India’s Radio City is campaigning to light up an entire village in Uttar Pradesh, too poor and remote to be connected to the power grid.

The station has launched Deep Jyoti, a crowd-funding initiative to help bring power to Sarmanpur, in the Etah district of Uttar Pradesh.

Through its web portal PlanetRadiocity.com, listeners all over the world are being encouraged to make donations.

Radio City fans can sponsor solar ‘tiles’ on the village’s roof.

In return, their name will appear on the project’s foundation.

A special microsite   has been created and will stay live until early January.

The station has partnered with Sunkalp Energy, which has already electrified another village using a solar powered mini-grid.

Radio City hopes to raise more than 300,000 rupees through the campaign.

Rachna Kanwar, SVP & Business Head, Digital Media & New Business at Radio City 91.1 FM, said: “This crowd funding initiative offers us an opportunity to create a positive impact in the society whilst building a platform of sustainable growth.  We hope to leverage the huge reach and fan-base we have in the web radio space & make the project a success.”

Kanika Khanna, founder of Sunkalp Energy said: “There are still close to a hundred thousand villages in India with power, the majority of them in Uttar Pradesh. Project Sarmanpur marks a milestone in our endeavour to electrify 200 villages. PlanetRadiocity provides the perfect amplification for this initiative.”

“The roof-top micro-grid will provide proper electricity connections in to each household in the village. Harnessing solar energy for sustainable development is one of the major priorities for rural development the world over. We are very happy to have an effective platform like PlanetRadiocity for this important initiative.’’