ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
Interview with prof. Chetan Singh Si Solanki - co-founder of ROSE and founder of EduPark
In 2001, a few Indians working in Leuven founded ROSE as a means to support education for children from economically disadvantaged communities in developing countries. Chetan Singh Solanki (A), who headed the initiative, has since then moved back to India for a successful academic career. ROSE (Q): Let’s Let start with a few words on what had initially brought you to Belgium. ps: ( prof. Chetan's 's detailed bio-data bio data can be folowed at the end of this document and also at http://www.edupark.org/office_bearers.html //www.edupark.org/office_bearers.html)
Q: How did you land in Belgium? A: First of all let me congratulate all ROSEiens who held the flag high during last 10 years of its existence. It is a great achievement!
“Bridging the Gap through Education” Education”
1 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
I have done Bachelors in Engineering and masters in microelectronics from IIT Bombay. Bombay During project work in master degree I have got interested in research work. I wanted to do research in an area which is directly relevant to society, particularly rural society. I have discussed this with my guide, Prof. R. Lal at IIT Bombay. He suggest suggested ed me to work on solar cells. Solar cells converts light into electricity and the electricity can be generated wherever there is sunlight. Therefore, this technology can be used to bring electricity to remote rural areas where there is no power. On my guides es suggestion I read some books and research papers and liked the subject. Subsequently I applied for Ph.D. in good research institutions including IMEC in Belgium. After my M.Tech., however, I started working for Texas Instruments in Banglore. But as soon soo as I got the offer for doing Ph.D. with scholarship from IMEC on my topic of choice, I left the job and landed in Belgium to pursue Ph.d.
Q. Since when social service has become your passion? passion A: It was summer of 1996, when I attended a talk in my engine engineering ering college (SGSITS, Indore) about role of an Engineer as entrepreneur in strengthening economy. The speaker also mentioned about the various schemes for starting small scale enterprises. I think that was turning point in my life. After that I decided to start a factory for making plastic shoes and chappal for rural areas, who use these plastic shoes and chappals. My idea was that it will create jobs for people and will enhance their economic status, which would result in better health and education. I started arted looking for raw material, machinery and more important importantly, the finance (loan). (loan) I was only in third year of my engineering. My father noticed this and told not to get into this. He thought I was too young to do this and take the burden of loan. When I was moving ahead without considering his suggestion, he got angry and one day he bit me. Well, that biting was then convincing enough to leave the idea of starting a factory factory☺. Although hough I stopped thinking about factory but the idea of helping society remained rema there in my mind.. My village and that area was and is economically weak, my village had only one class
“Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
2 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
room (I studied there till 3rd) in the name of school, so does many villages villages,, there was no bus connection to my village, it is not there now either. Q: How you persuade your passion of social service during your masters. A: I have done my M.Tech. from IIT Bombay in Mumbai. Mumbai is a big city. There were several organizations working for social cause. The Child Relief and your (CRY), the Pratham and d Ralegan Siddhi (village of Anna Hazare in Maharastra) are some of them. Apart from my studies, I visited offices of the mentioned NGOs, learned about them and sometime participated in their activities. I was so thinking so much about social work that I started started thinking to do d another masters in sociology. Q. Why you thought about starting ROSE? A: When I came to Leuven for Ph.D. in 1999 I started looking for NGOs with whom I could work. There was no CRY, there was no ASHA, in fact, there was no organizatio organization which was working in Leuven for India. That is why I started thinking of starting a new organization. Q. Tell about your experience of starting ROSE. A. When I thought about starting an NGO, I started looking for people with similar mindset and dedication on for the work. It did not take much time to find Shashidhar, Subrata and Sanchita. We four came together discussed the idea and got started. I remember, it took us about two months of discussion before we could converge on objectives of ROSE, that is hel helping ping government primary schools in rural areas (India as well as in other countries) to improve the quality of Education. In two months we debated about what we should do? how we should do?, should we register the organization? Etc. Most of the time we had friendly discussion but specially on issue if we should do registration of ROSE and if ROSE should only work for India or for other countries as well, there was huge heated discussion. Once we clarity about our objectives, we registered ROSE and went ahea ahead d and invited other people to join, and started working. It was great experience to work with many people having dedication and sincerity towards the jobs they “Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
