New Delhi, May 11 (IANS): Smart Power India said that its Micro Enterprise Development (MED) programme has helped transform 2,412 commercial and micro entrepreneurs in rural India, across the states of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand as of April, through reliable electricity access.

In a bid to create socio-economic opportunities for rural and micro entrepreneurs, Smart Power India (SPI)'s MED programme has helped rural communities harness electricity for productive uses, said a statement.

This has thereby boosted greater demand for power and helped village level entrepreneurs to expand their existing businesses or develop new businesses.

"SPI, along with its partner Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), has aided in access to reliable electricity across multiple irrigation units, oil expellers, rice hullers, water treatment units in these regions. This has resulted in not just alleviating poverty but also in bringing socio-economic parity in these communities," it said.

SPI's CEO Jaideep Mukherjee said: "While there has been tremendous progress made in rural electrification with respect to household electrification, challenges remain in even ensuring basic connections to rural businesses and microenterprises."

It is with this overarching objective, SPI started the MED programme with a vision to drive socio-economic progress of rural customers by ensuring access to reliable and quality electricity, he said.

The statement, further, said that the mini-grid sector has proved that reliability is key to unlocking latent demand and achieving the full economic potential of energy access in under-served regions. Only with access to reliable power are enterprises likely to employ relatively expensive and sophisticated appliances for productive purposes, it said.