Henkel India to provide electricity to villages in Maharashtra installing solar panels

Henkel Adhesive Technologies India Private Limited a fully owned subsidiary of Henkel AG & Co. KGaA has embarked upon its CSR project ‘Lighting Lives’. The project aims to provide electricity to villages in Maharashtra by installing solar panels and is in line with the global Sustainability Strategy for 2030.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2015-16 budget speech has set a deadline of May 1, 2018 for “100 per cent village electrification”. Under the ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana’, the ministry has allocated a fund of Rs 8,500 crores to achieve this key target of rural electrification. Henkel in a statement said “as a sustainability leader, the company through ‘Lighting Lives’, intends to contribute to this development story of India while continuing to shape the business responsibly and increase economic success.”

Henkel’s Initiative currently in the preliminary stage has seen installation of solar cells in three villages of Palghar district in Maharashtra. The solar power generated by the solar cells in three villages has successfully supplied electricity to 150 homes and to the schools attended by about 1,600 children. The company said that it will be expanding to include other villages and public facilities.