In a gathering of practitioners and investors, the Khemka Forum kicked off today at the India School of Business in Hyderabad.  The day’s activities ranged from plenaries to sector working group lunches to track breakouts.  Social entrepreneurs converged to discuss the state of their field, lessons learnt, ideas for collaboration, and the way forward.

As Don Mohanlal, CEO of Khemka Foundation, quoted, “the best time to begin a long journey was 10 years ago. The next best time is today.” In the long journey to create a complete social entrepreneurship ecosystem in India, the Khemka Forum aimed to kick off a constructive conversation on action-oriented, short-term ideas that Indian social entrepreneurs could take as the work toward the longer term goal.

Working Scale Issues: “Fingers Burnt, Lessons Learnt”

Healthy debate and discussion around scale indicated that even the most successful social enterprises in India are grappling with this issue. Manish Sabharwal, Co-Founder of TeamLease, mentioned that entrepreneurs can create two types of organizations – a baby or a dwarf – one that starts small and gets much bigger, or one that will remain small. He identified various factors that influence scale, including opportunity, team, organizational design, strategy, and risk.  Pawan Patil, CEO of the Global Partnership for Youth Investment, talked about creating an enabling environment and busting myths.  Dr. Patil focused largely on creating jobs, especially for the growing youth population, as a necessary step toward achieving scale.  Nachiket Mor, President of ICICI Foundation, emphasized starting from the ground, building up, and then replicating.

SCALERS

In a session on “SCALERS – Driving Social Impact,” Matthew Nash, Managing Director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at Duke University, discussed a new model for talking about scale.  SCALERS stands for Staffing, Communicating, Alliance-building, Lobbying, Earnings generation, Replicating, and Stimulating market forces.  Parag Gupta, Founder of Waste Bank, presented a case study on SELCO (TC-I previously interviewed Harish Hande here) using the SCALERS model and identified the enterprise’s accomplishments and challenges. 

Similarly, Professor Madhukar Shukla of XLRI Jamshedpur presented a case study on Nidan (founded by Arbind Singh, Khemka’s Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008).  Since Nidan focuses on a completely different sector – organizing marginalized workers – and operates as a nonprofit, the two organizations had very different outcomes on the SCALERS model.  The model provided a good basis to talk about the various factors involved in scaling up and strategic steps for moving forward.

Sector Working Groups

I sat in on the sector working group focusing on rural innovations, led by Prema Gopalan of Swayam Sikshan Prayog.  Other working groups included health, education, renewable energy, and youth entrepreneurship.  The rural innovations group identified major barriers – from knowledge management to product design to innovative financing.  From there, the conversation shifted to collaborations and action steps, especially on ways that practitioners could connect more deeply and consistently.  We will all have to stay tuned to see what these working group discussions will eventually produce…

Alternative Talent Pools

Finally, I attended the track organized by Dasra on Building Alternative Talent Pool.  In a panel facilitated by Dasra Managing Partner Neera Nundy, Manish Sabharwal (again of TeamLease), Deep Joshi (Co-Founder of Pradan), and Prashant Bhaskar (Head of PLUG HR) discussed the ways in which they attracted, retained, and built the capacity of talent for organizations.  A lively discussion around how social enterprises should hire and train employees ensued, with Mr. Sabharwal reminding the audience that the role of the employer is not to manufacture employees, while Mr. Joshi explained his desire to treat each person in the organization as a changemaker or social entrepreneur.  A lot of the discussion linked back to public policy and the existing inequality of opportunity, as well as the need to reform current skill development and vocational training programs.  Finally, participants worked through the importance of organizational culture, citing personal examples of how to make sure a certain culture permeates from the top to the bottom of an enterprise.

More to come…

The Khemka Forum continues tomorrow, and as the organizers have been promising, more discussion will take place on concrete, action steps that entrepreneurs can take back with them throughout India.  Check back on TC-I for more news straight from the Forum! 

Editor’s note: The following interview is part of an ongoing series for ThinkChange India where we interview social entrepreneurs firsthand. The ThinkChange India staff is committed to providing our readers with first-hand insights from groundbreaking changemakers. Readers will be able to see other conversations under our TC-I Changemakers tab.

