IIM Indore wins Australia-India Council Grant, signs MoU with University of New South Wales & University of Canberra

IIM Indore, UC and UNSW have won the grant for a project titled ‘Developing financing mechanism to extend off-grid electricity in rural India’.

Indian Institute of Management Indore (IIM Indore) in collaboration with the University of Canberra (UC) and University of New South Wales (UNSW) won the Australia India Council Grant. It was announced by Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Government of Australia. IIM Indore, UC and UNSW have won the grant for a project titled ‘Developing financing mechanism to extend off-grid electricity in rural India’. A total of 146 organizations applied for the grant, out of which 11 projects were selected, according to the press release.

In order to do the year-long project, IIM Indore signed an MoU with the universities. The signing took place between Professor Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore; and Dr Milica Symul, Director Research and Innovation, UC on October 05, 2021. Professor Milind Sathye, Senior Professor- Banking and Finance, UC will be the overall lead for the project and liaison with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs Austrailia. 

Talking about IIM Indore’s mission to be a contextually relevant and socially conscious business school, Professor Himanshu Rai said “We aim to take every potential step to ensure our contribution to the nation-building. This project will contribute to IIM Indore’s mission of contributing to the betterment of society and is in line with its vision to increase international collaboration. This project would also help rapid uptake of the innovation to make the lives of rural communities better.”

The IIM Indore team includes Professor Keyur Thaker, Faculty, IIM Indore and Sanjay Ghosh, FPM Student at IIM Indore; along with Professor Himanshu Pota from UNSW and Professor Milind Sathye, Senior Professor-Banking & Finance from UC.

Talking about the collaboration, Professor Keyur Thaker said that the project explores financing solution to provide access to electricity in rural India with Australia and India both benefitting from the strategic institutional relationship. “It also aims to design, develop, and test a sustainable financing mechanism for the rapid uptake of off-grid electricity supply for rural India on a long-term basis”, he said.

The three educational institutes will now be working on this project which envisages the development of an appropriate financing mechanism at the manufacturers and community level to support the uptake of off-grid electricity innovation. The team will hold discussions with various stakeholders such as, regulators, experts, financiers, manufacturers and communities soon and make field visits, the press release informed.

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