This Australian startup is bringing solar light to India's slums - all in one solar street light

On the edge of Bengaluru, an Indian slum sits between a railway line and several dilapidated apartment buildings.
From a distance it looks like any other poor settlement-a crumbling tent, a snob --
Children with noses and piles of garbage crawling up with flies wander through the maze of alleys and you will notice something out of tune.
Here, 1,000 of households have installed small solar panels on the roof to power the lighting of residents, who have given up kerosene for clean energy, which not only improves their health, it offers better quality and they save themselves $100 a year as well because they don't have to buy kerosene. "We are now happy to have the solar lights because we can work inside the house and the residents of the slum where the children can learn, Laxshmi said.
Slum dwellers bought their lights from Pollinate Energy, an organization that works with the poorest people in India, with six young Australian people in Bengaluru, Kolkata and Lucknow four years agoyear-
Alexie Sellar, a mechanical engineer from Sydney and chief operating officer of the organization, said: "I'm a little surprised that we already have 60,000 people, she said, "These 60,000 people have clean energy, which they may not be able to access for at least the next decade. ".
Known as a social enterprise-it aims to find business solutions to social problems. The Pollinate team received a lot of inspiration from the work of the Nobel Prize-winning Bangladesh social entrepreneur Muhummad Yunus in 2006, who worked with some of the poorest people in the world and won the Peace Prize.
"He has been a strong advocate for creating business solutions that allow the poor to participate in the market and find the best solution for them to get rid of poverty," said seller MS . ".
The Pollinate team believes that Indian employees are entrepreneurs.
These sales people, known as pollinators, are engaged in the work of entrusting the sale of products in slums.
Manjunath is one of Pollinate's best salesmen.
"I am very happy to do this job because we work with very poor people.
They are not educated and do not know how to live in this city.
"Manjunath has been working with Pollinate Energy for three years.
In the first few years he only sold solar lights, but this year the group has started selling other products, including water filters and mobile phones.
Customers of Pollinate Energy start the payment plan with five
It will take a few weeks for their products.
Incredibly, the default rate is only 1 cent.
"Before we start pollination, we have seen microfinance operations around the world for many years," seller MS said . ".
"The whole spirit of microfinance is that people with no money can still accept loans and repay them, and they tend to make better financial decisions than people with a lot of wealth.
"Pollinate Energy has ambitious plans to expand its business in India and hopes to operate in 20 cities by 2020.
"We are very concerned about the work, MS the seller said:" It is very good in the city where we are currently, there will be more people immigrating to the city in the future, and we have the opportunity to serve them . ".
India's huge energy poverty has provided them with a huge market for growth.
The International Energy Agency says there is no electricity supply for 0. 24 billion people, who account for the population.
"What shocked me as an Australian is that I think this is 20 times the size of Australia, but there is still no electricity supply," said the seller of MS.
"But the other side of me thinks it's a huge opportunity-that's why we're so focused on expanding this opportunity to so many cities in India, we know these people are there, we know, we just need to find them and serve them.
If Pollinate Energy wins the adventure, it will be able to enter five other cities, Ms. Seller said.
The winner will be announced in New York on July.
Of the $250,000 bonus, the dollar is decided by a public vote.
A total of 27 companies were shortlisted for the venture, which is a global competition to reward companies for creating positive changes.