It can help India and the world to fight the pandemic and later on address the world water crisis spread across the different water-stressed districts, cities and nations says Saravanan Panneer Selvam, General Manager, INDO Region, Grundfos.

How do you see Atmanirbhar Bharat to impact your sector?
The sudden outbreak of Covid-19 or the coronavirus has led to an unimaginable economic, social unrest. This pandemic brought a few barring spots for the manufacturing sector, which further impacted the overall GDP growth. To boost the manufacturing sector during the unprecedented time, Atmanirbhar Bharat launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has showed ample amount of faith and optimism to pump fresh blood in India’s manufacturing sector especially to the struggling MSMEs. This strategy will foster innovation, facilitate investment, enhance skill development and boost employment.

However, it is going to take a while for India’s manufacturing sector to be completely self-reliant and at the same time commercially competitive. This applies not only to the pump industry but also to the entire manufacturing sector. For eg. India is one of the tropical countries and can leverage the solar energy to the best. India wouldn’t be able to fully use its solar power potential unless the country doesn’t develop better (technically and commercially) solar panel, battery and storage manufacturing capacity. 

Do you feel the pandemic will catalyse the R&D for development of newer products for the water and wastewater segment? What properties do you feel will be desired in the newer products?
Research & Development (R&D) is becoming a priority for companies in the water space through the pandemic since a lot of time and resources were available given the lack of too many external activities. The ongoing coronavirus outbreak has also sparked fears of heightened water stress in India, owing to increased use of water during widespread sanitization and disinfection drives. It is critical to adopt innovative technologies which can efficiently conserve water, prevent leakages and enable re-use of water as many times as possible.

As we move ahead, technology will play an important role mainly in the water sector. Intelligent water solutions driven by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) can be used to bridge the water demand and supply gap. Also, AI and IoT can help the authorities to reduce the distribution losses which are a major concern for any municipal corporation. Smart solutions have the potential to solve the current challenges with sustainable products that can efficiently operate the systems, manage information and performance at the same time. 

In the backdrop of this pandemic, what kind of initiatives should the government focus on to ensure water remains potable and uncontaminated for residential and industrial use?
Jal Shakti (water resources) ministry headed by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has set a target of providing piped water to every home at the rate of 55 litres per person per day by 2024. But, Covid-19 has deferred the Jal Shakti ministry’s plans to address water challenges in 256 water-stressed districts. The government should think of subsidies for sustainable water. We, at Grundfos, believe, empowering the water utility segment with innovative technology can help India and the world to fight the pandemic and later on the world water crisis spread across the different water-stressed districts, cities and nations.

Below are some measures which can help us skilfully manage water:
Resident/Domestic
• Raw water consumption – bringing water to life in a financially and environmentally sustainable way
• Drinking water treatment – a fullline supplier of tailored solutions for the entire water treatment and distribution process.
Industries:
• Water distribution – pump, system optimization and pressure control solutions
• Wastewater transport and flood control – risk minimization through the dependable solution is the important criteria in this segment. Reduced downtime is also critical along with energy efficiency.
• Wastewater treatment – product reliability at difficult biological and chemical operational challenges is of high importance along with a sense to identify the quality of water for proper treatment so that the water can be reused multiple times. Low lifecycle costs and hydraulic stability will enhance the usage of such a system in these applications. 

What are some of the products driving growth for your business in the current economic cycle? Looking at the current situation and especially in a market like India, Grundfos India is in a unique position to help improve energy efficiency as well as reducing the carbon footprint. Grundfos iSOLUTIONS brings a new era of intelligence to pump systems and water technology with solutions that look beyond individual components and optimise the entire system. Powered by our deep understanding of water, Grundfos iSOLUTIONS utilises intelligent pumps (pumps with built-in variable speed drives and sensors), cloud connectivity, digital services with remote monitoring options. Together they enable real-time monitoring, remote control, fault prediction and system optimisation to help you reach a new level of performance.