Innovative startups from India with disruptive sustainability solutions applicable to the fashion supply chain will now have the opportunity to be part of a Asia innovation programme launched by Fashion for Good, supported by Intellecap.

India is not only a global leader in manufacturing and one of the largest consumer markets for fashion, it is also increasingly a hotspot for innovators that tap into the growing opportunities to create value and impact both socially and environmentally from a transition towards a circular economy. With a rich heritage in textile manufacturing and production, Fashion for Good, Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation factory (CAIF) and its Indian corporate partners are seeking to spark and scale promising innovations from this region that have the potential to disrupt the current fashion supply chain worldwide. Of particular interest will be the unique perspective of home-grown innovators focusing in key areas including raw materials, dyeing and finishing, manufacturing, retail, end-of-use and transparency and traceability.

“We are pleased to see the Fashion for Good innovation platform expanding to Asia; together we will continue to work on promoting and growing the sustainable technologies originating from the FFG platform. We are looking forward to work with these technologies to fuel next set of growth in manufacturing for us with the aim of growing with drastically less environmental impact,” said Punit Lalbhai, Board of Directors; Arvind Limited.

“Our team at Intellecap is very excited to work with Fashion for Good to scale up sustainable fashion innovations in India. Our organizations share a similar vision of putting entrepreneurship in the center of change, and by joining forces, we believe we can build a powerful ecosystem to nurture and grow high impact innovations that are needed to bring India’s fashion industry on a more sustainable growth path,” said Stefanie Bauer, CAIF Intellecap.

Fashion for Good is working on scaling innovations in the region, by catalysing collaborative pilots, which address areas such as making organic cotton traceable and solutions for the treatment of waste water from the apparel manufacturing process.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director of Fashion for Good, explains: “Working closely with these local partners enables us to promote the transition of the fashion industry towards more sustainable, circular practices as well as the betterment of social and environmental issues.”

Leading up to the programme launch, Intellecap and Fashion for Good would host a series of events across India to engage the Indian sustainable textile ecosystem. A first joint event was hosted on 25th of June in Bangalore, followed by an event in the context of this year’s Lakme Fashion Week on 23rd of August, and culminating in a investor showcase at this year’s Sankalp Forum 2019 in November 2019 in Mumbai.

Eligible Innovators can apply to the Programme here: LINK

About Fashion for Good

Fashion for Good is the global initiative that is here to make all fashion good. It’s a global platform for innovation, made possible through collaboration and community. With an open invitation to the entire apparel industry, Fashion for Good convenes brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organisations, innovators and funders united in their shared ambition.

At the core of Fashion for Good is our innovation platform. Through our Fashion for Good Accelerator Programme we give promising start-up innovators the expertise and access to funding they need in order to grow. Our Scaling Programme supports innovations that have passed the proof-of-concept phase, with a dedicated team that offers bespoke support and access to expertise, customers and capital. Our Good Fashion Fund will catalyse access to finance to shift at scale to more sustainable production methods.

Fashion for Good also acts as a convener for change. In October 2018, the Fashion for Good Experience has opened the world’s first interactive tech museum dedicated to sustainable fashion innovation. In its hub in Amsterdam, Fashion for Good also houses a Circular Apparel Community co-working space, creates open-source resources like its Good Fashion Guide about circular apparel.

Fashion for Good’s programmes are supported by founding partner C&A Foundation and corporate partners adidas, C&A, BESTSELLER, Galeries Lafayette Group, Kering, Otto Group, PVH Corp., Stella McCartney, Target and Zalando and affiliate partners Arvind and Nørrona.

About Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF):

Intellecap, supported by the DOEN Foundation, launched the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) in 2018. CAIF is an initiative that brings together a variety of stakeholders in the apparel industry in India to shift the industry from its current ‘take-make-dispose’ approach, to one that is more circular across the lifecycle. CAIF’s is an industry-led platform aiming to build a circular apparel and textile industry. Our mission is to build capabilities and the ecosystem needed for a transition towards a circular textile and apparel industry in South Asia. We leverage the Aavishkaar approach of creating impact at scale through providing access to capital, knowledge, and networks throughout the journey of a circular innovation.

Innovative startups from India with disruptive sustainability solutions applicable to the fashion supply chain will now have the opportunity to be part of a Asia innovation programme launched by Fashion for Good, supported by Intellecap.

India is not only a global leader in manufacturing and one of the largest consumer markets for fashion, it is also increasingly a hotspot for innovators that tap into the growing opportunities to create value and impact both socially and environmentally from a transition towards a circular economy. With a rich heritage in textile manufacturing and production, Fashion for Good, Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation factory (CAIF) and its Indian corporate partners are seeking to spark and scale promising innovations from this region that have the potential to disrupt the current fashion supply chain worldwide. Of particular interest will be the unique perspective of home-grown innovators focusing in key areas including raw materials, dyeing and finishing, manufacturing, retail, end-of-use and transparency and traceability.

