Abstract: ------------

While providing electricity is critical for improving the
economic and social conditions of villages, promotion of sustainable
farming and irrigation services, clean cooking fuel supply, clean drinking
water, health and sanitation services, waste management, clean local
transportation, locally accessible and relevant ICT services and training
and local capacity building are equally important for the sustainable
growth of new local enterprises, jobs and income of the rural
community.

Local participation in policy making, planning and implementation are currently
minimal at the village level in India and many countries of the developing world. It is essential to
bringing about a paradigm shift in policies and strategies related to
roles and responsibilities of coexisting centralised and decentralised
power systems; village governance; financing and fund raising; training
and capacity building of villagers for participation in setting
priorities, adaptation and optimisation and taking on responsibilities for
managing local implementation. Dr. Sharan is going to talk about possible ways on how to
bring about such a paradigm shift.
  
 Bio-Sketch: --------------
Dr. H. N. Sharan has worked internationally in power and energy sectors for over
60 years. His experience covers R&D, technology management and
policies in the fields of fossil fuel power plants, renewable energy
technologies, decentralised systems and integrated rural development.
   
After taking a degree from BIT, Sindri in 1953 and a Ph.D. from Manchester
University in 1957,  Hari Sharan joined Sulzer, a Swiss company and worked
as a R&D engineer and  manager till 1974. He then retuned to India and
worked in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) as a member of the Board of
Directors in charge of engineering and R&D. He was a founder Director
of India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Director of
several PSUs and a member of national-level bodies on policies for energy
technologies and their implementation.

Hari Sharan went back to Switzerland in 1979 and has since 1990 worked mostly
on development, design and commercialisation of renewable energy
technologies (RETs) covering solar thermal and PV, biomass combustion and
gasification, hybrid generation systems for micro-grids and tiny grids and
application technologies such as electric rickshas and PV pumps.
 
Sharan’s focus for the last 25 years has been on the
promotion and commercialisation of renewable energy based power plants to
drive integrated social and economic development of Indian villages. He
promoted DESI Power which builds and runs stand-alone power plants and
micro grids in villages in Bihar.  

He is currently President of Dasag  Energy Engineering, Founder and Honorary
President of SKGS (a solar power society in Switzerland), Chairman of DESI
Power, Promoter-Trustee of DESI Power Foundation and a Director of
Fichtner Consulting Engineers in India.