3 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
have undertaken, the ROSE. I would like to tthank hank all those who were part of this wonderful experience. Q. Why you have taken decision to move back to India immediately after your Ph.d.? A. Well, before coming to Belgium I had made plans to leave Belgium to come to India. In order to track my plan I was counting days. In my daily diaries I was keepin keepingg count of number of remaining days to come back to India. This is because I strongly felt that if you want to solve the problem it is important to live with the problem. Being in abroad is probably good for fund raising but not so good for planning and executing executing projects in rural area. We need to be in rural areas or close to them. When I went to Belgium, I thought, I should fix a date for returning, otherwise it get postponed and some people never come back. Tentatively I fixed a date of my birthday. Coincidently, Coi after finishing Ph.D., I landed on early morning of 21st May 2004, my birth date. I am believer of the saying “life tends to support our preferences”. It I does support, provided you are honest from inside and take honest action to pursue your beliefs. bel Q: Tell us something about your current venture of starting Education Park. A: After returning to India,, since I have earned expertise in renewable energy during my Ph.D. and there is huge demand for energy in rural areas, I started an organization called New Energy Foundation (NEF,, www.nenf.org) www.nenf.org in 2006 to promote renewable energy in rural areas. We have organized several workshop, demonstrated technologies like solar olar cooking and solar lanterns. And, distributed many solar lanterns which are now be being ing used by about 18000 students and people. In 2008, after having about 10 years of experience of doing social service, I realized that all my efforts towards education children in rural areas are affecti affecting ng them a little way. Our effort helps them to get the skills of reading and writing but it did not help them to get job. I could not count a single child whose life is changed because of efforts of organization with whom I was working. I careful thought revealed that, although there are some efforts being put, but efforts are
“Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
4 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
so small in quantity and quality that the recipient of the support is not able to cross the required barrier. I often given example of a P-N N junction diode. A silicon diode turns ON if you provide it 0.7 Volt, but if you provide it let et say 0.3 Volt for whole of your life, the diode will never turn ON. I think same is true with providing any social support. Your support has to be good enough to help beneficiary crossing the required barrier, the barrier after which he/she does not need any support from anybody. I asked myself can we do this? Is it possible? The answer came in the form of Education Park (www.edupark.org). (www.edupark.org) The Education Park is an organization which works for providing “High quality and affordable education and training” in rural areas. High quality emphasizes the fact that the Education and Training that we provide at Education Park should be at par with any urban Education and Training. If you can achieve this, then we believe that the students and trainee coming out of Education Park will not require anybody’s support, they will stand on their own, they will be turned “ON” when they come out. Q:: Would you like to give any message to ROSE members. A: I would like to congratulate again to all ROSEiens for this achievement. I am sure working for ROSE would have been great and enriching experience for all. I think, these experiences also play important role in shaping our lives and our destinations. It makes our lives complete. So, I would recommend each and every body to tak takee some initiative, spend some time for others, think about common good rather than individual good and contribute your bit in the development of our nations and other who need our help. The support of ‘developed’ for the one ‘needing development’ is need off the hour for better world. Thank you.
“Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
5 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki President, Education Park Present Work Associate Professor, Dept. of Energy Science and Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400 076, India Tel. home: +91-22-2572 1248 Tel. office: +91-22-2576 7895 Fax: +91-22-2576 4890 E-mail: chetanss@iitb.ac.in For details visit to www.ese.iitb.ac.in/~chetan www.ese.iitb.ac.in/~chetan. Personal information Born on 21st May 1975, Male, Married, Indian Education Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Applied Science from Interuniversity Micro-Electronics Electronics Center (IMEC), Belgium, 2004, www.imec.be Master of Technology (M. Tech.) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay (www.iitb.ac.in ) in 1999 Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) from S. G. S. Institute of Science and Technology, Indore in 1997, www.sgsits.ac.in
“Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
6 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
Social Initiatives (1) Founded d ROSE (Rose an Organization for Supporting Education), registered in Leuven, Belgium When Dr. Solanki was pursuing his doctoral study in Belgium he has founded ROSE. It is an independent, nonprofit (called a "vzw" in Belgium) and volunteer organization ba based in Leuven, Belgium. It is run by mainly students group living in Leuven, Belgium. Its mission is to support and foster basic education for children from economically disadvantaged rural communities in developing countries. It was established in 2001 an and d since then it is ever growing in terms of its impact. It has sponsored and executed more than 48 projects across India, worth more than 150,000 Euro (approximately 100 Lakhs). For details please visit to www.rosevzw.org. www.rosevz (2) Founded NEF (New Energy Foundation), registered in Bhikangaon, MP, India Energy is lifeblood of any economy and it plays very crucial role in the development of individuals, society and of nations. India is energy poor. Its energy demand can not be fulfilled with conventional energy sources. India is blessed with solar energy and available to everyone, equally to rich and poor. Therefore, with the objective of using energy as a tool for development, Dr. Solanki has founded NEF to promote use of rrenewable enewable energy sources, particularly solar energy in rural area. The promotes solar energy by spreading awareness, training people and demonstrating technologies. The NEF has so far conducted several training and awareness programs and demonstrated the ef effective fective use of solar lantern in evening education in rural areas. So far NEF has donated 550 solar lanterns in 550 villages of India affecting 16000 students. These villages are spread across several states of India. Dr. Solanki has also authored a book titled tled “Renewable Energy Technologies: a practical guide for beginners” suitable for reading by any citizen interested in energy. This book is also translated in Hindi. More details can be found at www.nenf.org Honors He has received Scholarship for postgraduate study from Union Grant Commission, India and Scholarship for doctoral study from Katholieke University Leuven, Belgium. He has received Young Scientist Award from European Material Research Society (EMRS), Franc France in 2003. Other than this his research work is awarded as best poster awards in international conferences on three occasions. He has also received the certificate of appreciation from National Knowledge Commission of India for his film “Sun Light at Night”” on the work of New Energy Foundation. He has also won second prize in International photography contest organized by International Society of Photography, Washington DC, USA in 2003. Writings Research papers, patents and books Dr. Chetan S. Solanki has authored uthored more than 40 publications in the reputed international journals and proceedings. He also owns three US patents for his work on porous silicon for solar cell applications and another Indian patent has been filed. He is also authored three books titled ”Renewable Energy Technology-- A Practical Guides for Beginners” and “Solar Photovoltaics: “Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
7 of 8
ROSE – An Organisation Organisati for Supporting Education BTW BE 0474.242.896 info@rosevzw.net www.rosevzw.net
ROSE vzw Dorpstraat 564 3061 Bertem, Bertem Belgium
Fundamentals, Technologies and Applications” published by Prentice Prentice-Hall Hall of India. He has also been actively involved in making of a book titled as “Punctuations: a photographic journey through the IIT Bombay campus” published by Narosa Publishing House Pvt. Ltd. Teaching and Training Dr. Solanki specializes in solar energy, particularly in solar photovoltaics. He has been teaching at IIT Bombay since last five years years.. Over this years he has taught several courses covering fundamental of energy engineering, direct energy conversion, solar photovoltaics both basic and advanced concepts. His course on Introduction to energy engineering has been broadcasted live on the internet ternet in 2008, which was accessible across the globe. He has been invited to deliver over 30 invited lectures at both national and international levels. He has also conducted several training programs for industry participants as well as academicians from other institutes in the country. National and international meetings, workshops and conferences, etc Dr Solanki has attended seminars and conferences in over 15 countries of the world. He has also presented his research papers in several countries. He is also participated in national level meeting on solar energy organized of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Science and Technology. He is also a part of national level committee as a technical expert in solar energy (photovoltaics).
“Bridging the Gap through Education Education””
8 of 8