In India, where more than 70 per cent of people of 1.34 billion live in remote villages, electricity is a luxury for many. While successive federal and central governments earmark millions of dollars for electrification of villages every year, electrification still remains in paper. Some politicians collude with bureaucrats to siphon off funds meant for electrical infrastructure, by exploiting the illiteracy and ignorance of people.

As a result, many remote villages in the country still remain in the dark. The residents in the hinterland India are still not sure as to when they will see their homes lit up. They are too illiterate to understand that the system they live in is so rot that they may not probably see electricity in this life-time.

Shockingly, this callousness happens at a time when the world has already moved from fossil energy to renewable/green energy.

An Indian scientist has come up with a solution to this perennial problem. He is getting accolades for this invention — solar tree — which he believes will give wings to the dream of millions of villagers who have been deprived of electricity for long.

“More than 70-80 per cent of Indians live in villages, most of which still don’t have access to electricity,” Sibnath Maity, Chief Scientist at the Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI), said. “It is not feasible for the government to do the electrification in villages as it is cost millions of dollars.”

Solar energy is the need of the hour, but people are reluctant to set up solar panels as it is expensive and requires vast expanse of lands. “Solar tree is going turn their fortunes around,” he said.

But what is so special about this solar tree? “You don’t need to fret about space constraints. Our solar panels ‘grow’ on trees. It will not takes more than four square feet of land space to set this up. It can produce about 3 KW of power, which is more than enough to power five households in the vicinity.

This solar tree, which resembles a tree with branches at different tiers, could be squeezed into rooftops and highways, he explained.

Sibnath started working on this project ways back in 2006. His invention remained unnoticed for more than eight years. It eventually saw the light of the day when the central government noticed it. ” I eventually got the recognition when Union Minister Dr. Harshvardhan inaugurated one of my solar trees built in Delhi a few months ago,” he said.

Also Read: This 23-year-old advises India’s premier investigation agencies on cyber security. And he is a school dropout

For people in the remote villages in Bihar, Bengal, Rajasthan, the solar tree is a godsend. They can now heave a sigh of relief that they don’t need to walk kilometres to nearby villages to recharge their mobile phones or other electronic devices.

The solar tree is currently priced at INR 5 lakh, which is definitely beyond the reach of a  ordinary man who struggles to meet both the ends. If the government subsidises the project, he may be able to sell it at affordable prices.

“The cost depends on the requirement. If you need just a 3KW solar tree, it costs INR 3 lakh (US$ 4,500). Some state governments provide up to 30 per cent subsidy for alternative energy setups, while some others 80 per cent. On the top of it, central government also provides some grants. So it is not going to burn a big hole in people’s pocket,” he explains.

A few months ago, he got a request from a farmer in Berhampur in Odisha to set up a solar tree, capable of producing 5KW of power for him to run a motor pump in his farm. Sibnath hopes to see more such requests come in.

As of today, Maity has erected six solar trees in different villages in India.

The solar tree is creating waves not just in India, but in other parts of Asia too. He received queries from places like Lakshadeep and Andaman Nicobar (two Indian archipelagos), where land availability is a huge issue.

“Unlike other solar panels, we promise 100 per cent efficiency. Plus, it does not need regular maintenance and has a long life. We want to see the entire India illuminated in the near future,” concluded Maity, who had previously designed a portable solar pump and a three-wheeler solar vehicle.

Also Read,

Manohar Parrikar says innovation fund to encourage defence startups

The post For remote villages in India, Sibnath Maity’s solar tree is a godsend appeared first on Startagist.

When Shan Kadavil met SeaToHome founder Mathew Joseph sometime last year, the online fresh fish retailer was on the deathbed. Shan, former India head of Zynga and a regular customer of SeaToHome, was determined to save the e-commerce business, when he came to know Mathew, a veteran fish exporter in Kerala, was planning to wind up the online platform that he painstakingly launched in 2012.

“It was really heartbreaking when I heard SeaToHome, the only fresh fish e-taler in India, was shutting down. This when I decided to help the company using my experience and expertise in consumer internet space. I contacted Mathew and asked if he is interested in working together to turn round the company. He readily agreed,” Shan narrates the story to Startagist.

Shan, a serial entrepreneur with immense experience in building startups, had a clear vision in his mind when he took the helm of the company. He realised that if he could make use of the business acumen of Mathew, he could easily rescue the company from further erosion.

“I’ve built many businesses, including consumer Internet companies, in the past, which helped me to understand the intricacies of e-commerce. I was incubating a couple of companies when SeaToHome was enrolled as an incubatee. We decided to put more time and double down our efforts on SeaToHome,” Shan explains.

The duo worked together for a few months, and rebranded SeaToHome as FreshTomHome to include other non-veg products such as poultry, duck, chicken etc. SeaToHome was floundering at just 4,000 customers then. After a few months of a hard-work, the business picked up pace and Shan and Mathew successfully scaled it to 85,000 customers across Cochin, Bangalore and Delhi.

“We also moved the headquarters from Cochin to Bangalore, which is now our key market in terms of the number of repeat customers. We also set up our own logistics and supply chain arms. Without burning much dollars on marketing, we kind of became a household name in the city. We have now bigger plans to expand to eight cities soon and ultimately to 20 cities,” Shan adds.

Why FreshToHome?

Recently, a few startups cropped up in the fresh meat and fish space such as Zappfresh and Licious. However, none of these new-age businesses could not match the prowess of  FreshToHome. “This is because we have far ahead of them in terms of everything. We have several USPs. One, we have our own processing unit in Bangalore. Two, we deliver fish to our customers within just 24 hours of being caught from the sea. Three, we have stringent quality check process in place that we make sure that fish products are totally chemical-free and meats are halal-certified. Four, we have our own supply chain,” says Shan.

Plus, FreshToHome is backed by some of the well-known names in the startup industry across the world. These angels put together multimillion dollars into the company a few moths ago. The names include Facebook’s early investor Mark Pincus, David Krane of Google Ventures, Google India chief Rajan Anandan, Pete Briger of Fortress Investment Group, former SoftBank executive Pavan Ongole, and Mashreq Bank’s Abdul Azeez Al-Ghurair.

FreshToHome is operating an industry estimated to be US$49 billion, which is slightly bigger than the size of the Hollywood industry (US$49 billion). “This is just for the fish industry. If we add meats and poultry products, the size will be much higher. This is why we are confident of becoming the largest fresh fish and meat e-commerce company in India,” Shan concludes

The post How FreshToHome scaled from just 4K customers to 85K in 15 months appeared first on Startagist.