“We are pleased to see the Fashion for Good innovation platform expanding to Asia; together we will continue to work on promoting and growing the sustainable technologies originating from the FFG platform. We are looking forward to work with these technologies to fuel next set of growth in manufacturing for us with the aim of growing with drastically less environmental impact,” said Punit Lalbhai, Board of Directors; Arvind Limited.

“Our team at Intellecap is very excited to work with Fashion for Good to scale up sustainable fashion innovations in India. Our organizations share a similar vision of putting entrepreneurship in the center of change, and by joining forces, we believe we can build a powerful ecosystem to nurture and grow high impact innovations that are needed to bring India’s fashion industry on a more sustainable growth path,” said Stefanie Bauer, CAIF Intellecap.

Fashion for Good is working on scaling innovations in the region, by catalysing collaborative pilots, which address areas such as making organic cotton traceable and solutions for the treatment of waste water from the apparel manufacturing process.

Katrin Ley, Managing Director of Fashion for Good, explains: “Working closely with these local partners enables us to promote the transition of the fashion industry towards more sustainable, circular practices as well as the betterment of social and environmental issues.”

Leading up to the programme launch, Intellecap and Fashion for Good would host a series of events across India to engage the Indian sustainable textile ecosystem. A first joint event was hosted on 25th of June in Bangalore, followed by an event in the context of this year’s Lakme Fashion Week on 23rd of August, and culminating in a investor showcase at this year’s Sankalp Forum 2019 in November 2019 in Mumbai.

Eligible Innovators can apply to the Programme here: LINK

About Fashion for Good

Fashion for Good is the global initiative that is here to make all fashion good. It’s a global platform for innovation, made possible through collaboration and community. With an open invitation to the entire apparel industry, Fashion for Good convenes brands, producers, retailers, suppliers, non-profit organisations, innovators and funders united in their shared ambition.

At the core of Fashion for Good is our innovation platform. Through our Fashion for Good Accelerator Programme we give promising start-up innovators the expertise and access to funding they need in order to grow. Our Scaling Programme supports innovations that have passed the proof-of-concept phase, with a dedicated team that offers bespoke support and access to expertise, customers and capital. Our Good Fashion Fund will catalyse access to finance to shift at scale to more sustainable production methods.

Fashion for Good also acts as a convener for change. In October 2018, the Fashion for Good Experience has opened the world’s first interactive tech museum dedicated to sustainable fashion innovation. In its hub in Amsterdam, Fashion for Good also houses a Circular Apparel Community co-working space, creates open-source resources like its Good Fashion Guide about circular apparel.

Fashion for Good’s programmes are supported by founding partner C&A Foundation and corporate partners adidas, C&A, BESTSELLER, Galeries Lafayette Group, Kering, Otto Group, PVH Corp., Stella McCartney, Target and Zalando and affiliate partners Arvind and Nrrona.

About Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF):

Intellecap, supported by the DOEN Foundation, launched the Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) in 2018. CAIF is an initiative that brings together a variety of stakeholders in the apparel industry in India to shift the industry from its current ‘take-make-dispose’ approach, to one that is more circular across the lifecycle. CAIF’s is an industry-led platform aiming to build a circular apparel and textile industry. Our mission is to build capabilities and the ecosystem needed for a transition towards a circular textile and apparel industry in South Asia. We leverage the Aavishkaar approach of creating impact at scale through providing access to capital, knowledge, and networks throughout the journey of a circular innovation.

About Intellecap:

Intellecap is a pioneer in building enabling ecosystems and channeling capital to create and nurture a sustainable & equitable society. Founded in 2002, Intellecap works across critical sectors like Agriculture, Livelihoods, Climate Change, Clean Energy, Financial Services, Gender & Inclusion, Healthcare, Water and Sanitation, and has delivered over 500 global engagements across 40+ countries and syndicated investments of over $500 Million USD in Capital. Intellecap through its presence in India and Africa, provides a broad range of Consulting, Research and Investment Banking Services, to Multilateral Agencies, Development Finance Institutions, Social Enterprises, Corporations, Investors, Policy Makers and Donors. Our common action platform, Sankalp Forum, one of the largest global inclusive development platforms, brings together the ecosystem to shape the way markets work for delivering the SDGs 2030.

For more details, please visit, https://www.intellecap.

The Aavishkaar Group’s content partnership with Forbes India, one of the most reputed business publication allows our leaders from across the Group to share their ideas, insights and expertise through this yearlong special series.

This is the seventh article as part of this partnership.

Mumbai, July 1 Monday: Stefanie Bauer , Director, Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) Intellecap and Divya Jagasia, Senior Associate Intellecap contribute the seventh story in the Forbes series June Issue as part of our yearlong content partnership with Forbes India

As a quick recap the first story titled ‘Instant loans: Alternate data to drive next financial inclusion wave’ in this Forbes Series was authored by Atreya Rayaprolu, Co-Founder and CEO Tribe3. The second story titled ‘Smart villages: Driving development through entrepreneurship’ was coauthored by Santosh Kumar Singh, Director, Intellecap and Ankit Gupta, Manager, Intellecap. The third story titled ‘What most women-led enterprises in India have in common’ was coauthored by Urvashi Devidayal, Sankalp Lead India and Prachi Maheshwari, Gender Lead Intellecap. The fourth story titled A Roadmap for Impact Investment In India’ was authored by Vineet Rai, Founder, The Aavishkaar Group. The fifth story titled ‘Overlooked area for Impact: Last Mile connectivity was authored by Vineeth Menon, AVP, Intellecap and the sixth story titled ‘How big data can optimise the Microfinance sector’ was authored by Manoj Nambiar, MD, Arohan.

