You were probably wondering how things are going in Kolkata right now? If not, oh well, here's an update anyways, just because it's been a while and a lot has happened since my last post:
- We trained 6 more Pollinators, bringing our numbers to 8!
- We ran our second program and first Young Professional Program.
- We've sold a total of 50 lights so far, and sales are starting to pick up!
- And on a more personal note, I was very busy after catching Dengue during the Program, and then going back to Belgium for a week for visa and insurance reasons (and of course getting my fill of Belgian beer and chocolate).
- The whole city is preparing for Durga Puja, the biggest festival in West Bengal (comparable to Diwali in the rest of India or to Christmas back home).
Growing team KOL
From left to right (Pollinators in yellow): Jessica, Biswajit, Avijit, Krishnendu, Arjun (our Group Operations Manager, down from Bangalore to help us out for a couple of weeks. Thanks Arjun!), Debroto, Debjani (our local Ops Manager), Mihir, Tao, Soma, Boris and Suman. So many selfies were taken during that lunch, I've lost count.
For example, last week we introduced a 2 week discount on the solar light for Durga Puja (more details below). The reason is that a lot of potential customers give us the feedback that they are very interested in the light but will buy it after the Puja (end of October), because they simply don't have the money at the moment due to "the festive season" (although one could argue that it is always the festive season in India, as there is practically a festival every day somewhere, Durga Puja is definitely the biggest event of the year in West Bengal).
Ps: Although it does look like Debjani is yelling at me and Tao for disturbing her class, she was actually just reminding the Pollinators how to use our maps application.
September Young Professional Program (YPP): training Pollinators and analysing the LPG cookstove market
Secondly, the YPP'ers had a first look at the possibility of selling LPG cookstoves in Kolkata. The solar lamp has been an integral part of the Pollinate Energy arsenal since the beginning. As we expand across India we face uncertain market dynamics, including the reality that slum communities in other cities have access to electricity. As a result, we intend to expand our current product offering to include other sustainable solutions to address the needs of our consumers, such as water filters, tablets and low smoke or LPG cookstoves. Without an expanded product offering our expansion may not be sustainable.
LPG is heavily subsidised in West Bengal, and switching from a kerosene, coal or wood stove or chula (home made mud stove) would mean 3 things for slum-dwellers:
- It is usually the last step of getting out of energy poverty, as people who cook with LPG and have access to electricity are usually not considered as living in energy poverty anymore. In fact, a community where everyone has electricity and cooks with LPG is not considered a slum community for Pollinate Energy. They have "graduated", and became what we call a colony.
- If applied on a large scale, it would significantly reduce India's CO2 emissions.
- Finally, cooking has proven to cause one of the biggest health hazards in India: indoor air pollution, caused by combustion of traditional biomass for cooking, results in 500,000 to 900,000 deaths per year, mostly women and children, according to the Hindu (an Indian newspaper). Remember that camp fire where you had to yell out "Lapin, lapin" because the smoke was coming directly at you? Now try to live in that, cook in that, study in that.
So what is stopping customers from moving from Kerosene or wood chula’s to LPG? Our preliminary research shows that 2 things are in the way of that change:
- The initial investment to get the “gas connection” (registration with the government and a gas company) is high, around Rs 5,800 - Rs 6,000 (around 85 EUR).
- The paperwork and bureaucracy involved is burdensome and prone to bribery along the way.
It will take a few more months for us to introduce LPG cookstoves in our product portfolio, as things take time here, but we'll keep you updated when it happens! In the meantime, here are some more pics from the YPP:
Preparing for Durga Puja
The way I understand it is (thank you Saurav and Wikipedia :-) ): Durga Puja marks the victory of Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura, therefore epitomizing the victory of Good over Evil. At the end of six days, the sculpture is taken for immersion in a procession amid loud chants of 'Bolo Durga mai-ki jai' (glory be to Mother Durga') and 'aashchhe bochhor abar hobe' ('it will happen again next year') and drumbeats to the river or other water body. It is cast in the waters symbolic of the departure of the deity to her home with her husband in the Himalayas.