IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 83

integrated with activities to promote women's employment and livelihoods.
The MNRE in July 2018 approved a program for energy
from urban, industrial, and agricultural wastes/residues
for the period 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020 to
promote setting up of projects for recovery of energy in
the form of biogas/biocng/enriched biogas power, and to
promote biomass gasifier based power plants for producing electricity, by providing capital subsidies for the same.

Research and Development
The focus areas for research and development (R&D) are
solar energy, wind hybrid systems, biogas, biofuels,
hydrogen, fuel cells, and related components. In solar PV,
the focus has been on indigenous development of solar
cells with improved efficiency at par with international
levels and with cost reduction. A crystalline silicon solar
cell of 18% efficiency has been developed in laboratories. R&D in solar thermal power has provided feedback
on operational aspects of the technology. R&D in hybridization of solar and wind is being pursued for ensuring an
improved energy supply from renewable energy. In addition, R&D efforts are ongoing for design, development,
and demonstration of hydrogen and fuel cells for power
generation and other uses. The R&D efforts have led to
design and development of solar water heating system,
solar cookers, solar PV system, biogas plants, improved
biomass cookstoves, gasifiers, biomass cogeneration,
etc. It has led to the strengthening R&D academic institutes and industries for furthering R&D for technology
development for commercialization.
MNRE also supports programs for cooking, heating,
and cooling. The technology used is concentrated solar
technology. This program is also supported by the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP) Global Environment Facility funds.

"Saubhagya" Scheme for Universal
Electrification in India
The Government of India launched a program of universal
electricity access for all households, including those of
the poor, through a scheme called "Pradhan Mantri Sahaj
Bijli Har Ghar Yojana" or "Saubhagya" (https://powermin.
nic.in/sites/default/files/webform/notices/OM_SAUBHAGYA_
SIGNED_COPY.pdf) on September 25, 2017. Under Saubhagya, providing free electricity connections to all
households in rural areas and BPL families in urban areas
was projected. There were around 40 million unelectrified
households in the country at that time. The Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has been designated as the
nodal agency for the Saubhagya scheme. The program
provides for solar photovoltaic (SPV)-based standalone
system for unelectrified households located in remote
and inaccessible villages and locations, where grid
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extension is not feasible or cost-effective. The scheme
provides grants for the last mile connectivity to the extent
of 60% for States and 85% for Special Category States,
besides other financial help from the host utility and other
incentives. The government declared the Saubhagya
scheme to have been successfully completed in January
2019, claiming that all households in India had been electrified. However, this claim went with reducing the number of households said to have needed electrification in
September 2017 from 40 million to 25 million. Behind
this discrepancy was the redefinition of households needing electrification to those who wanted the free connection but were willing to pay electricity bills, including a
fixed monthly fee, effectively excluding 15 million households for whom affordability is a barrier [17]. Another
issue is reliability of supply. A 2018 survey by the Council
on Energy, Environment, and Water of rural electrified
households in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal found a
majority of the households surveyed were without electricity a majority of the time [16].

Opportunities for Addressing Gender
Equality and Social Inclusion in the India
Renewable Energy Program
There are opportunities to integrate GESI interventions
and activities in all the key components of India's renewable energy program. Several of the entry points relate
to identifying and linking up with existing programs
and schemes. Financial assistance schemes for technologies targeting BPL households and SC and ST communities are one such entry point. GESI interventions
can also be promoted through existing and planned
schemes promoting employment for BPL households, SC
and ST communities, and women. Training schemes for
community-based organizations for specific system
types can also provide entry points for GESI interventions. GESI considerations can also be integrated into
energy sector agencies' and utilities' corporate social
responsibility funds and programs for community development. Smart systems that rely on end user participation, such as rooftop solar PV systems and mini-grids are
conducive for GESI interventions. Integrated infrastructure around the water-energy nexus for pumped drinking water and agriculture can improve women's and
communities' welfare. Integrating renewable energy
technology schemes - cookers, heaters, coolers - with
communities and households in project areas provides
another GESI entry point.
There remains an urgent need to increase access to
electricity for women in marginalized rural communities.
One of the main areas where this need is apparent is
cooking and heating. Most people in developing countries
rely on traditional fuels for cooking and heating because

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IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020

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