H. Harish Hande

Dr Harish Hande is the co-founder of SELCO Solar Light Private Limited.
Harish is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and a Masters and PhD from University of Massachusetts, US.
Harish got the idea of bringing solar lighting systems to rural India when he was doing his PhD on sustainable energy at the University of Massachusetts.
During a field visit to the Dominican Republic, he was surprised to find poor villagers using solar lighting and reasoned that if it was possible for the poor in the Dominican Republic to use solar lights, he should be able to bring solar lights to the rural poor in India too.
And thus SELCO started as a social enterprise in 1995.
In 2011, Harish was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of his vision to catalyse development outcomes via sustainable energy.
Harish serves on the boards of many organizations, both national and international.