Former US President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative to improve lives of the world's 200 million poor has drawn nearly 1000 commitments from around the globe, including one from Nobel Peace Prize winner RK Pachauri.
Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate which shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore in 2007, Pachauri has committed to "bring light to one million people in India by replacing kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar power lighting devices."
His non profit organisation, Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), has so far distributed 30,000 solar powered lanterns in 300 villages of India, where more than 78 million households or roughly 390 million people lack access to electricity.
Besides enabling students across rural India to study without being exposed to harmful fumes of kerosene, the solar lanterns do not give out greenhouse gases and recurring expense on them is minimal.
Meanwhile, Visa Inc has resolved to reach at least 10 million people with financial literacy services around the world, as part of its commitment.
Speaking at the mid-year review of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on Friday, the former President said his venture which was launched in 2005 now included 82 former and current heads of State and 325 CEOs of major corporations.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking at the mid-year review of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) on Friday, the former President said his venture which was launched in 2005 now included 82 former and current heads of State and 325 CEOs of major corporations.
{{/usCountry}}"More than 200 million lives will be directly impacted by the nearly 1,000 commitments that have been made by CGI's diverse and non-partisan membership, which includes a third of the world's heads of state, along with business leaders, NGOs, academics and other top thinkers," said Clinton.