Sharon Chandran

Lighting the Globe: Manoj Bhargava in Conversation with Sheryl WuDunn

Manoj Bhargava, Sheryl WuDunn, Eric Schmidt, John McCutchan, Raymond Santos, Jennifer Doyle, Sharon Chandran

Forbes billionaire and 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Parga has launched "Stage 2," a venture dedicated to deploying low-maintenance, scalable technologies in water, energy, and health for underserved populations. The initiative introduces hardware like the $250 Free Electric bicycle to generate power for livelihoods, the energy-efficient Rainmaker desalination unit, and a medical patch for early disease detection, all designed to replace unreliable solar and complex medical diagnostics in rural areas. Parga explicitly rejects proprietary hoarding by offering to train competitors and sell production lines, prioritizing rapid global adoption of simple, functional engineering over traditional philanthropic overhead.