Impact Stories

Pune, Maharashtra Across rural India, development investments have expanded significantly in both scale and intent. Yet, despite this progress, outcomes often remain fragmented and difficult to sustain beyond project cycles. As the sector evolves, there is a growing recognition that convergence is key to sustainability, ensuring that efforts across stakeholders, systems and communities translate into long-term outcomes. Drawing from over 30 years of rural development experience, working across more than 2,500 villages and impacting over 16 lakh lives, Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), the social arm of TVS Motor Company, found that sustainable transformation depends on how effectively community ownership, strong processes and public systems come together. From Participation to Ownership At the heart of sustainability lies community ownership. At SST,

Maihar, Madhya Pradesh: In the rural villages surrounding Maihar, a community-based livelihood initiative supported by UltraTech Cement is creating new opportunities for women and small farmers. Implemented by Lok Kalyan Bhumika Samiti (LKBS), the programme focuses on strengthening local livelihoods through skill development, sustainable agriculture, and income diversification. The initiative currently covers four villages of Maihar, where several practical interventions have been introduced to help rural households enhance their income while promoting environmentally sustainable practices. One of the key components of the project is Oyster Mushroom Cultivation, where 150 women have been trained and two mushroom hutments have been established for demonstration and production. Mushroom cultivation has emerged as a promising livelihood option, particularly for rural women, as it requires

About the Initiative Lighting a Billion Lives©, launched by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), was a global initiative to facilitate access to clean lighting for energy poor communities across the world. In operation since 2008, the campaign enabled communities to transition from harmful kerosene based mediums to cleaner, more efficient and sustainable lighting alternatives through an entrepreneurial model of energy service delivery. Building on the success of the Lighting a Billion Lives© campaign, which provided energy access in India, South Asia and parts of Africa, TERI is launching LaBL 2.0 (Leveraging Clean Energy for a Billion Livelihoods), which aims to push the boundaries of energy access to energy for productive activities and builds the ecosystem for just energy transition.

Authors : Mr. Prashanta Kumar Swain, Fellow, Social Transformation and CSR & Dr. Amit Kumar Thakur, Associate Director and Head CSR Introduction India has set ambitious and globally significant clean energy targets—500 GW of non-fossil fuel capacity by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2070. These targets reflect not only climate leadership but also a development imperative: powering growth, livelihoods, and resilience sustainably. In recent years, India has accelerated renewable capacity additions, reaching 267 GW of installed non-fossil capacity by 31st December 2025. Rooftop solar, agri-solar, and decentralised renewable energy (DRE) solutions have expanded rapidly. Solarisation of agriculture, schools, health centres, MSMEs, and other community infrastructure is gaining momentum, supported by policies such as PM Surya Ghar and PM-KUSUM, falling technology