Power for All has compiled an informal guide of leading voices on Twitter connected to the effort to bring electricity to the 300 million in India without access. The below list is based on frequency and relevancy of posts and number of followers. We’ve included individuals and institutions, both from within and outside India. If you think we missed someone, or have story ideas for the Powering Rural India publication, please comment below. #SDGs #GlobalGoals #SDG7 #India #energyaccess
Policy and Research
- The Council on Energy, Environment and Water (@CEEWIndia) and CEO Arunabha Ghosh — leading research group; 5000+ total followers
- The Initiative for Sustainable Energy Policy (@sais_isep) and Johannes Urpelainen (@jurpelai); 1300+ total followers
- NITI Aayog (@Energy_NITI) — the energy team at the central government’s policy think tank; 3000+ followers
- The Energy and Resources Institute (@teriin) and Debajit Palit (@debajitpalit) — research institute; 8000+ total followers
- Kartikeya Singh (@kartikeyasingh) — leads India work at the Center for International and Strategic Studies (@CSISIndiaChair); 6500+ total followers
Private and public sector companies
- CLEAN — the industry body representing India’s energy access sector; 750 followers
- Smart Power India (@smartpowerorg) — a Rockefeller Foundation (@RockefellerFdn) initiative supporting private mini-grid ESCOs; 140000+ total followers
- Rural Electrification Corp. (@RECLimited), its Grameen Vidyutikaran(@grameenvidyut) program and managing director PV Ramesh (@RameshPV2010) — state company working on rural electrification; 22,000+ total followers
- Energy group under the Confederation of Indian Industry (@FollowCIIEnergy) — industry group working with government to grow industry; 400+ followers
- Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (@IREDALtd) — state-owned company financing renewable energy projects; 1100+ followers
- Enterprises: some of the active companies on Twitter include Simpa Networks — solar home systems; 2000+ followers; Frontier Markets — distribution company; Oorja (@oorjasolutions); Claro Energy (@ClaroEnergy) — solar irrigation; Rural Spark (@RuralSpark); Omnivoltaic (@Omnivoltaic); Dharma Life (@Dharmalifeindia); OMC Power (@omcpower); Cygni Energy (@cygni_solar)
Civil society
- The SELCO Foundation (@SELCOFoundation) and CEO Harish Hande (@Harishhande) — doing cutting edge work on building the ecosystem for providing livelihoods through last-mile access; 2000+ total followers
- Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (@ShaktiFdn) and CEO Krishan Dhawan (@KrishanDhawan1) — leading energy foundation; 300+ total followers
- Ashden India (@AshdenIndia) — a collection of past Ashden award winners focused on sustainable energy; 175 followers
- Bharath Jairaj (@bharathjairaj) of WRI India (@WRIIndia) — active on renewable energy; 2500+ total followers
- CEED (@CEED_India) — grassroots civil society group working on renewable energy (including access) and clean air; 300+ followers
- Justin Guay (@Guay_JG) — Packard Foundation energy access and clean air evangelist; 3600+ followers
Media
- Soumya Sarkar (@scurve) — India Climate Dialogue (@ICD_climate) editor; 100,000+ followers
- Shreya Jai (@shreya_jai) — journalist for the Business Standard; 2000+ followers
- Vandana Gombars (@vgombars) — editor at Bloomberg New Energy Finance; 1800+ followers
- Energy World (@ETEnergyWorld), editor Sudheer Pal Singh (@Sudheerpalsingh) and reporter Kaavya Chandrasekaran (@kaavyachandra) — renewable energy at The Economic Times; 4500+ total followers
Noteworthy
Many groups and individuals are not represented on Twitter or if they are, they are not as frequent users as we would like, or don’t have huge followings. However, if you’re interested, here are few we respect.
- Anjali Garg (@Anjaligarg7Garg) of IFC South Asia, who manages the Lighting Asia/India program
- Vibhuti Garg (@Vibhuti_D_Garg) of IISD — policy wonk on a range of energy access topics
- Jonathan Balls (@JBallsNGN) — energy access researcher at Australia India Insitute
- Energy Policy Institute — India, University of Chicago (@EPIC_India) and the MIT Tata Center (@TataCenterMIT) working on technology for the developing world
- Jarnail Singh (@jarnail2015) — India director of The Climate Group
- Gireesh Shrimali (@climatepolicy) of Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) India, which manages the US-India Clean Energy Finance (USICEF) debt facility