Gramlite Rural Solutions

Lighting Up Lives

Written by: Kriti Anand

Company Overview
Gramlite Rural Solutions is a division of AARNOVA Technologies Pvt Ltd, started with a mission to empower rural India by promoting sustainable entrepreneurship at grassroots. Founded by Pawan Gupta, Founder & CEO, its aim is to make India self-reliant in its energy needs by arming individuals with skills required in the electronics industry in remote areas.

Gramlite’s Mission is to create self-employment opportunities in rural, semi-rural and urban areas through its approach of providing skill-based entrepreneurship to the unemployed, unskilled and aspiring individuals by updating them with the latest technology of LED Bulbs. It proposes to offer a unique model to create Manufacturing Unit Clusters, enriching the underserved markets and providing people with new opportunities.

The team at Gramlite has developed an online LMS (Learning Management System) to help enable people and users of Gramlite Product and Model to develop the needed skills rapidly and quickly, leading to an informed, skilled workforce. In addition to the interactive session module to train participants, they also enrol students in the PMKVY program with guaranteed placements models. This has also helped the team evolve within Gramlite, and opened up new and different dimensions for the company.

Having covered over three thousand villages so far, Gramlite has provided direct self-employment opportunities to a number of people, impacting over several thousand in the small and micro villages.

“Our initiative provides us with a sense of accomplishment and pride.”

What Sets It Apart
Gramlite has made a huge difference in the rural marketplace. Owing to its unique approach, the entrepreneurs are empowered to Learn, Make and Earn through this model, and compete with the best in the industry. It is not an easy task to penetrate the market, but the Gramlite model facilitates them to create a presence in the market and make a living.

The value added proposition for Gramlite is its stress on local value add, trying to make “Vocal for Local” possible, thus engaging local support, local price and local presence with the product, in addition to the employment and self-employment generated through this model.

Gramlite at its core is a technology company, and always invests a good amount of revenues to the R&D efforts of the company. Rural markets have different demand and requirement cycles, and due to the ground issues the products in rural markets are more rigged and reliable. Technological advancement is far more adaptive in the rural markets than in urban markets. Its new development, “Retrofit E-Cycle”, is a new trend which also aims to provide local self-employment opportunities and local support to the customers.

Gramlite offers an open and dynamic work environment where employees are encouraged to take up different roles and responsibilities, varied experiences and challenges, and opportunities to explore their potential. Priding itself as a platform to learn, earn and grow, Gramlite is in the business of creating entrepreneurs, and so strives to first focus on creating them internally.

Conclusion
Gramlite has had a successful run ever since its inception. It has now reached over 4500 villages in India, is partnered with CSC (Common Service Centre, Govt of India), and has units in Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Middle East and Africa. The company has also worked with several NGOs like End Poverty, and now has global associations with Skill Zimbabwe, Women Of Hope Sierra Leone, and several other INGOs in Africa. So the journey has been successful so far, and the team is looking forward to exciting times ahead. The company’s vision and mission is to keep on creating self-employment opportunities, and developing new products for rural markets both nationally and internationally.

Words From The Founder
“Individuals grow the most when faced with setbacks. When challenged by adverse circumstances, some people, more than the others, take the crises as an opportunity to enhance their ability to solve unforeseen problems and become stronger. Challenging situations are the learning playground and one should always try to manage these situations and convert them into opportunities. We at Gramlite believe this is the key to success. Entrepreneurs must be on the lookout for opportunities, big or small. As we know, in an entrepreneurial journey, the opportunities are hidden in crises. One must learn crisis management in all fields, be it finance, technology, team or customer management.” – Pawan Gupta, Founder & CEO