This is the first interview from SoCap09 – please continue checking back throughout the next week as more conversations with Indian social entrepreneurs will be posted.

One of the grassroots social enterprise voices at SoCap09 was that of Harish Hande, founder of SELCO, a solar energy services company.  SELCO has won a number of awards for their innovations and it has grown steadily in the last 15 years of its operations. You can learn the basic background of SELCO from previous TC-I coverage here and here, as this interview moves past just the facts of the company.  TC-I Managing Editor Shital Shah met with Dr. Hande to discuss SELCO’s growth, his experience as a social entrepreneur, and more.

Please note that Dr. Hande’s answers below are not verbatim.

TC-I: What steps has SELCO taken to work in close partnership with the government (In 2008, Government of India placed 600 crore towards green energy research, creating incentives for adoption of renewables).  Given that so far all of SELCO’s investors are social VCs from the Western world, does SELCO see itself receiving any investment capital from the government?

Harish Hande (HH): We do work with government to influence policy, but do not want to work with the government for business.  Right now, the government talks about financial inclusion – we want this conversation to include energy inclusion.  There are 650 million people living off the grid.  We would like to help the government realize that they can gain a lot from solar energy.

TC-I: SELCO, as of 2008, was servicing 80,000 clients. What is their strategy for achieving scale – how do they foresee going from 80,000 to 8 million clients?

HH: It is important to clearly differentiate between a want and a need.  You can scale by standardization for a want.  For a need, you have to customize based on the context, which takes time.

Also, we think not about scalability, but about how we replicate.  For example, people in Andhra Pradesh will have different lighting needs, a different cultural background, and a different custom of paying back.  Right now, my dining room light is different from my neighbor’s dining room light.  We have a choice, so why can’t the poor?

SELCO is also focusing on replication by starting up an incubation system for sustainable energy entrepreneurs near Bangalore, called SELCO Labs.  The young entrepreneurs can start up their own SELCO franchise, or their own separate enterprise, and keep us on their Board of Advisors.

TC-I: D.Light Design, MightyLight (cosmos ignite) – lots of competition in this space. Not to mention large companies like Moser Baer getting exciting about solar. How will this affect SELCO?

HH: Actually, they aren’t competitors.  We are a service model.  We are two levels below Moser Baer, and one level below D.Light Design.  We have expertise in the financial scheme, not the product.  We focus completely on the end service.

TC-I: Isn’t solar lighting a temporary answer? Eventually we need all villages and homes electrified, and soon enough, it will happen. This will be more economical, especially for the poor. What will SELCO do then?

HH: We were asked the same questions in 1994, and we’re still here.  Out of 110,000 clients, 40% have grid, which tells us that even those on the grid have unreliability as a major issue.  There is clearly a need for solar energy services.

TC-I: Any advice for aspiring social entrepreneurs or people starting-up social businesses, especially in India?

HH: Don’t start with money. When your back is to the world, you can innovate.  Get the management team first, then the money.  Get four or five people to OWN the business plan.  SELCO raised money only after three years of formation.   We wouldn’t have had the same innovation if we had the money right from the beginning.

TC-I: In building SELCO, can you give us an example of a challenge/failure and how you overcame it? Did you ever think you wouldn’t make it?

HH: We failed more than 95% of the time. But I would go back and do the same thing. If you think about it, 5% is actually a large success. Because the barriers are there, you wake up early in the morning to get going. The frustrations actually acted as a motivation.

One of the biggest barriers is human resources.  We need people who can think holistically.  The education system in India right now is very modular.  Most of our middle-management has come out of luck.  Social entrepreneurs need a lot of patience – eventually, the right people will come to you.

Another barrier has been dealing with multilaterals.  People who are in multilaterals have little or no ground experience.  That’s the same reason we do not take people from IITs and IIMs.  Entrepreneurs should look into rural India – there is a lot of talent.  They just need the opportunity.

This op-ed was submitted by Suresh Pramar, and is a user post. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of TC-I, but we feel that it is important to cultivate opinions from all sides.

India like the rest of the world has not escaped the impacts of the current downturn. The sudden rush in retrenchment and forced salary cuts is an indication of the prevailing financial meltdown the result of corporate greed and irresponsibility. It needs to be emphasized that not all in the corporate sector are to blame. While middle level and junior staff have worked long hours expecting rewards for their efforts top management have given themselves unearned bonuses.

