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27th
May 2008: Aryavart Gramin Bank selected for Ashden Award 2008
Aryavart Gramin Bank, Lucknow has been selected as one of the 7 International
Finalists for prestigious Ashden Awards, 2008. The Awards were founded in 2001
by the Ashden Trust, one of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts (SFCT). The
Award is an internationally recognised yardstick for excellence in the field of
sustainable or green energy.
The list of finalists was announced by Ashden
Trust, U.K. on 27.05.2008.
The Bank is
among the 7 selected finalists out of 77 international participants from
developing world. The Ashden Awards for Sustainable Energy, reward and promote
excellent local sustainable energy solutions in the developing world and in the
UK. These innovative schemes are providing great environmental, social and
economic benefits.
Being the Project Leader, Mr N. K Joshi, Chairman Aryavart Gramin
Bank will represent the Aryavart Gramin Bank at
London during the awards week – 14th June to 20th June,
2008.
The Aryavart Gramin Bank devised an innovative scheme to make available finance
for Solar Home Lighting Systems (SHS) with a slogan “Ghar Ghar Me Ujala”
(Light in every house) mainly to provide ambient light at home to improve
living standard, education, health and welfare of the people residing in rural,
semi urban and even in urban areas beset with frequent power cuts.
Another
important facet of the scheme is the system
devised for maintenance of SHSs. A local youth is trained by the Company/ Dealer
to maintain the systems. He is provided with a toolkit. An honorarium of Rs
10,000/- per year is paid by the Bank to these Business Facilitators. Thus, it
is providing partial employment to rural youth who would otherwise migrate to
cities for semi-skilled / unskilled jobs.
The Solar Home Lighting
System consists of a Solar Panel of 35 watts, a low maintenance battery, a
charge controller and 2 luminaries (9 watts CFLs backed by a reflector enhancing
the light output). The lights work for minimum 5 hours a day and the system has
autonomy of 3 days i.e. one sunny and two non-sunny days.
Besides two CFLs, the SHS
also supports a mobile charger (a necessity in villages), a small DC fan and a
Black and White T.V. bringing the whole world in the courtyard of a farmer.
The price of SHS offered by the Company is so competitive that the farmers are
not required to run after subsidy. The equated monthly installment (with
interest) of Rs 245/- per month for a loan of Rs. 11,000/- per SHS repayable in
60 months is found to be cheaper by villagers, who spend roughly Rs. 280/- per
month on Kerosene.
The Bank organized many
Credit Camps exclusively for SHS to popularise the scheme and to provide finance
for installing the Solar Home Lighting Systems to the Bank’s existing good
clients.
The Bank has sanctioned
10100 Solar Home Lighting Systems till April, 2008
(out of which 8000 systems have already been installed). The Bank aims to cover 25000 houses by 3rd
October, 2008, the second anniversary of Aryavart Gramin Bank.
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