Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Indore in collaboration with the University of Canberra (UC) and University of New South Wales (UNSW) won the Australia India Council Grant which was announced by the Australian Governments’ Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Ms Marise Payne recently.
IIM Indore, UC and UNSW have won the grant for a project titled ‘Developing financing mechanism to extend off-grid electricity in rural India’.
A total of 146 organizations had applied for the grant, out of which 11 projects were selected.
An MoU was signed for the yearlong project by Prof. Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore; and Dr. Milica Symul, Director Research and Innovation, University of Canberra, on October 05, 2021. Prof. Milind Sathye, Senior Professor-Banking & Finance, University of Canberra will be the overall lead for the project and liaison with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Australia.
Rai noted, “This project will contribute to IIM Indore’s mission of contributing to the betterment of the society and is in line with its vision to increase international collaboration.”
This project would also help rapid uptake of the innovation to make the lives of rural communities better, he added.
The IIM Indore team includes Prof Keyur Thaker and FPM student Sanjay Ghosh along with Pota from UNSW and Sathye from UC.
Thaker said that the project explores financing solution to provide access to electricity in rural India with Australia and India both benefitting from the strategic institutional relationship. “It also aims to design, develop, and test a sustainable financing mechanism for the rapid uptake of off-grid electricity supply for rural India on a long-term basis,” he said.
The three educational institutes will now be working on this project which envisages the development of an appropriate financing mechanism at the manufacturers and community level to support the uptake of off-grid electricity innovation. The team will hold discussions with various stakeholders such as, regulators, experts, financiers, manufacturers and communities soon and make field visits.