What is needed now is leadership with vision to steer the country out of this situation. A vision that speaks to small and medium-sized businesses and at the same time one that attends to the pressing requirements of our community.

India fortunately has an active and growing social enterprises sector which is engaged in delivering the much required services to the community. Many of these social entrepreneurs have earned distinction and awards for the good work they have done and continue to do in the service of the people.
Among these is Dr Harish Hande whose company SELCO, using solar technology, has lit up hundreds of thousands of households with ‘clean’ lighting. About 65 to 75 percent of the beneficiaries are small farmers who earn between Rs 100 to 200 a day After reaching 80,000 clients across Karnataka and Kerala SELCO moved into Gujarat.

Solar electrification has brought in brought about a dramatic change in the social and economic lives of the beneficiaries. It has helped children secure better academic results since they can now study at night. It has increased livelihoods and incomes of night-time vegetable vendors. Additionally it has ended the use of dirty and dangerous kerosene lamps. For the environment, the 80,000 systems deployed avoid emissions of approximately 24,000 tones of CO2 equivalent per year that would have been released by the use of kerosene lamps.

Dr Hande’s efforts have earned him the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ 2007 by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship and the Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation Recently SELCO won the FT-ArcelorMittal ‘Boldness in Business’ award in the CSR category.

In Ahmedabad Rajendra Joshi’s Saath works with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation to ensure that slum residents receive basic sanitation, water and drainage services at the household level and paved roads and street lights at a community level. It has created mechanisms through which the urban poor can save and pay the user charges.

Saath is also demonstrating models of public-private partnership where the urban poor are key stakeholders. It tailored profit-based solutions for electricity supply in Ahmedabad’s slums by altering the user fee, increasing business volumes and bringing in government contribution. As a result, 200,000 slum households today pay for electricity with the business house, Torrent Power, reporting a 30% increase in profits

In Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi and Rajasthan. Arbind Singh’s Social Enterprise, Nidan is helping to build profitable businesses and ‘people’s organizations’ which are led by asset less, informal workers. Nidan, over the past years has launched a range of cooperatives, Self Help Groups (SHGs), trade unions, and individual and community businesses These have positioned unorganized workers as legitimate competitors in globalizing markets of India.

In 12 years, Nidan has launched and promoted 20 independent businesses and organizations that are governed and owned through shares by 60,000 urban and rural poor members. The enterprises include 4618 SHGS, 75 market committees, 19 co-operatives, two societies and one company—all envisioned and led by a complex of waste workers, rag pickers, vegetable vendors, construction labourers, domestic helpers, micro-farmers, street traders and other marginalized occupation groups.

The economic downturn is also hurting many of such enterprises. Social enterprises, however are not seeking charity; they want the support of business to complement their roles Business can play a proactive role in creating and promoting social enterprises. This they can do be creating social intrapreneurs within the organisation who, with the blessing of management, seek opportunities for their companies while using the core skills and resources of their employers as the basis for their projects.

Social Intrapreneurs are creating and delivering new products, services and business models. These not only generate business value but address some of society’s most pressing challenges. They compel their companies to look out of their comfort zone to see the strategic risks and opportunities that exist beyond the purview of traditional business units.

John Elkington, founder and chief entrepreneur at SustainAbility, believes companies should try to give employees space and permission to think about social innovations, and then mentor, coach and support the most promising intrapreneurs and initiatives. “They might need to select projects with the coldness of a venture capitalist and build a portfolio of projects with different levels of risk, accepting that some of them are bound to fail,” he says.

To help to strengthen social intrapreneurs to counter the present recession Governments can also pitch in to fund part of the costs of social intrapreneurs This will provide the company a new source of income during the downturn, the community gets the benefit of much needed services and products..

It is now generally agreed that we need both the social entrepreneurs and social intrapreneurs. While ensuring societal change, social intrapreneurs are also necessary for a company’s survival in an environment of rising expectations of the role of business in society.

TC-I reader Suresh Parmar tipped us about a workshop focusing on social entrepreneurship on April 16-17 in New Delhi.  Held by the Centre for Training and Research in Responsible Business and Social Entrepreneurship (New Delhi), in partnership with the Centre for Social Initiative and Management (Hyderabad), the workshop will focus on a range of issues.

