhat sessions at Kgp.

What Now?

Go to the registration page and register yourself. If you have any queries leave a comment, we will get back to you with contact details.

What Next?

Keep tuned to this blog. You will get more and more details about some behind the scene information on the event.

KGP ka tempo high hai !!!!!!

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rAm(aka. Ganti, 2003 Batch)

Welcome Aboard

It gives us immense pleasure to start the IIT Kharagpur TAA Bangalore chapter Blog. You may be wondering what is the big deal in having a blog. I agree nothing great about it. However, this blog marks a small step towards a lot many things that you and we at TAA Bangalore will be doing over the next few months towards building a vibrant and relevant TAA Bangalore chapter. A big event is planned for the next month, wait till the last paragraph for that!.

Do have a look at the new design of IITKGPBLR website. It has a new refreshing feel, and is designed to give you all the information regarding the latest events in a click. The credit of designing the site overcoming all odds and challenges goes to Ritesh(aka. dvd, 2003Batch). Suggestions for improvement of the site are welcome

To give you more inside scoop a few of us Prof. Iyer, Kimi,Dhananjay, Priyanka, Ritesh, Sudarshan, Manaswini, Nirmala (If I missed out any, do excuse me and my memory) have been meeting regularly to get the Kgpians in Bangalore together and get the community it vibrant. This blog is one step in this direction.

Finally, the big event is in September 2007 October 2007. On 29th of September6th of October, Kgpians are invited to perform at KSCA(Chinnaswamy) stadium. No this is not a cricket match between the kgpians and the Indian cricket team. This is a sport of a different kind. We are inviting kgpian entrepreneurs to come up and present themselves and their companies. There will an eminent panel consisting of kgpians who are vc’s, entrepreneurs themselves which will guide the presenting companies. What better opportunity do you need to showcase your company than before accomplished alumni. There will also be lot of networking opportunity.An icing on the cake, we are planning to have a discussion conducted by Arvind Kejriwal ( 89 batch,2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner) on RTI. This is not just a call to entrepreneurs but to all Kgpians in Bangalore and those who can make it. Don’t miss this opportunity to know what the fellow kgpians are upto. You never know, you might find that dream role/job/position here.

Finally, let me close this post reiterating that the TAA Bangalore chapter is your’s. It is nothing without your contribution and time. Drop by your suggestion and comments and anything that you want from this chapter.

KGP ka tempo high hai !!!!!!

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rAm(aka. Ganti, 2003 Batch)