India is a global manufacturing hub for textiles and apparel, coping with growing international and domestic demand. While the global textiles market is projected to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025, the domestic market for apparel is estimated to reach $59.3 billion by 2022 and that for textiles to grow to $223 billion by 2021. Thus as an industry it presently contributes 5 percent of India’s current GDP. Titled ‘Is the Indian textile and apparel industry reinventing itself ?‘ the authors talk about how with rising awareness of fast fashion and its impact on the environment, brands and manufacturers are willing to make a shift to circularity.

The authors cite serious cause for concern with over 60 percent of Indian textiles which are cotton based, and cotton cultivation consuming 25 percent of the world’s pesticides. Therefore with rising awareness of these challenges, globally and in the Indian context, the authors talk about how brands and manufacturers are willing to make a shift to circularity.

The authors then shed light on how organisations have started experimenting and innovating towards the circular textile economy goals and how forward-looking industry players are preparing themselves for ‘self-disruption’ to build a ‘Circular Fashion Industry’ globally, which means building a fashion industry that can phase out substances of concern, increase clothing utilisation, improve recycling and efficiently use resources, according to the New Textiles Economy report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

The authors also speak about how India has also become a hotbed for circular startups, who are having a significant impact, with innovations ranging from alternative materials to innovative retail models. Be it Mumbai based Boheco which is trying to reduce and replace the use of cotton in textiles with hemp fiber, or Chennai based Trustrace who are using blockchain technology to improve transparency and traceability in the supply chain or even Lionise and Kiabza who are two startups innovating with new retail models of rental and second-hand clothing respectively, it is indeed exciting times for the Industry.

The authors finally conclude by showcasing how Corporate-startup partnerships have become more commonplace as both stakeholders begin to see the benefits of collaboration and how early movers in the Indian fashion industry are already taking active steps to engage with a pool of circular innovators. They opine that while a consensus is emerging to make an impact on the circularity agenda, to do that effectively, it is essential to accelerate collaboration between corporations and startups. While enablers have access to entrepreneurs, other innovation pools are identifying and driving ‘unlikely alliances’ between the two. This is a strong indication that the textile industry is beginning to embrace the circular economy through serious intent and not just an ephemeral sentiment. The movement is set to remarkably influence and will shape the core value system of the industry over the coming years.

Mumbai, 12 June 2019: Disha Medical Services (branded as ‘Drishti’), an eye care chain focused on providing affordable eye care in the underserved markets in the Southern region of India, has raised Series C funding of USD 4 Million from Insitor Impact Asia Fund, the Nilekani Family Office (managed by Entrust Family Office) and other HNIs. Exiting investor, Lok advised fund – Sarva Capital has been provided a full exit as a part of this current fund raise. Intellecap acted as the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction. Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group acted as the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.

Drishti was founded by Anjali Joshi, Kiran Anandampillai and Dr. Rajesh Babu. Anjali and Kiran are engineers who after successful corporate careers started the healthcare chain to bring high quality of care to tier 2 towns. It currently manages 6 eye hospitals, 6 mobile eye clinics and 4 vision centers across various towns of Karnataka. The company has treated over 4.6 lakh patients across these locations. Drishti is a proud winner of the ET Startup Awards 2018 – in the Social Enterprise category.

“Patients will the biggest beneficiaries as this round will enable us to serve millions more in Karnataka with high quality eye care.” said Kiran Anandampillai, CEO, Disha Medical Services.

Drishti had raised seed funding from Sarva Capital in 2012. Subsequently, it received funding again from Sarva Capital and the Nilekani Family Office in Series A&B rounds respectively. The consistent support of Series A and B investors has been instrumental in establishing the Company’s operations since inception.

The Company will use the current round of capital to further strengthen its position in the existing region by building over 10 more hospitals, vision centres and mobile eye clinics as well look to expand strategically in other States.

“We will focus on empowering more Ophthalmologists with advanced infrastructure and processes that help them deliver high quality care in our markets.” said Anjali Joshi, Co-Founder, Disha Medical Services.

“Drishti’s high degree of focus on building a sustainable, scalable model that can provide affordable eyecare to millions of hitherto unserved patients was an extremely compelling opportunity for us. This closely aligns with Insitor’s mission of building fair, inclusive marketplaces for low-income consumers across our investments in Asia. We look forward to working closely with Anjali and Kiran to build out a world-class social enterprise in the healthcare space in the next few years.” says Abhijit Nath, Country Head, Insitor India.

