Transitioning to Modern Energy for Cooking: Supply Chain for Clean Cooking

We are delighted to invite you to the 11th session of “The Talk Series – Phase II on Transitioning to Modern Energy for Cooking:  Supply Chain for Clean Cooking”, on a virtual platform. The session would be conducted virtually and is being organized by the Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Programme, through its In-country partner - India, Finovista with an aim to identify, discuss and explore avenues to address the specific challenges in the global clean cooking sector.

About the 11th Talk Session

In India, rural and peri-urban households predominantly use biomass/firewood for cooking even when they have access to cleaner cooking technologies such as LPG, electric cookstoves, and biogas. This is mostly due to the supply chain and affordability challenges. For electric, solar, and other Modern Energy based cooking solutions, the Supply chain is at a nascent stage, with Tier 1 and Tier 2, cities having benefitted mostly from the existing distributor and retailer networks and now online platforms. In rural and peri-urban areas establishing reliable access and leveraging the network of the existing Neighbourhood stores is still far fletched. Considerable progress needs to be made in enabling an effective supply chain, with setting up retailers, innovative low-cost last-mile delivery channels and local capacity building for after-sales service. This may require collaboration between various stakeholders, including suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and service providers. In this session, we would focus on the Down Stream supply chain of clean cooking technologies and solutions, from factory to consumer, key players engaged, challenges, what needs to change, scope of innovation to reduce cost and time and make supply chains resilient to enable the transition to Modern Energy based Clean Cooking.  

About MECS Programme & Talk Series

MECS Programme is a UK Aid (FCDO) funded global research programme led by Loughborough University and the World Bank’s Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). By integrating modern energy cooking services into the planning for electricity access, quality, reliability, and sustainability, MECS hopes to leverage investment in renewable energies (both grid and off-grid) to address the clean cooking challenge. MECS is implementing a strategy focused on including the cooking needs of households in the investment and action on ‘access to affordable, reliable, sustainable modern energy for all’. Globally, MECS is now well established as a prominent programme in the clean cooking domain and has also become a strong and active player in India. The programme is also supporting India to emerge as a Global Hub for manufacturing clean cooking devices for domestic and international markets, aligned to the Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make in India mission while focusing on the shift to modern energy cooking within India which is also one of the objectives of the Go-Electric campaign launched by the Government of India.

The Talk Series has evolved into a crucial platform for promoting the adoption of modern energy for cooking. It has successfully united stakeholders from the clean cooking domain and related sectors to engage in discussions surrounding the challenges, opportunities, and essential elements of the Modern Energy-based Clean Cooking Sector. The Talk series is thoughtfully structured in phases, with each phase consisting of 12 sessions. The 1st Phase has been successfully concluded with 12 sessions. Now we are on the 11th session of Phase II.