Some background

So, I’m off to India! Or at least I will be as soon as I am granted a visa. Right now, this decision is in the hands of the visa processing officer at the Indian Consulate Office in Edinburgh. After submitting my passport along with various covering letters last week, the 8-10 day estimated visa “processing time” is finally coming to an end. Needless to say, it could be even longer before my visa is granted but this hasn’t stopped me from laying out all my gear ready to go (by far the earliest I have ever packed for any trip!).

In the meantime, I’ll give a bit of background to what I’m going to be up to in India and my reasons for wanting to do an internship with SELCO.

Why am I going to India?
Having just graduated in Mechanical Engineering in the UK, I plan to spend a few months exploring my interest in the field of international development by gaining experience working as an engineer with a NGO or Social Enterprise.

I am particularly interested in learning about ‘appropriate technology’ – in brief, this term describes technology which is economically viable, environmentally friendly and developed with the involvement of communities so that the technology reflects factors such as culture or the locally available skills & materials. Appropriate technology isn’t only applicable to the international development sector, however it is often used to ensure development initiatives are sustainable, and bring long term benefits.

My interest in appropriate technology led me to contact SELCO, an Ashden Award winning social enterprise. By developing an affordable solar lighting package, SELCO made solar energy accessible to low income and off the grid households in rural India – so far over 700,000 people have been served since SELCO was founded in 1995.

In 2010 the SELCO Labs was opened, with the aim of testing and developing other appropriate technology innovations – ranging from small scale agriculture machinery to solar cookers and wind power. By “incubating” this technology in a rural setting, the most robust and locally appropriate ideas can be evaluated and potentially developed into a sustainable social enterprise.

From time to time SELCO offers internships to students and recent graduates, and this is where I come in. I will be working in the SELCO Lab as an engineer, helping to progress some of their projects while learning about both the technology and the social and cultural aspects which are key to successful implementation.   

What will I be doing?

I will be involved in a range of SELCO’s on-going projects, and will write about this in more detail once I arrive. Some of the work may include testing agricultural machinery, setting up anemometers and collecting wind data, testing solar water pumps and designing /constructing prototypes for an industrial solar cooking plant.

I also hope to make the most of the cultural experience of living in India. I’m sure this will be an adventure itself! I’ll be based in Ujire which is a small town in a rural area, but only a few hours bus ride from the massive city of Bangalore, known as India’s “Silicon Valley” (also home to many of the infamous Indian call centres). I’m only 50km from the sea and I am fortunate to have a good friend living just a few hours away in Mysore.

What is my motivation?

A few people have asked why I’m choosing to spend my time-off working in a small town in rural India. So, here are some the reasons which come to mind:

•  I would like to learn how I can use my engineering skills to benefit people who haven’t had the same opportunities I have had.
• I enjoy being immersed in a foreign culture and I think working and living in India could be really interesting, and an adventure!
•  I believe appropriate technology is key in enabling people all over the world to raise their standard of living in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
• I believe social enterprise orientated solutions are a good way to solve development issues such as access to affordable, clean energy. 

I think it will be interesting to look back at the end of the internship to see if any of my thoughts on this have changed.

Thank you for reading if you have reached this far! Hopefully this post will give some context for anyone who is interested in my internship. I’ll aim to keep future posts a bit shorter. It would be nice to end post this by saying something like, “now I’m off to pack”. However, as I have already packed, I’m off to bed.