The Nilekani Family Office said in a statement, “We believe in the vision of Drishti and its founders of providing affordable eyecare and continue to support the Company as it ramps up operations.”

“Lok has had a very satisfying journey with Kiran and Anjali, promoters of Drishti starting from the seed round in 2012. This company is in some ways an ideal example of a balanced venture that creates deep impact while delivering financial performance. We are happy that our exit has been to the current shareholders and an incoming investor that share the same philosophy of creating sustainable impact in the healthcare space in India” says Vishal Mehta, Co-Founder and Partner, Lok Advisory Services

“We are very delighted to be part of Disha Medical’s journey in bridging the eyecare needs of rural population in South India. Drishti has developed a unique model to deliver eye care and has a sustainable edge over other players.” says Sameer Gaud, Associate Director at Intellecap, which advised the Company exclusively on this transaction.

Blockchain could be a game changer in the energy sector, particularly in renewable energy. The technology has the potential to fulfil the policy and regulatory, technological and economic requirements of a decentralised, decarbonised and digitalised renewables-based energy system. For instance, the current practice of buying and selling renewable energy certificates (RECs) is very complicated with a major risk of errors. Blockchain could track renewable energy at source, providing an alternative to RECs. Global and Indian energy experts highlight the possible use cases of blockchain in the renewable energy space and the likely challenges…

Upendra Bhatt, Co-founder and Managing Director, cKinetics

Blockchain-based initiatives have emerged in a big way in recent years, with cryptocurrency bitcoin as the leading symbol. The core elements of blockchain are:

Peer-to-peer distributed ledger transactions with high level of cybersecurity and comprehensive traceability
Storage and transfer of value
Avoidance of intermediaries enabling low transaction costs
These features are particularly relevant in the ongoing energy transition. The need for energy security and decarbonisation has led to the increased deployment of renewables and emergence of myriad storage applications. With the proliferation of distributed renewable energy systems, which have emerged as “prosumers”, the interaction between generation systems and distribution protocols is undergoing a dramatic shift.

Given the variable and distributed nature of renewables, this transition is viewed as complex and disruptive. The perceived challenges in renewable energy development pertain to reliability, system-level balance and energy market functioning. The challenges are more pronounced in the case of distributed installation such as rooftop PV.

Thus, the sector is ripe for breakthrough innovations, which will help drive this new-age distributed and autonomous energy value chain to its true potential. Blockchain characteristics, particularly cybersecurity, low-cost transactions, and automation, help integrate the distributed renewables with the conventional centralised grid in a flexible and scalable manner.

Blockchain can provide a robust link between energy generation and consumption sources directing their behaviour (including curtailment) based on energy price signals and the state of the grid. The storage and transfer value functions in particular can be quite useful in empowering smart contracts for supporting peer-to-peer trading as well as more sophisticated exchange based mechanisms (such as the REC market).

Over $250 million has been invested in energy sector-focused blockchain initiatives globally. A range of use cases are being piloted across utility operations, peer-to-peer set-ups and market mechanisms. Some of these are IBM’s blockchain platform for European transmission system operator TenneT to balance supply and demand on the high-voltage grid, Omega Grid’s pilot with a Burlington utility for real-time supply and demand management across distributed systems, and platforms such as Energy Bazaar and Sun Exchange as well as energy access oriented smaller firms like SOLShare for peer-to-peer trading.

The growing momentum in the space has also led to the creation of the Energy Web Foundation (EWF), an alliance anchored by the Rocky Mountain Institute for developing energy sector focused standards for blockchain. EWF is being supported by conventional energy giants such as TEPCO and Shell alongside several energy blockchain start-ups.

In the Indian context, blockchain can play a transformative role in scaling up distributed energy systems such as PV rooftop (or even solar heating systems), community mini-grids, storage solutions (particularly those complementing large-scale renewable energy integration into the grid) and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure.

In particular, rooftop solar installations driven by net metering policies and using time-of-day pricing provide an opportunity for blockchain-based technologies. These technologies ensure requisite checks, streamlined monitoring, reporting and verification for clearing “smart contracts” in near real time. However, this is easier said than done. New regulations and policy frameworks and innovative business models are required to leverage this opportunity. Blockchain-empowered systems need to develop the ability to handle the speed and quantum of energy transactions. Further, the incumbent utilities need to step up and reform their proprietary interconnection protocols, facilitating a completely digitalised grid and paving the way for future energy markets.

Maxson Lewis, Managing Director, Magenta Power

There is an urgent need for an efficient data management platform in the Indian energy sector since its generation, transmission and distribution segments function in isolation. With isolation, a lot of inefficiency creeps into the system and a small amount of data is collected for data analytics. I like to call it the “unintelligent grid”.

With the advent of renewable energy, democratisation of power is taking place across the generation, transmission and distribution segments. Democratisation requires a platform for accurate data collection. In this scenario, the use of blockchain will help in establishing an open marketplace for the purchase and sale of renewable energy.

