Two tiny coastal Karnataka villages just pulled off something most cities still can't.
They out-solared everyone around them.
☀️ And now they're walking away with ₹1 crore each.
Meet the winners:
Both picked as Model Solar Villages under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana.
This wasn't a lucky draw.
It was a quiet, six-month sprint on rooftops.
District committees shortlisted contenders:
The rule was simple but brutal.
Whoever had the highest installed solar capacity by December 31, 2025, takes the crown.
Puttige topped its list.
Kotathattu topped its own.
Game over.
This isn't pocket money for a ribbon-cutting.
The scheme has a national kitty of ₹800 crore, with the ambition of seeding one Model Solar Village in every district of India.
Each winning village gets ₹1 crore from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to:
Think of it as a village-scale flex.
"We did it. Now you copy us."
India's solar story is usually told through giant numbers.
Gigawatts. Mega-parks. Adani. Tata. Desert installations.
But the Surya Ghar scheme flips the script.
It bets on rooftops, not megaprojects.
On villages, not corporations.
On households generating their own power — and even selling the extra back.
The goal: 1 crore Indian homes running on sunlight, getting up to 300 free units a month.
Puttige and Kotathattu won't make national TV.
But they just became case studies.
Proof that a panchayat, a pile of panels, and a clear deadline can outpace fancy climate pledges.
The selection was sealed at a Feb 19 meeting chaired by the Regional Commissioner of Mysuru division.
The cheques are coming. The panels are already up.
Somewhere in coastal Karnataka, two villages just quietly redrew what a model Indian village looks like in 2026.
And the rest of the country now has a number to beat.
That's all for now!