The workshop is open to national and international participants. Since the 1970s, with the advent of Bill Drayton’s Ashoka, the ranks of social entrepreneurs are increasing steadily. In India we have, Aravind Eye Healthcare, Basix Bank, Ekal Vidyalaya,  Sri Grameen Mahila Udyog (Lijjat), Narayan Hrudayalaya, Sewa, Selco, Nidaan, etc

This workshop has been designed to explain the important breakthroughs in nonprofit development: social entrepreneurship. Participants learn what social entrepreneurship is, and how to develop and implement customized plans for social entrepreneurship, including for their own organizations.

Contents:

(a)     Concepts of Social Entrepreneurship Innovation
•       Social benefit/Impact/Accountability
•       Blending of social work and business (charity to commerce spectrum)
•       Sustainability of organization and triple bottomline.
•       Social Enterprises and market-based solutions for social problems
•       Collaboration with other organizations and sectors
•       Empowerment of beneficiaries/clientscustomers

(b)     Case studies

The case studies will  illustrate the concepts and application of business methods in social work. The case studies will also highlight how the social entrepreneurship is different from traditional business entrepreneurship and conventional social work approaches.

(c )    Agencies promoting social entrepreneurship, in India/Internationally, and their approaches

(d)     Scope for NGOs and Corporate Organizations collaboration and resource mobilization for NGOs

(e)     Meet the practitioners’ session (interaction with some prominent social entrepreneurs)

(f)     Group discussion (formulating approaches for further work).

Who should participate?  Being socially relevant is part of being a professional. Professionals also possess social skills which can create social value. The Human Resource Manager can use his skill to empower the deprived of the society, the sales manager can help open up markets for village artisans, the corporate strategist can help turn around a school and the financial expert can help solve the cash flow problem of a small vendor. You can participate in this event if you and/or your organisation are passionate about creating positive change the world.  You could be any of the following:

a)Social Entrepreneur

b)Team member/trustee/director in a non profit

c)Team member/trustee/director in a funding or support organisation that works with social entrepreneurs or is interested in working with them

d)Team member in a corporate or its CSR body working with social entrepreneurs or is interested in supporting them

e)Faculty in an academic institution running a course in social entrepreneurship or is interested in starting a course

f)Student wanting to drive change

Registration Fee:  Corporates, Corporate sponsored Foundations, Funding Agencies Rs 7500, NGOs, SMEs and academics Rs 6,000. All registrations completed before March 15, 2009 will be entitled to a Rs 1,500 discount   No refunds will be allowed after April 5, 2009.

Limited seats available.  The fee does not include accommodation or conveyance. Registration forms along with fee should be sent to Suresh Kr Pramar, 3A, Nilgiri 3, Sector 34, Noida 201301. Cheques/DD should be made out in the name of CRBiz, Noida. Participants from outside New Delhi/Noida should make payments through Demand Draft.

For More Details

Suresh Kr Pramar

Phone: 9213133042

Email: suresh.pramar@gmail.com

I had the opportunity to attend the International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship in India on the 4th and 5th of December. In this post I will try to narrate my experience at the conference. In the posts following this one, I will talk about people and organizations I got in touch with, and most importantly discuss some issues that came up for discussion during the conference.

photo credit Sonia Rai

The theme of the event – Inspiring|Connecting|Sharing – set the right expectations for the attendees and, to be sure, lived up to it. The event was organized by UnLtd India and Center for Social Initiative and Management(CSIM).

The conference was spread over two days and events were well planned to facilitate formal as well informal discussions and networking. It was eye-opening and engaging in many ways. Participants from almost all parts of India, and with interests ranging from micro-lending to rural tourism, attended.

Day 1

Proceedings were kicked off by Bert Cherian of Meta Results setting the tone with his humour and energy. The ball was set rolling by an interaction with Nachiket Mor of ICICI Foundation, facilitated by Neera Nundy of Dasra. Nachiket talked about his personal experiences that shaped up the path to his current position as President at ICICI Foundation. He narrated how people in rural areas are not exactly used to the apathy and standard of living prevalent in urban areas. He also talked about evolution of ICICI Foundation. Answering to a question, Nachiket questioned the value of experience as the only source of answers to problems. In his opinion, many a times a fresh look at things from a total outsider can give us out-of-box solutions. On a related note he said that the ability to pay or finance an initiative is not always a plus point. Many an innovative idea has come out in crunch times.