Under the infomatics arm of Magenta Power, we are building a technology layer for community-based microgrid projects near Mumbai. In these microgrid projects, blockchain-type solutions are needed. We have already developed a module that tracks how much energy has been generated and consumed and soon this module will help in the buying and selling of power. We have been conducting proof-of-concept tests and will be launching the platform in three months.

The existing open access regulations only allow power generated from more than 1 MW of solar projects to be connected to the grid. As soon as this regulation is dropped, blockchain will become an incredible open access concept in the industry.

Logically, in the future microgrid ecosystem, EV charging stations will become one of the largest consumers of electricity. They will be on the consumer side of the blockchain platform. As an operator of charging stations, I will be able to buy power at the best rate using this platform. This may be a little far-fetched, but if I have a solar system installed at home, I can sell the excess power to the grid and charge the electric car at a charging station elsewhere. This nexus can be backed by a blockchain platform. But for this to become successful, several things should come together – regulations, infomatics platform and energy storage. We are focusing on the latter two. We already have an infomatics business arm and will be working on energy storage with a partner. As far as regulations are concerned, it will take some time for India to move from a centralised power market to a decentralised one. The shift is inevitable, if not imminent.

Tom Lindberg, Managing Director, ECOHZ

On a global basis, it is estimated that almost a billion energy attribute certificates (EACs) are purchased and paid for annually to enable consumers to document their renewable choice. Volume wise, the key markets are growing at a 15-20 per cent rate annually, increasing the cash flow for renewable producers.

These EACs are information rich, transparent and secure. Through these, energy data is made available at the meter level. They prevent double issuing, double selling and double counting. Moreover, EACs are accepted as the standards for documenting renewable claims for CO2 accounting among leading independent stakeholders like CDP and Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

Despite these positive developments, some players may perceive the existing market to be more complicated and less transparent.

Blockchain enthusiasts need to rethink the goal of their technology. The technology should move in a direction that causes less disruption in the existing systems, and brings improvements in them. It is critical that blockchain advocates include policymakers and regulators in their thinking.

The EAC systems are not technology dependent, but rather technology agnostic. The industry should seek to utilise the best available technology to provide the best possible service. This means that blockchain should not necessarily seek to replace the current EAC systems but add value to the market by providing a better and improved underlying technology infrastructure.

If blockchain can justify its claims of providing a cheaper and more efficient infrastructure, which is more transparent and secure, then it should be embraced by the industry.

But if blockchain is positioned as an alternative policy tool to the current EAC systems, it will jeopardise years of hard work, creating confusion among customers, weakening their credibility among stakeholders, and increasing the risk of double counting. This must be avoided at all costs.

Roelof Reineman, Consultant, Emerging Technologies

The concept of using blockchain in the energy industry came up in early 2015. The first known examples of peer-to-peer trade are the LO3 case in Brooklyn, New York, and part of this took place during the time of New Frontier (the Ethereum release). It encouraged a lot of people to consider applying for peer-to-peer trading in areas other than the financial sector. It was also during this time that I got involved with blockchain and started to experiment with it. Our initial demonstration was using New Frontier and we had covered all the different use cases. Following our demonstration, I started our blockchain lab in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and from there things took off.

The benefits of using blockchain in the energy sector are the same as those for any other industry, provided that there is a solid blockchain use case and not a project that is done as part of “innovation window dressing”. The benefits can be:

Creation of a single source of truth for all parties involved.
Instead of having to settle later, you verify the data upfront.
Reduction in administrative costs of up to 50 per cent.
Achieving a huge redundancy; Bitcoin’s 99.9835 per cent uptime shows how robust a decentralised system can be.
The challenges of using a blockchain system in the energy sector are:

Be ready to embrace your competition and share more data with them than you are accustomed to
Working out the governance structure and the rules of interaction
Privacy, especially with regard to the General Data Protection Regulation, which will make you seriously consider what data can be put on a blockchain platform safely without being a liability years later.

There are a number of aspects to consider while developing a blockchain platform for the energy sector:

Energy use: When your platform consumes more power than it handles, there is a fundamental problem. That is why for energy applications, a proof-of-work like in Bitcoin will not succeed.
Privacy and data security: One has to carefully consider what data and types of data they wish to store on blockchain. One of the properties of blockchain is its immutability. Everybody can see what is stored on a public blockchain platform, leading to privacy issues. These concerns have increased with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Ecosystem: This includes deciding who will be part of the network, how will they interact and handle changes. With a system that is the property of nobody and everybody at the same time, governance can be tricky. This is not something businesses are accustomed to.
When you have the right stakeholders on board, and know how the governance should work within a particular use case and which data structure to use, you have a valid reason to apply blockchain. I would still advise to evaluate if blockchain is truly required, or whether a conventional, centralised system would be cheaper and safer.

Santosh Singh, Head, Energy and Climate Change

Ankit Gupta, Manager, Intellecap
Santosh Singh, Head, Energy and Climate Change, and Ankit Gupta, Manager, Intellecap

The inherent features of blockchain technology (encrypting, distributed ledger and transaction verification without a central authority) can solve some of the major challenges in the renewable energy sector. A quick scan of blockchain technology usage highlights that it has immense potential in transforming the traditional energy generation/distribution operations as well as creating completely innovative offerings for the sector.

