The Energy and Resources Institute in India promotes the use of solar LED lanterns based on a TI reference design under its "Lighting a Billion Lives" initiative.

TI was recognized with a 2011 NASSCOM Innovation Award in the "Social Innovation: Market Facing" category for its partnership with India's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to develop a reference design for solar LED lanterns and charging stations.

TERI has been promoting the use of solar LED lanterns under its "Lighting a Billion Lives" initiative that aims to improve the lives of people living in rural villages in India and to help the environment. Watch video about the "Lighting a Billion Lives" program.

At least 1.6 billion people worldwide live in darkness once the sun sets each day. A significant number of them reside in India.

To help combat this, TI developed a solar LED lantern solution based on one of its analog chips. The lanterns are affordable, save energy, and are reliable and rugged enough for daily use.

The reference design also includes a charging station capable of charging as many as 10 lanterns with individual control and protection.

"Providing effective lighting solutions to our rural masses can transform their lives through higher education, health and safety standards and can create more employment and entrepreneurship," said TI Fellow Mahesh Mehendale, who accepted the award recently at the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum in Mumbai.

A solar LED lantern is shown along with a solar panel. A mobile phone is getting charged from the lantern's battery.

"This award is a strong recognition of our joint effort with TERI in innovation with a big social impact."

Solar LED lighting can impact the lives of close to a billion people across India who lack access to electricity. So far, 32,000 solar LED lanterns have been distributed in 570 Indian villages across 16 states. By March, 70,000 lanterns are expected to have been distributed in 1,370 villages across 21 states, improving the lives of 360,000 people.

Each solar lantern saves 40 to 60 liters of kerosene a year, helping to mitigate 1.5 tons of carbon dioxide emitted by each kerosene lantern over a 10-year period.

TI's solar lantern solution has also provided an avenue for entrepreneurship for villagers, some of whom run solar charging stations and rent out and fix lanterns for their neighbors.

Rigorous awards process
The Social Innovation category was new to the NASSCOM awards this year, and TI was selected after a rigorous process by a panel of judges made up of industry luminaries, academicians and analysts.

Entries were judged on innovation of technology, scalability of the model and number of patents filed by the applicant company.

NASSCOM is India's National Association of Software and Service Companies, the premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT software and services industry in India.