Husk Power Systems – Burn After Eating – Ken Pugh – India

27-09-2010

I've worked in many parts of India, but never in the North East before. The state of Bihar borders Nepal and has a reputation as one of the poorest in the country. I arrived late in the afternoon in a small 30-seater aircraft at Gorakhpur airport, in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh - or UP pronounced 'youpea' as it turned out most call it. My task to film a rural electrification project - and not just a small biomass project either, but one already providing electricity to 175 villages. I was intrigued.

At the airport I was met by Gaynesh Pandey, CEO of Husk Power Systems. As we drove the 3-hour journey to Bihar, he filled me in on his business, and the challenges they have faced. Just five years ago the Bihar - UP border area had a reputation as one of the most lawless in the country. Parents feared to send their children to school, gangs roamed the streets, and kidnapping was rife. Gaynesh, himself from Bihar, put the lawlessness down to lack of development, and an insularity from the outside world - his memories of life in the region as a child seemed one of his prime motivations to basing Husk Power Systems in the region and bringing light into the darkness. It certainly seemed to have worked. For Gaynesh, the provision of electricity had wide implications. It was not so much about lighting a market stall at night, or even lighting homes so that people did not have to use dangerous kerosene lamps - it was about bringing the modern world into Bihar. Electricity he says is the engine of development. It has shattered what he calls the hopelessness of the people, a fear that nothing will ever change. Now he says a child's expectations are so different from their father's expectations as a child. For three thousand years nothing has changed, but now in a generation there are schools, health care, women are re-evaluating their traditional roles, there is TV and Radio - and everywhere mobile phones ... all powered by electricity.

When we finally arrived in Bihar, it was dark, and the monsoon rains had begun. I had little idea what was around me. In the morning, more rain, but when it did ease off sufficiently so we could emerge from our vehicle, I was amazed. One of the poorest parts of India - but one of the greenest! Everywhere things grew, Mangoes, Bananas, every kind of fruit and vegetable. How could these people be so poor? Gaynesh explained. It’s that same kind of lethargic hopelessness he was talking about in the car, the evening before. People just accepted nothing would change, so they did as little as they needed just to get by. Electricity was for them provided a total change in outlook, in how they saw the world and their position in it. Gaynesh says he is striving for the empowerment of the rural masses, giving them a sense of control over the world. 'Power to Empower', as Gaynesh often repeated.

In five years Gaynesh hopes to have 2,000 rice husk power plants reaching a million people. Based on the fact that since he started in 2007 he's already reached 100,000 people - I think he might just do it. And I could see, the impact would be far more than just extending shop opening hours, if Gaynesh was right, it could provide the basis for a revolution in the expectations of millions of people.

Posted by Ken Pugh