Blockchain has the ability to transform the climate action. In the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the government and private sectors have committed to put a cap on their carbon emissions. A mechanism is being proposed to facilitate trading of emission reductions. One of the core provisions of the Paris agreement is “no double counting of emission reductions”. Blockchain and distributed ledger can reduce double counting, increase transparency and make the carbon trading process easier. Veridium Labs, in partnership with IBM, has already demonstrated the potential of blockchain in this aspect. There are several other solutions that can help in emission tracking, trading and facilitating carbon finance.

Blockchain is a relatively new technology, but it has already permeated in the clean/ renewable energy space. There are more than 100 young start-ups across the globe leveraging blockchain technology. They have raised more than $320 billion during 2017-18. While start-ups are driving innovation in business models and creating new use-cases, big energy companies such as Siemens, GE and Kansai Electric Power have also started investing in blockchain technology. Firms have used blockchain, smart contracts and smart metering to transform their billing operations, grid and network management, and develop smart-grid solutions, but it is the startups and new players that are driving innovation in this space.

Start-ups are leading the way. They are promoting peer-to-peer energy trading, pay-as-you-go offerings, smart home energy systems, machine learning and artificial intelligence learning based customised products based on the energy consumption profile. In distributed solar power, blockchain technology has proved to be a boon. For example, the Brooklyn Microgrid project developed a small-scale community where users could generate and store power via solar panels, and trade with other community members. Eloncity has developed an architecture that offers a storage, exchange and usage network directly on blockchain without any power companies. The company’s system uses smart energy storage batteries alongside solar panels to allow users to create, use and store their own energy. Another enterprise, Power Ledger, allows users that have installed solar panels to sell their excess power at prices determined by them. SolarCoin, one of the oldest blockchain energy projects, offers tokens to users that generate solar electricity to promote adoption and usage. The SolarCoin Foundation gives energy producers blockchain-based digital tokens at the rate of one SolarCoin per MWh of solar energy produced. SolarCoin is spendable and tradable just like cryptocurrency. However, the big stories in these start-ups are now dictating a new era of renewable energy generation and distribution and forcing the big businesses to rethink their operations and strategy.

We have a long way to go. There are some inherent technical challenges in this technology (scalability, immutability, security and inefficient technological design, etc.) but for adoption in the energy sector, the key challenge is the regulatory and policy framework. Blockchain is still seen as emerging and experimental, but its increasing implementation, even at a small scale, will gradually build confidence in this technology for mainstream adoption.

Steven Vanholme, Program Manager, EKOenergy

There are undoubtedly many ways blockchain can be applied. But EKOenergy focuses only on the consumer aspect, that is, how can consumers prove that they use renewable energy and how can we avoid double counting of renewable attributes. In liberalised markets, there are established tracking systems, endorsed by the state or even run by state entities. Such systems need to be used to prove the origin of electricity that comes from the grid. Examples of such systems are RECs in Northern America and guarantees of origin in Europe. In such markets, any development in blockchain-based tracking systems needs to take place within the framework of the official systems. If not, there is a risk of double counting.

We see two main opportunities in this space:

The official tracking systems can integrate blockchain-based methods into their own database. This could be particularly interesting for smaller installations. Currently, several national issuers of RECs and guarantees of origin are studying the potential of blockchain in this space.
Companies could also use blockchain technology to add extra information. For example, if consumers want their energy consumption to match at any given time with the production of renewable energy, blockchain could be used in combination with guarantees of origin.
Different stakeholders in the power chain can benefit from the use of blockchain. In order to be reliable and avoid double counting, such systems need to operate within the boundaries of existing, official tracking systems. Where such systems are not available, the stakeholders should fulfil the quality criteria of the IREC Standard.

Going forward, to ensure the further development of the renewable energy market and maintain consumers’ trust, it is absolutely necessary that double accounting is avoided and that systems are made fraud-resistant. This can be achieved with the greater use of blockchain in the renewable energy sector.

As on June 30, 2018, 3.5 billion people across the globe did not have access to Internet. This divide in access is prominent in underdeveloped regions and among middle and lower-income groups. Affordability, availability and digital awareness are key deterrents that restrict this population from accessing Internet. This lack of access to Internet has created multiple challenges to development, such as illiteracy and unemployment.

A number of social enterprises have emerged since the early 2000s in response to the Internet access challenge that low-income and under-served populations face, and the movement has gained traction in the last few years. These enterprises are extending access to such ‘last-mile’ low-income urban, remote and rural populations, prioritising access challenges over enterprise viability, while seeking both.

The impact investment community, which seeks to create social or environmental benefits, directing capital to enterprises that accomplish impact goals, has traditionally looked beyond connectivity. In fact the sector ‘Internet connectivity’ does not even feature as part of the areas of focus on many of the leading impact investors’ propaganda. There is a rising need to acknowledge the social and economic impact created by these enterprises in order to magnify development outcomes.

