New Delhi: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and India’s The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), announced the formation of “Lighting for All” today, aimed at providing clean, affordable, and reliable lighting solutions for 50 million people across Asia and the Pacific region by 2015.

The “Lighting for All’’ platform is a part of the ADB- supported “Energy for All Partnership,’’ which brings together business, governments, and civil society to rapidly increase access to modern energy among the region’s poor.

For people who have an electricity connection, electric lighting is a basic need. Yet 800 million people in Asia lack access to electricity. ‘Lighting for All’ aims to take off-grid lighting markets to the next step by innovating and transferring effective business models and addressing market barriers.

In his address Dr RK Pachauri, Director General TERI said, “Provision for Energy in households is an essential pre-requisite for promoting human welfare, particularly for those who don’t have a simple light bulb in their houses and use poor quality biomass for cooking. ADB’s program ‘Lighting for All’ is therefore a major step in the right direction.”

The potential market for off-grid lighting is huge, with poor households spending an estimated $38 billion globally on kerosene and other flame-based lighting. Lighting for All will support activities that foster leadership among emerging off-grid lighting pioneers, promote enterprise and skills development, ensure quality, increase access to financing, raise consumer awareness, and encourage policy advocacy, political dialogue, and knowledge sharing. Lighting for All will commence activities in two or three countries in Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, India and/or Bangladesh), expanding to additional countries as the platform develops.

“ADB is proud of partnering with TERI and others in implementing this important program,” said Xianbin Yao, Director General of ADB’s Regional and Sustainable Development Department. “Working together, we look forward to helping to demonstrate the initiative’s value addition, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability for scaling up and replications.”

ADB has invested $1.2 billion since 2008 in a wide range of projects to provide access to electricity and modern fuels and projects that it will invest $250 million in off-grid electricity and lighting in Asia and the Pacific over the next 5 years. All partners across the off-grid lighting value chain are invited to become active contributors to Lighting for All.