CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2017
| Author | ., Sandeep |
|---|---|
| Title | Turning the lights on for millions in Bihar, India: Applying lessons from Kenya to promote the growth of the off-grid solar lighting products sector |
| Summary | The federal government of India and the state government of Bihar, India’s least electrified state, have always focused on grid expansion to bring power to those living in the dark. However, grid expansion has been slow, and 89.6% of rural Bihar still lives without electricity. In the 1980s, an alternative – a market for solar home systems and solar lanterns – started to develop in Bihar, alongside markets in countries such as Kenya that shared similar conditions of low rural electrification. Today Kenya is a market leader, while the sector struggles in Bihar. The aim of this thesis, part of a joint study, was to investigate this divergence by identifying the drivers and barriers to growth of the Bihar sector, and contrasting them with a similar analysis of the Kenyan sector. Data collected through a literature review and interviews was analyzed using Cherp et al. (2016)’s three perspectives theory. This thesis concluded that many political and socio-technical barriers exist in Bihar, and many of Bihar’s barriers are Kenya’s drivers. Bihar has a harmful kerosene subsidy, while expensive Kenyan kerosene is a driver. Further, Bihar entrepreneurs haven’t been able to adopt the pay-as-you-go business model that has helped the Kenyan market rapidly expand. This thesis makes six key recommendations for Bihar based on lessons from Kenya: Bihar should adopt the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, create a challenge fund for companies, conduct extensive education campaigns, cancel the counterproductive government subsidy on off-grid products, make grid expansion transparent, and RBI should remove mobile money restrictions. |
| Supervisor | Cherp, Aleh |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2017/sandeep_sandeep.pdf |
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