Nachiket Mor photo credit Sonia Rai

Nachiket was of the view that the term “Social Entrepreneurship” should not have been a groundbreaking term or concept at all. Enterprises should be socially conscious and socially motivated by default. Talking about scaling up organizations, he cited example of Starbucks which had to operate in centers which were poles apart in their culture.

As you have seen, Nachiket gave us some really interesting perspectives of social entrepreneurship.

In the next session, we listened to Harish Hande, co-founder of SELCO. Selco was started in 1995 and is one of the earliest examples of Social Entrepreneurship in India. He has been in the thick of action and gave us his experience when he (along with his partners) was starting out. He wanted to ensure that technology is affordable and accessible to the rural inhabitants. He echoed Nachiket’s sentiments about how money can sometimes kill innovation. He quoted his own example when they were really hard pressed for money. This also led them to understand what their target customer was facing in terms of finances. This is where use of financial systems to ensure adoption of technology comes into play.

He cited a very simple yet telling incident when a person told him that repaying 300 rupees per month was not possible for him but 10 rupees per day was. Such things, Harish, said could not possibly be learnt in closed classes. He also touched on the topic of how sanity was maintained in a company which was working in an environment and space where repayment issues were common, and conflicts of interest arose in terms of social goals and viability of the company. As per Harish, between themselves, they followed the motto “No friends inside and no enemies outside” and ensured all issues are “fought” out in the meetings. He ended by stressing on the importance of team work in such efforts and the need to have a strong, coherent team where each one understands each other well and works in tandem.

Anand Shah, of Indicorps, brought forth a different yet pertinent and important subject. The approach that he took to drive home his point was unique too. He cited the example of terrorists and the motivation which drives these young individuals to commit such acts. He questioned if this was because there was no other resort left to these individuals to make a mark. A very important point to mull over.

Anand Shah photo credit Sonia Rai

Thereafter two parallel sessions were conducted. One on “Learnings from the Ground”, which I attended and one on “Getting Started: Seed Funding and Support for Emerging Social Entrepreneurs”. The former session saw Umesh Malhotra of Hippocampus, and Shaffi Mather, of 1298 share their experiences when they were starting out. The session was moderated by S Deendayalan of Centre for Excellence in Organization.

Umesh talked about his predicaments when he started out. How he had to face some fixed notions which he was able to prove false as he progressed. People did not agree with him when he  said children like to read.  They obviously did not agree when he said that  poor children liked to read.  He also stressed on the numerous learnings and unlearnings he had go through – point being one should not go in with a fixed mindset and be ready for a course correction when warranted.

Shaffi Mather was quite candid when it came to issues that he faced when he started 1298. He made his point when he said that some of the important lessons in business are not taught in B Schools. The stark truth that he discovered was that 90 percent of the ambulances in India transport dead bodies. The reason could be many and not just the non-availability of ambulances. The organization learnt a lot of things in their journey till now and many times brought them face to face with governments. He also explained how their model was more transparent and accountable than the EMRI initiative and the fact that due to their efforts state governments are making the process of ambulance requisition tender based. 1298’s revenue model has evolved over time and makes use of its highly sophisticated back-end systems to function. In his parting comments, Shaffi called upon participants to be persistent to achieve their goals.

The next session that I attended was again part of three parallel sessions. I attended the one on “Can Profit Maximization and Social Good Co-Exist?” The panel comprised of R D Ravindran of Aravind Eye Hospital, Clara Barby of Acumen Fund and Andrea Westall, an independent strategy and policy analyst.

Andrea Westall and Clara Barby photo credit Sonia Rai

Clara began by asking if we can flip the question of “Can social enterprises be profitable” to “Can enterprises be socially responsive”? She also brought forth the important point of relative maximization of profits wherein social enterprise will not even be operating in traditional spaces but would be opening hitherto unexplored markets. This also ensures they are not up against well-entrenched biggies. Clara then introduced a few of the projects that Acumen Fund has invested in within India.

