Bengaluru-based SELCO poised for a hat-trick of Green Oscars

Hubballi: SELCO Solar Private Limited, an Indian social enterprise, is among the finalist for the Outstanding Achievement Award - International at the 25th Ashden Awards (also known as Green Oscars).

If it wins this year it would be for the third time in its three decades of existence that SELCO will be bagging this award, which will be presented on June 11 at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

In a press release issued here, SELCO states that winners will be chosen by a panel of independent judges consisting of entrepreneurs, investors, academics, civil society leaders, journalists and campaigners. Only four such awards will be presented globally, and just two are reserved for organisations from the Global South.

The organisation has installed more than 24,000 decentralised solar systems for women-led micro-enterprises in agriculture, animal husbandry and food processing; powered digital classrooms for over half a million rural students; and strengthened last-mile healthcare delivery for more than six million patients, said the release.    The award celebrates organisations that have significantly increased access to clean, affordable energy, empowered Indigenous and local communities as stewards of natural ecosystems, and made finance more accessible to SMEs and grassroots partners.