It was a group of 64 people who were working on solar PV technology during my PhD in IMEC Europe. I was one of them. When I graduated and came back to India, way back in 2004, I was only one in the instistute working full time on solar cells. There were several groups in India, but all islands on their own. It was clear to me that if we want to do impactful work in the country, it has to be a big group. I always used to think about establishing a large solar PV research centre in the institute. This dream became truWith all this work, several leading newspapers referred me with the title ‘Solar Man’ or ‘Solar Gandhi’. Coming from a small village in MP, where still no buses go and coming to this level has been a very satisfying journey. Nevertheless, I truly realized that Climate Change is the primary threat world is suffering from. I feel that much bigger efforts are required, and the use of solar energy solutions would be great savvier. Now, I am embarking on the journey to create Energy Swaraj of Energy by Locals for Locals. Let us see how well I chase this dream!e in 2010 with the support of the Principle Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister Dr R. Chidambaram, and of course, our ever-green professor, Prof. J. Vasi. Today, the National Center for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE) is one of the well-recognized centres in the country and parts of the world. In route, I have written several books on PV, taught many and trained thousands of people.

Though NCPRE was focusing on advance technology development at cell, module and electronics level, I did not see an immediate implementation of the technologies for societies. Way back in 2010-11, I realized that the solutions for social problems are simple, like providing a solar lamp to each school children, was simple but not done effectively. I jumped into solving this by taking sabbatical leave. At that time, I never knew that one day it would become the world’s most extensive program. Through our Solar Urja through Localization for Sustainability (SoULS), we have now reached to 8.5 million families across 10 states and 40,000+ villages. The model developed was unique wherein locals are involved in assembling, sale, repair and maintain the solar solutions. The SoULS program gave me great insights into real problems, the bottlenecks, and practical approaches to solve them. In the process, we also made several Guinness World Records, Won IEEE’s Global Grand Prize of US$100,000, went around the world under Gandhi Global Solar Yatra.

With all this work, several leading newspapers referred me with the title ‘Solar Man’ or ‘Solar Gandhi’. Coming from a small village in MP, where still no buses go and coming to this level has been a very satisfying journey. Nevertheless, I truly realized that Climate Change is the primary threat world is suffering from. I feel that much bigger efforts are required, and the use of solar energy solutions would be great savvier. Now, I am embarking on the journey to create Energy Swaraj of Energy by Locals for Locals. Let us see how well I chase this dream!