Miller Center Earns Grant

Money to be used to increase electricity access in India

Emily MunTHE SANTA CLARAFebruary 18, 2016

1.3 billion households around the world don’t have access to electricity. A staggering 20 percent of these households are in India, and Santa Clara’s Miller Center for Entrepreneurship is trying to change that.

Millions of Indians will now have access to clean, off-grid power due to a $767,000 grant that the Miller Center and New Ventures India (NVI) has recently been awarded by the U.S. Agency for International Development

This money will be put towards the Energy Access Investment Readiness Program and will give the Miller Center’s Global Social Benefit Institute (GSBI) the opportunity to travel to India to train social entrepreneurs. There, the GSBI will assist Indian social entrepreneurs in becoming investment-ready and help them increase the reach of their businesses.

“GSBI mentors will work in India with the social entrepreneurs and continue mentoring them remotely as the entrepreneurs build partnerships, overcome business model challenges, and obtain investments,” said Pamela Roussos, senior director of the GSBI.

The partnership between the Miller Center and NVI came from their shared focus on clean energy.

“We know a lot of social entrepreneurs based in India so our paths have crossed,” Roussos said. “They have a very similar philosophy as we do. So we decided to partner together and approach USAID for funding.”

The Miller Center expects that the project will last about three years. Roussos and three GSBI mentors will go to India to work with social entrepreneurs in a three day workshop.

After the workshop, Roussos said that GSBI mentors will continue to work with social entrepreneurs and make sure they are keeping in contact with their partners during the process.

“This grant from (the U.S. Agency for International Development) further validates Miller Center’s GSBI methodology, which helps social enterprises worldwide apply Silicon Valley business principles to scale their impact,” Thane Kreiner, executive director for the Miller Center, said in a press release.

The grant, according to Roussos, has been a boost in confidence for the Miller Center and is an exciting opportunity to bring clean energy to millions of Indian citizens.

Contact Emily Mun at emun@scu.edu.