The Gram Vikash (GV) program aimed at developing a livelihood model that would promote rural entrepreneurship and could be replicated in other renewable energy interventions.

Under a contract with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), WII carried out a documentation and evaluation study of the biogas program of this Orissa-based NGO.
Project activities were to:

• Identify factors that have led to the success of the biogas intervention of GV and contributed to the development of a large group of rural entrepreneurs
• Examine the role and motives of GV that have led to institutional transformation in biogas program
• Examine the sustainability of the entrepreneurial activity in the context of overall rural development

Through their biogas program, GV has helped to demystify the biogas technology and create and promote a team of "barefoot engineers" as rural entrepreneurs in the renewable energy development sector in Orissa.