Driven by supportive government policies, maturing clean technologies and growing investor appetite, India is fast becoming a hub of eco-innovation for all manner of people small town residents, Indian expats returning home with Ivy League education to boot, and even a few enterprising foreigners. Interestingly, this eco-entrepreneurship trend cuts across business models from profit-seeking to pure social evangelismand domains ranging from irrigation and apparel design to waste management.
Enterprises like Rikin Gandhi’s Digital Green, Santosh Ostwal’s Nano Ganesh, T Raghavendra Rao’s Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects and Kranthi Vistakula’s Dhama Apparel Innovation have already hit big time.
Supported more recently by Deshpande Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Delhi-based Digital Green collaborates with local organisations to use videos of best agricultural practices to enhance the environmental and economic sustainability of small and marginal farmers in 200 villages in Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.
Digital Greens CEO Gandhi, an Indian expat from the US , says, “We don’t follow the usual top-down model. Our working model is driven by people and for people.”
The bachelor in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and master in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology is now planning to cover 1,200 villages in another two years and also to reach out to the bottom-of-the-pyramid population in Africa In contrast to Gandhis eco-services, Santosh Ostwal, CEO of Pune-based Ossian Agro Automation, has come up with a basic product, Nano Ganesh. A mobile phone and a modem combination, Nano Ganesh enables farmers to remotely control water pumps in faraway farms, leading to better farm management practices, including saving electricity and water.
Nano Ganesh has already become popular in states ranging from Maharashtra and Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Ostwal says, “Apart from aiming to cater to a larger market in India, we have a potentially big global market. Our product is useful wherever water pumps are used.”
Waste technology is another favourite with entrepreneurs. Mumbai-based Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects (STEPS) focuses on developing environment-friendly technologies to convert waste into value-added products. T Raghavendra Rao says, “We are focused on turning waste into wealth. STEPS has developed seven technologies, including five technologies, which have been commercialised.”
Going beyond obvious utilitarian products and services, Ahmedabad-based Dhama Apparel Innovation is a next-gen functional apparel firm that makes battery-powered apparel and accessories based on proprietary climate control technology for heating or cooling solutions for wearers.
Such products are particularly useful for military personnel, outdoor workers and sports enthusiasts, who are exposed to extreme weather conditions. Vistakula, a biomedical engineer from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad and master in mechanical engineering from MIT, says, “Dhama’s potential clientele includes army personnel from India to the US.”
Besides, the technology could be a precursor to developing localised climate control solutions, doing away with the need to control temperature of larger spaces. Dhamas recent investors include Reliance Technology Ventures and Mumbai Angels, which focuses on early stage companies.
Its not only charged up Indians, but even foreigners are making India their base, particularly in renewables. Bangalore-headquartered Duron Energy, a solar power systems maker, was set up by John Howard and James Burgess. While Howard, a former systems engineer at NASA, studied mechanical engineering and economics at Caltech and Cambridge, Burgess is a mechanical and electrical engineer from Caltech. Noida-based D Light Design, which sells solar and LED technology lighting solutions, has been established by Sam Goldman, an MBA from Stanford. Its investors include Nexus Venture Partners, Acumen Fund and Gray Matters Capital
The trend is becoming pronounced even in smaller cities. For example, while Trichy-based clean technology equipment manufacturer Pure Tech India, led by Aravind Narayan, has come up with an oil recovery solution, IIT-Kharagpur postgraduate student Manoj Kumar Mandelia has discovered a process for wastewater management to produce electricity. The list is getting longer by the day and more and more eco-innovators are getting set to join the ranks of successful eco-entrepreneurs like Gyanesh Pandey and Manoj Sinha of Husk Power Systems and Harish Hande of SELCO India.
Portraying the trend in a broader perspective, Pankaj Sehgal, managing director, SUN Group, a private equity fund, says, “The entrepreneurial interest in the environment and clean energy space has been catalysed by increasing energy costs, widening energy-deficit and growing awareness about the effects of climate change.”
Sandeep Singhal, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners, adds that the entrepreneurial excitement in the environment space is due to potential market growth caused by two types of demand drivers. The first is subsidy and mandate- based market growth largely driven by government programmes to position India as a leader in the Go Green movement. The second is fundamental economic value being provided to the customer through products like solar LED lanterns and water purifiers. He says, “The key is for entrepreneurs to carefully define their market position and a differentiated value proposition and ensure they have the right team to execute on their plans.”
Source: The Financial Express
Published on 23 April 2010