More than 70 micro-business have bloomed in three villages in last six months after mini grids was installed to lit up three villages in Mon district of the state.

The first 3 mini-grids in North-East India were set up in the Mon District of Nagaland in the villages of Chenwetnyu, Longkei and Totok Chinga by the Mithun Rural Development Foundation (MRDF) in collaboration with Smart Power India (SPI) and District Administration of Mon.

World Resource Institute (WRI) India performed a baseline study of the three villages. The community has received the three mini-grid pilots well, and over 70 micro-businesses have bloomed in the last six months with micro-enterprise development support from NABARD, GIZ, SPI and Rang De.

Smart Power India, a subsidiary of the Rockefeller Foundation, in association with the government of Nagaland and other developmental agencies now plans to install similar mini-grids in 1000 villages in Nagaland.

The objective of this programme is to supplement and strengthen the supply of electricity in remote villages to enable microenterprises to thrive, new businesses to be set up, improve public infrastructure (streetlights, schools and health centres), trigger economic growth and increase personal incomes in the villages.

The installation of these pilot mini-grids in Mon aims to enable last-mile clean energy access, improve livelihoods, support women entrepreneurs, and increase the state’s GDP while reducing GHG emissions. Expanding mini-grids in the other villages of Nagaland will bring more opportunities for the state.

“Now, electricity is available 24x7 in the three mini-grid villages and is used to power livelihoods. streetlights, health centres, schools and homes. In the last 9 months, over 70 new micro-businesses based on agri-processing, non-timber forest produce processing, biofloc fisheries, livestock feed, carpentry, metal works and handicrafts have been incubated. I hope that we all will find a way forward to scale up the project across Mon District and the state of Nagaland” Ajit Kumar Verma, Deputy Commissioner, Mon District said.

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