A small village in southern Chhattisgarh just turned every light on — without drawing a single watt from the grid. Khaira village in Rajnandgaon district has been declared India's first 100% solar-powered village under the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, the Chief Minister's Office of Chhattisgarh announced on Monday, November 2, 2026.

What PM Surya Ghar Promised — and What Khaira Delivered

Launched nationwide by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February 2024, the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana offers households subsidies to install rooftop solar panels, with the promise of up to 300 units of free electricity per month. The scheme was designed to cut rural dependence on the grid and bring clean, reliable power to homes that had long dealt with erratic supply.

Khaira's designation as a fully solar village represents the scheme's most concentrated success story so far — every household in the village now generating its own power from the sun. The CMO called it 'a shining example of clean energy and sustainable development,' crediting the initiative with 'empowering households with solar power and advancing the vision of a sustainable and energy-secure India.'

Rajnandgaon's Place in Chhattisgarh's Solar Push

Rajnandgaon district, situated in the southern belt of the state, has become the focal point of Chhattisgarh's alignment with India's broader renewable energy ambitions. The state government under Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai — who took office in December 2023 — has positioned village-level solar saturation as a flagship outcome of its governance agenda, hashtagged under #Sushasansarkar ('good governance government').

India has committed to reaching 500 GW of non-fossil fuel energy capacity by 2030. Rooftop solar in rural villages is one of the faster, cheaper levers available — no transmission infrastructure required, no waiting for a new power plant. Khaira is the proof-of-concept that the model can reach 100%.

Why a Single Village's Achievement Echoes Nationally

The significance here is less about scale and entirely about precedent. One fully solar village validates the playbook for replication. If the subsidy mechanism, the installation logistics, and the community uptake all worked in Khaira, the template is available to every state with a rooftop solar push underway.

The benchmark — India's first 100% solar village under this specific central scheme — gives other states a concrete target to chase. Expect Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat, all high-solar-irradiance states, to respond with their own candidate villages.

For a country racing toward a clean-energy deadline, Khaira just proved the last mile is reachable.