Smart Anganwadis

The situation

As part of its Women’s Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Energy’ programme, UN Women approached Madhya Pradesh’s New and Renewable Energy Department (MPNRED), to collaborate on the use of solar power for state-run anganwadis. The state sought the help of PwC India team for advice on how solar power could be incorporated within specific anganwadis.

Anganwadis facilitate the provision of basic health and education services to pregnant women, and children under the age of five.

The state lacked the technical, operational and maintenance know-how for running solar-powered systems. The department sought a cost-effective and specialised design to prevent theft and lower maintenance cost. It asked the PwC India team to liaison between UN Women and itself to streamline the procurement process.

The solution

The PwC India team identified a few challenges, such as equipment theft, high cost of maintenance, the limited life span of equipment, lack of vendor services in rural areas, and maintaining optimum power requirements for day-to-day operations of Anganwadis. The PwC India team helped design a safe, low-cost, theft-proof, sustainable and efficient solution.

PwC India’s team used the transform framework to plan and implement the project. They began by connecting with anganwadi workers to understand their key challenges, collect data and develop templates. The team used this information to estimate a cost and formulate a strategy and timeline for this project. In the subsequent stages, the team helped the client to manage financing terms, streamline the fund release process, establish the performance monitoring process, help in the bidding process and negotiate the budget estimation provided by the MPNRED.