As India intensifies efforts to build a green economy and bolster rural incomes, Abhishek Jain, Director of Green Economy and Impact Innovation at the Council for Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), highlights Powering Livelihoods—an initiative designed to transform rural and peri-urban livelihoods through decentralised clean energy solutions. With a focus on scaling clean technology-based enterprises, the programme addresses urgent challenges of energy access, economic resilience, and gender inclusion in underserved regions.
He describes examples such as waste biomass-powered cold storage systems that help farmer producer organisations extend the shelf life of produce like lemons, increasing their income. Similarly, solar-powered cold storage units support women-led enterprises, while solar-powered hydroponics help produce green fodder in semi-arid rural areas where it is typically scarce.
Another example is of clean energy-driven spinning machines that reduce the physical burden on women engaged in silk reeling. Jain notes that the initiative currently supports around 20 different technologies, each designed to improve incomes at the grassroots level.
Market Potential
Jain estimates that the collective market for these decentralised clean energy livelihood solutions in India stands at around $50 billion. He believes these technologies could impact up to 37 million livelihoods, with potential for much further growth in the years ahead. He adds that these solutions are key to driving income diversification—an essential component of rural economic resilience.
Key Learnings
Reflecting on recent experience, Jain highlights the importance of taking an ecosystem-level approach rather than focusing on individual technologies such as solar charkhas or cold storage in isolation. He cautions that this narrow focus often results in isolated success stories that fail to scale or sustain without government support or subsidy schemes.
Instead, he stresses the need to address awareness and capability gaps across the entire ecosystem—from end users and local distributors to financial institutions and policymakers. Only then, he argues, can the sector mature into a self-sustaining industry.
Gender Inclusion
Jain emphasises that gender inclusion is a central pillar of the programme. He explains that women face barriers at every stage—starting from technology design, which often overlooks usability for women, to information access, which may rely on channels like social media that are less accessible to them.
To counter this, the initiative ensures more inclusive awareness strategies, including engagement through women’s self-help groups. Jain points out that women also face more challenges than men in accessing finance, particularly due to lack of collateral or asset ownership.
To address this, the programme advocates for collateral-free loans, akin to the ease of accessing credit for consumer products like two-wheelers. Jain believes that making such financial models available for Decentralised Renewable Energy (DRE) livelihood solutions will significantly improve accessibility for women.
He proudly shares that nearly 50% of the 32,000 livelihoods impacted through the initiative so far have been led by women.
Vision for Future
Looking ahead, Jain expresses hope that in five years, awareness about decentralised clean energy livelihood solutions will be mainstream, no longer requiring active promotion. He envisions a rural economy transformed by reliable power access through distributed renewable energy, enabling new local value chains and inclusive economic loops.
His goal is for these changes to be not only conceptual but visibly taking shape across rural India—making decentralised clean energy an integral part of the country’s development fabric.
Top Opinions
Top Interviews
