In India’s Silicon Valley, a Village Lights up with Solar Lanterns from Samsung

A few hours without electricity brings our lives to a standstill.

Imagine a day without any electricity. Imagine a week. Imagine years. While India and the world moves forward, there are still pockets in the country that face several unsaid challenges every day.

The Byragundlu Village in Koratagere Taluk of Tumkur District is one such example. Located in the suburbs of the hi-tech city of Bengaluru in Karnataka, the day to day struggle of the residents is a matter of major concern. This is because, this village receives power supply for only two to three hours a day.

The CSR team from the Samsung Research Institute- Bangalore visited the village and interacted with the locals. The children were unable to study because of the lack of regular power supply. The SRI-B team decided to make a difference by providing solar powered lanterns to the residents.

With the aim of lighting lives, around 800 such lanterns were distributed among the villagers. On a single charge, each lantern can last for about 12 hours. Two lanterns per household were distributed to assist the villagers. It has enabled children to study in an uninterrupted manner. Moreover, it has helped keep away wild animals, boars and snakes from entering houses.

“Samsung strives to create meaningful innovations to ease up people’s lives, be it for our consumers or the local communities. We are pleased to partner with Karnataka government to fulfil these initiatives and it gives immense happiness to see how small steps can brighten up the lives of our Indian people especially children. Samsung wishes all the best to these children for their studies,” said Dipesh Shah, Managing Director, SRI-B.

“We are happy that Samsung R&D team has taken up the mission towards development of this village. This gesture will surely benefit the villagers by large and motivate the students to study. We are hopeful that our long term association with Samsung will enable us to take up many such developmental activities in the future,” said Ranganath, Panchayat Development Officer.

SRI-B strives towards community development and has undertaken multiple initiatives towards education, sanitation and environment. The team plans to light up more lives by distributing more lamps and covering more villages in its next phase.