SCREENING COMMITTEE MEMBER

Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki

Professor at IIT Bombay Founder of
Energy Swaraj Foundation
Brand Ambassador of Solar Energy for Madhya Pradesh
Also referred as
“Solar Man of India” or “Solar Gandhi” by newspapers
Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki is an educator, researcher, innovator and happiness program teacher of The Art of Living, who is currently on unpaid leave from IIT Bombay. He has undertaken Energy Swaraj Yatra from Nov. 2020 through a solar bus for 11 years, until 2030. In this yatra, Prof. Solanki has pledged not to go home until 11 years and stay in the solar yatra bus. In the wake of serious and catastrophic climate change, this Energy Swaraj Yatra is designed with the purpose to create a public movement towards adoption of 100% solar energy.
He has been honored with the Brand Ambassador of Solar Energy of Madhya Pradesh Government. Prof. Solanki has also been referred to as “Solar Man of India” by Times of India, The Hindu and India Today.

Some people also call him “Solar Gandhi.” Following Gandhian ideals, he has coined the word ‘Energy Swaraj’ and to establish Energy Swaraj globally he has founded the Energy Swaraj Foundation (ESF).Prof. Solanki has also been referred to as “Solar Man of India” by Times of India, The Hindu and India Today. Some people also call him “Solar Gandhi.” Following Gandhian ideals, he has coined the word ‘Energy Swaraj’ and to establish Energy Swaraj globally he has founded the Energy Swaraj Foundation (ESF). Prof. Solanki has led major solar projects at IIT Bombay. Through his SoULS project he has reached 7.5 million families providing them clean light. There are several awards to his credit, these awards includes IEEE’s global grand prize of US100,000$, Prime Minister’s innovation award for SoULS project, first prize in Solar Chulha Design Challenge by ONGC, three Guinness World Record, two Young Scientist awards, CSIR Science and Technology award, top 15 must follow thought leaders by LinkedIn, ‘Hero of the environment’ by Network18 media, Excellence in RE Skilling, “Outstanding Green Activist” and many more. He has also been invited for talk at global corporations like Google, Intel, and BlackRock.
He is the Chairman of the committee of CBSE and AICTE for solar curriculum development and member of National Focus Group on Environmental Education. Prof. Solanki has written 8 books and published over 100 research papers internationally. He has 4 US patents to his credit. During 2019 Prof. Solanki traveled across the world covering 30 countries to spread the message of solar energy. In his ongoing Energy Swaraj Yatra he has already traveled more than 36,000 kms reaching about 1 lakh 30 thousand people across 17 Indian states. The 11 years yatra is expected to cover travel across
the country 4-5 times. The yatra aims to bring energy literacy to over 100 crore and encourage over 1 crore families to switch 100% on solar energy. Prof. Solanki has described in his book “Energy Swaraj – my Experiments with SOLAR Truth” that adoption of Energy Swaraj or energy independence should become a public movement. His Energy Swaraj Yatra is sowing the seeds for this movement so that we all can create a better and beautiful world.