Studies across the globe have identified and quantified the fact that connectivity enables economic growth and facilitates social development. Huawei’s quantitative analyses show that for each percentage increase in Global Competitiveness Index (GCI), there is a 1.4 to 1.9 percent increase in a nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). This may be relatively higher for emerging countries. Evidence from various studies also shows that connectivity has a positive impact on employment and earnings.

This impact is delivered through an expedited access to products and services across core sectors such as agriculture, education, financial services, health and more importantly, gender. myAgro, a mobile application, helped 18,000 farmers in Mali/Senegal save for seeds and fertilizers through custom made agricultural financial access products, leading to yield increases of 50 to 100 percent. The SMS Story in Papua New Guinea, known to exhibit low reading proficiencies in its elementary and primary schools, delivered daily mobile phone text message stories and lesson plans to teachers on children’s reading abilities. This programme helped to establish statistically significant results, among the treatment group that performed better on educational outcomes.

Micro-finance company Satya MicroCapital , which offers collateral-free credit, will use the funds to extend loans to micro, small and medium enterprises.

Micro-finance startup Satya MicroCapital has issued Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) to a private debt fund and a Microfinance Enhancement Facility S.A. (MEF), and raised Rs 40 crore in debt funding. Satya MicroCapital will use the funds to lend to Indian micro, small, and medium enterprises run by women.

Satya MicroCapital Limited is an NBFC-MFI that offers collateral-free credit to micro enterprises on the basis of a strong credit assessment platform and a centralised approval system. The company has adopted a unique Limited Liability Group (LLG) model for extending loans and ensuring repayment. The company’s LLG model distributes the liability among each group member, which exists only up to 10 instalments in bi-weekly collections.

Social touch to lending
Through this model, the company aims to add a social touch to lending by integrating modern technology into the micro-finance industry. Satya MicroCapital Limited primarily caters to women who own businesses or are looking for business expansion. The group lending model allows groups of borrowers to share the liability and responsibility to repay loans, while helping them build a strong credit profile to avail finance from traditional financial institutions.

Incepted in October 2016, the company has since registered impressive growth by achieving an Assets under Management (AUM) value of over Rs 300 crore in less than 2 years. Its current strategy is to use its platform to potential to increase efficiency in lending, reduce risks, and enhance overall customer experience.

Satya MicroCapital Limited launched its microfinance operations from its Bulandshahar Branch, erstwhile known as Sikandrabad Branch in Uttar Pradesh. The firm has since established 65 branches across 11 states, namely, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. According to the Intellecap study, the market size for microfinance in India translates to an annual credit demand of $5.7 to $19.1 billion, assuming loan sizes range between $100 and $250.

SBICap Ventures’ Neev Fund is set to infuse about $5 million in renewable energy firm Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (Prespl) to acquire a significant minority stake in what would be the Series-B funding round.

Prespl has also commitments of an additional $3-5 million funding in the same Series-B round from a different investor. Prespl, which was incorporated in 2011 to exclusively cater to the biomass fuel needs of Punjab Biomass Power, has expanded its operations into different verticals over the past few years.

The company aggregates, processes, stores and supplies biomass (agri-residues) such as paddy straw, cotton stalk, soya husk, maize cob, mustard stalk, etc, to biomass-based power plants and process industries. It also processes agri-residues into biomass briquettes – compressed blocks of biomass which is compatible with transportation over long distances – and supplies to process industries such as breweries and beverage plants.

SBICap Ventures’ Neev Fund to invest $5 million in renewable energy firm Prespl
By: Bhavik Nair | Published: March 1, 2019 4:25 AM
The company aggregates, processes, stores and supplies biomass (agri-residues) such as paddy straw, cotton stalk, soya husk, maize cob, mustard stalk, etc, to biomass-based power plants and process industries.

Prespl has also transitioned into a steam energy supply company where it provides uninterrupted steam to process industries at pre-decided rates throughout the year.
SBICap Ventures’ Neev Fund is set to infuse about $5 million in renewable energy firm Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (Prespl) to acquire a significant minority stake in what would be the Series-B funding round.

Prespl has also commitments of an additional $3-5 million funding in the same Series-B round from a different investor.
Prespl, which was incorporated in 2011 to exclusively cater to the biomass fuel needs of Punjab Biomass Power, has expanded its operations into different verticals over the past few years.

The company aggregates, processes, stores and supplies biomass (agri-residues) such as paddy straw, cotton stalk, soya husk, maize cob, mustard stalk, etc, to biomass-based power plants and process industries. It also processes agri-residues into biomass briquettes — compressed blocks of biomass which is compatible with transportation over long distances — and supplies to process industries such as breweries and beverage plants.

Monish Ahuja, managing director and chief executive at Prespl, said the company was expecting a significant boost in its revenues in coming times as it expected signing a number of contracts with many oil marketing companies.

“Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) is coming up with a plant in Punjab while Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) with a plant in Orissa. We are the company that has qualified in the global tenders for the supply of raw materials and expect the contracts to be signed in March. Besides these, there are many other contracts that we are following and believe ourselves to be the front-runner,” Ahuja said.