Dr R D Ravindran photo credit Sonia Rai

Dr Ravindran gave some really refreshing insights into how Aravind Eye Hospital was able to achieve its goals of eye treatment for all by maximum utilization of resources, including doctors. He also told us that treatment quality did not vary with the paying capacity of the patient though there were different wings with different facilities. Aravind Eye Hospital has now partnered with some hospitals to help them replicate their success. They have also developed a project to facilitate eye checkup at the local health center by conducting diagnosis with the help of video over high speed internet connection.

Andrea reminded us that “grants” are not necessarily a bad thing as has been made out to be. In fact, they are a legitimate source of income. Her view was that one cannot maximize profits because that may eventually cause one to lose focus of the social angle.

Thus ended the first day of my conference at Dakshin Chitra, Chennai. To be sure these are just events that were planned by organizers. There were a lot of discussions and ideas being exchanged on the sidelines, and as promised, I will write about them in my following posts.

Look out for the TiE Entrepreneurship Summit 2008 scheduled for December 16-18th to be held at Hotel Grand Ashok, Bangalore.

The theme of this year’s conference is Inclusive Entrepreneurship and features a keynote session on Social Entrepreneurship. Speakers at the keynote include Dr Carl Schramm and Rohini Nilekani. Looks like they also have an entire day dedicated to clean tech, where Harish Hande, the co-founder of SELCO India will be speaking.

NGO Post has an interesting story on a solar micro-enterprise in Hassan District in Karnataka. The business operates a battery charging station powered by solar photovoltaic panels and rents out solar powered CFL lamps street vendors. On an average, the vendor pays $0.25 per day for renting out the lamps and the business services 120 street vendors.

The business is supported by Small-Scale Sustainable Infrastructure Development Fund (S3IDF), a pioneering organization supporting small enterprises in India. The technology support comes from SELCO India a leader in affordable solar solutions for the poor (our previous coverage of SELCO is here)

Read the complete story [via NGO Post]

Top posts:

1. Prerna’s op-ed on income generation for women
2. Shital’s post on a promising model for ecotourism
3. Vinay’s feature of the pot-in-pot

Reaching into the archives:

A few months ago, Santhosh featured SELCO, a company focusing on renewable energy that is trying to scale up, and its founder Harish Hande, who has continued to receive much attention since then.

We have mentioned this opportunity before. But the folks from Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation wanted us to throw in a reminder to our readers about the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award 2008. The deadline is for application is 5th June, 2008 and you can access the online application here.

Here are some basic details on the award:

The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation and The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship , in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) are inviting applications for India’s Social Entrepreneur Of The Year Award 2008. Five finalists will be selected following an intensive search and selection process including expert reviews and site visits. The winner will be announced in a ceremony coinciding with the India Economic Summit in November 2008.

We have previously featured last year’s award recipient Harish Hande and his organization Selco.

India is facing a looming energy crisis. The energy needs of the country’s population cannot be met by conventional energy sources (read: Fossil Fuels). We had mentioned in the space before, the importance of India leapfrogging into renewable sources like solar and wind. As part of the eleventh five year plan, GOI just allocated Rs. 600 crore towards green energy research creating incentives for adoption of renewables.

One company that has taken the lead in the renewables space is Solar Electric Lighting Company (SELCO) India. We had covered SELCO extensively in this space before. The challenge with solar energy is not just the making Photo-voltaic(PV) cells more cost-effective, but also effective financing, distribution, and maintenance of these PV units. The latter is commonly referred to as downstream solar opportunities. Started in 1995, SELCO India claims to have sold, serviced and financed 75,000 solar electric units. Recognizing SELCO’s cutting-edge work in expanding access to energy, its founder Harish Hande was chosen as Indian Social Entrepreneur of the Year for 2007 by the Schwab Foundation in partnership with The Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation.

The challenge for a company like SELCO now is scale. How can the organization move from servicing 80,000 clients to servicing 8 million clients? Making PV units more affordable would be a good start (currently they are priced around Rs. 800). Another key challenge would be building a effective distribution and servicing chain. There is also competition around the corner (which is never a bad thing) – we had mentioned d.light design, a silicon-valley based company with an aggressive focus on India.