Courses & Events
Water Resource Mgmt: A New Bottom-of-the-Pyramid: Value Chain in India
Thursday, Nov 21, 2013
04:15 pm - 05:30 pm
Water Resource Management in India: New Value Chains & Business Opportunities
Ravi Mariwala, Ph.D. Managing Director, Scientific Precision Pvt. Ltd.
Water in India is an enigma. There is plenty available but not used, managed, recycled or discharged with care. A reasonably regular monsoon of four months replenishes the water resources. The growing demand of water from population, agricultural and industrial growth and poor management has made India a water scarce country.
Some facts about water in India:
- Agricultural use dominates water consumption at 83 %. Industrial and domestic sectors subsidize the agricultural sector water consumption.
- No city in India has 24 x 7 water supply. Running water is available to only 46.6% of homes.
- Only 30 % of domestic water supply is treated and discharged including in urban areas.
- More than 600,000 children below 5 years lose their lives every year to water related issues.
- Ground water is depleted at far greater rate than it is being replenished. In essence it is being mined.
- New infrastructure related to water is growing at a dismal rate compared to the need.
- Government is encouraging private sector participation but regulatory frame work and policies are not conducive for rapid growth of water industry.
India as a country India is going through massive cultural and social changes.
- A growing and educated young population, exposed to the world through internet.
- Increasing incomes and aspirations for better life style.
- Migration from rural areas to urban corridors for employment
- Increasing cost of labour in urban and semi‐urban areas
- Deep penetration of mobile telephony across the country
- Reasonable technical skills but basic skills such as electricians, plumbers etc. getting scarce.
The water crisis and sadly inadequate Government regulations and initiatives provide a huge opportunity for value creation and inclusive growth for private sector.
Our company has developed end to end water management solutions to address specific segments of commercial and domestic water markets in rural, semi‐rural and urban areas.
We will present how such innovative solutions with viable business models lead to local supply chains which create the last mile ecosystem. These supply chains effectively uses existing talent, infrastructure and latent manufacturing capacity at an affordable investment to serve the demand in water sector.
An entrepreneur in his own right, Dr. Ravi Mariwala started a business focused on research, analysis and testing of food and water, after having worked in the chemical manufacturing industry for a decade. His company, Scientific Precision Private Limited (SPPL), is a leader in providing sustainable solutions for water testing, sourcing, purification, storage and distribution in semi-rural and rural areas in India, where access to potable water is a huge challenge.
Dr. Mariwala has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and an undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is a Promoter and a Director of the $ 1 billion Marico Group with interest in hair and skin care products, food products and specialty chemicals.
His doctoral research work focused on Carbon Molecular Sieves for gas purification processes. He has several patents in this space. In his early career, he worked with an SBIR company, TDA Research in Wheat Ridge, CO, for developing new materials for the US Government.
Dr. Mariwala is an adjunct professor of chemical engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, where he teaches undergraduate courses on water and chemical plant utilities.
Immediately following the session, we’ll have a short-networking reception from 5:30 – 6:15PM. This is the seventh session in the US-Asia Technology Management Center’s nine week seminar series on “New Value Chains and the Rise of Open Innovation in Asia.”
Presented by the US-Asia Technology Management Center in Stanford’s School of Engineering, with general series support from SunBridge Partners and the Miner Foundation.