Private equity fund Zephyr Peacock India Growth Fund has led a ₹55 crore funding round in Shiksha Finance, a Chennai-based education finance company, said a senior executive. The deal was advised by Intellecap’s Investment Banking Group. .
The round also saw participation from existing investors of the company. Shiksha finances students in classes I-X and also provides financing for working capital and capital expenditure to schools that run classes from nursery/kindergarten to Class 12.
“₹55 crore of growth capital has been raised from new investor Zephyr Peacock India Growth Fund and existing investors Aspada Investment Company and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation,” said Shiksha chief executive officer and director V.L. Ramakrishnan. Shiksha will use the funds to expand its presence in existing locations and foray into new locations such as Maharashtra. It is currently present in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
Prior to the current round, Shiksha raised a ₹21 crore Series A round from Aspada and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation in 2017. It has also raised an additional ₹115 crore of debt so far. “Shiksha is uniquely placed in the education financing ecosystem as a lender to both schools and students. Its product offerings help improve the quality of affordable private schools and help children from low-income backgrounds access quality education,” said Pankaj Raina, managing director, Zephyr Peacock India.
Access to quality education is an aspiration for most lower and lower middle income households in India and Zephyr Peacock India believes this is a multibillion dollar market, he said. “Zephyr Peacock has been closely tracking the education finance space. Our investment in Shiksha fits well with Zephyr’s investment thesis in the education financing sector,” Raina said.
Shiksha provides student loans to parents of school-going children, and school loans to educational institutions. The average student loan is for ₹25,000 for 12 months, while the average school loan is of ₹7 lakh for a tenure of four years, said Ramakrishnan. It has a loan book of ₹102 crore, which it aims to double over the next 5-6 quarters.

Tanya Philip, Associate with the Advisory Team, Intellecap, talks about leveraging strengths of the private sector to infuse greater efficiencies and resources that will help strengthen India’s public health

According to a study published by The Lancet, India’s performance in the global healthcare access and quality (HAQ) index was lower than our neighbours Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well as all other BRICS nations. Poor quality of services in the public sector and a heavily commercialised private sector have together resulted in poor access to affordable and good quality healthcare for a majority of the Indian population.

One of the central issues plaguing the sector has been the abysmally low public spending on health. The National Health Policy 2017 aims to “increase government health expenditure as a percentage of GDP from the existing 1.15 per cent to 2.5 per cent by 2025.” This is unimpressive when the current global average stands at about 6 per cent, according to The Lancet. Furthermore, the World Health Organisation noted that it is difficult to get close to Universal Health Coverage at less than 4 per cent -5 per cent.

This leaves much to be desired from non-governmental stakeholders in order to help bridge this immense national resource gap. Niti Aayog’s proposal to rope in private sector providers for the treatment of non-communicable diseases demonstrates the government’s willingness to augment its healthcare response capacities by bringing private players on board. Additionally, the central government’s most recent Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme seeks implementation support from the private sector by means of expanding their scope of operations. Overall, aside from the capital constraints, the sheer size of the national healthcare challenge at hand demands for a more collaborative approach.

Much of the conversations around healthcare reform recently have been constrained by ideological debates on public versus private. The ground reality is that about 70 per cent of healthcare service delivery in India today is driven by the private sector. Leveraging the strengths of the private sector can only infuse greater efficiencies and resources that will help to strengthen our national response to our healthcare challenges.

That being said, any collaborative healthcare delivery model should be based on clear terms and conditions, defined partner obligations and performance indicators monitored over a stipulated period of time in order to achieve common, pre-determined healthcare objectives. In addition, consideration needs to be given to technology changes that are likely to impact how healthcare is delivered.

The 108 Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) is a unique public private partnership model between state governments in India and private players which employs an ‘operate and maintain’ service contract between the two. This initiative undoubtedly fills an existing needs gap with coverage estimated to be 750 million people at an annual per capital cost of less than $ 0.25. However, insufficient supervision and a lack of due diligence has caused some concerns recently. Audit reports noted that the MoUs were signed in a manner that undermined the ability of the state to enforce conditions of service and levy penalties for deficiencies. Competition is crucial for the success of the contracting and bidding process since it helps keep costs down and maintain high services quality. Unfortunately, there is not much competition in the emergency medical services suppliers market in India. More competition could be infused through shorter contract periods. Performance needs to be more closely linked to payments. Outcome indicators around quality of service, response time and utilisation rates need to be closely monitored and certain service delivery standards should be set as pre-requisits for contract reapplication.

Thus, the design and management of service contracts under PPPs in healthcare can determine the extent to which they can succeed. The absence of well designed and implemented service contracts should not be read as a failure of PPPs altogether. The key ingredients for the success of a PPP include the transfer of risk from public to private, strictly monitored performance indicators and government ownership of assets at the end of the contract period.

This is, in no way, a means of absolving the government of its financial responsibility of increasing budgetary allocation for public provisioning of healthcare services. Without exploring more collaborative, innovative approaches to help nudge things along, India’s public health crises will only multiply over the years.