Shell Foundation Programmes in India

Given the dynamism of its development sector, the complexity of its economic challenges and its wealth of social diversity, India has long been an important geography for Shell Foundation. It is the single largest country recipient of Shell Foundation investment to date and plays host to some of our most successful partnerships.

The Shell Foundation programmes in India are :

Breathing Space

Improved cook stoves have made a tangible difference in the life of women

Breathing Space tackles the ‘silent killer in the kitchen’ - the fumes inhaled by people cooking on smoky fires and stoves, (which is responsible for a 1.5 million premature deaths worldwide) by promoting and selling improved stoves through a market-oriented approach.

In 2008 the Foundation launched a pilot project in Karnataka to raise Social awareness about the dangers of smoke in the kitchen and promote simple measures to reduce smoke inside the house.

The program called ‘My Kitchen, My Pride’ reached out to 112 villages in through a combination of on-ground static and interactive activities like display of wall posters and wall paintings, mobile van campaigns, flipchart stories, interactive games and street plays. The campaign was a part of a global effort to raise awareness about the dangers of kitchen smoke in rural India, especially villages with 5000-20000 populations.

Shell Foundation and Envirofit have created a viable clean cookstove business in India and have established new distribution and sales networks to reach rural homes.

Trading Up

Organic cotton has brought about tremendous changes in the lives of the farmers.

"Trading UP" unlocks markets for developing country producers by providing seed capital, business mentoring and strategic partnerships with major retailers to create sustainable supply-chains.

In India Shell Foundation has been working with small marginal cotton farmers and has impacted through its partnerships more than 55,000 farmers across Gujarat, Orissa, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

In March 2006, Marks & Spencer became the first major UK retailer to sell products made from Fairtrade cotton produced by Indian farmers. The Indian partnership looked at Smallholder farming cooperatives with Agrocel,  a leading farm services organisation.

In April 2008, Shell Foundation entered yet another a unique three-way partnership between leading European retailer C&A and California based experts Organic Exchange. This five-year partnership will help Indian farmers make the difficult transition from conventional to organic farming by facilitating market access, linkages to capital and providing vital business and technical expertise.

The Shell Foundation programme, Trading UP acts as a ‘bridging entity’ connecting major retailers with developing world producers and small businesses.. The programme is market-driven which means it provides major retailers with a tailor-made service that sources products they and their consumers want and offers an win-win solution to the entire value chain.

Excelerate

The Excelerate programme of Shell Foundation aims to help small enterprises provide modern energy services for the poor in ways that are financially viable and scalable through a combination of direct investments and support of intermediary organisations. The programme thereby provides new economic opportunities, enhance livelihoods, and help reduce the impacts of climate change.

In India, the Excelerate programme has aimed at providing renewable and affordable lighting source to the poor in rural areas.
In Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, Shell Foundation is supporting D.light Design, a lighting and power company, for providing solar lighting solution to families living without electricity.

D.Light Design has developed solar lanterns which emits ten times more light than a kerosene lamp and provides 32 hours of light. While D.light is working on the right price, supply chain and quality; Shell Foundation is supporting the test of innovative strategies to accelerate market creation and penetration at the base of the pyramid. This aims at addressing the gap between the demand for modern energy services and the supply of appropriate technologies to meet that demand.

A Husk Power Systems biomass gasification plant in Bihar State.

In rural Bihar, Shell Foundation is supporting Husk Power Systems (HPS), a rural electrification company which uses rice husk to produce electricity. HPS owns and operates 35-100 kW “mini power-plants” that deliver 8-10 hours of electricity as a pay-for-use service to more than 16, 000 residents per day. Taking forward its objective of providing modern energy services to the poor, Shell Foundation is funding Husk Power Systems to increase electrification across the state. The fund provided by Shell Foundation has helped increase electrification rates from about 2% to around 95% in the villages of Bihar.

Under the Excelerate programme, Shell Foundation plans to support a partnership led by SELCO Solar, a social enterprise, with 3 microfinance institutions (MFIs) in two states of India to catalyze the route to market for existing solar technologies in new ways. Shell Foundation’s support will create a revolving capital pool to pay for demonstration products offered to consumers on a “try & buy” basis, coupled with training programmes and dedicated MFI energy staff. The goal is for the partner MFIs to establish profitable energy services portfolios, the models for which can be replicated widely by other MFIs throughout the country.

The Foundation is further supporting SEDEMAC Mechatronics, a technology driven company, to develop technologies aimed at reducing fuel consumption in small engines and improve efficiency of diesel generator sets. Shell Foundation will support the speedy dissemination of this form of widely applicable environment-friendly technologies to combat the problem of air pollution caused by inefficient technologies applied in most small engines currently.  while also aimed at providing economically viable environment – friendly solutions to the consumer.

Embarq

Indore’s BRT system carries 400,000 passengers a day.

EMBARQ, the World Resources Institute’s Centre for Sustainable Transport, has been operational in India since 2006 and works on identifying, testing, evaluating and implementing comprehensive solutions to local transport problems. These include Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) systems, bus retrofits, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, improved public spaces and transport-oriented urban planning measures. EMBARQ was set up in 2002, following a restricted tender through which Shell Foundation selected the World Resources Institute as a strategic partner. Shell Foundation and EMBARQ work together to ensure that these solutions are replicated at scale and that expertise is shared.

EMBARQ India’s work coincides with a period of population growth and urbanisation in India that is estimated to see 700 million new residents living in Indian cities by 2050 whose mobility needs will have to be met. Many of the large urban centres in India are already suffering from severe problems arising from traffic congestion. It is estimated that only 28% of them currently have well-organised transit agencies, making the need for a solution all the more pressing.