#NDTVProfitAtWEF | #HCLTech's Roshni Nadar Malhotra wants to unlock 'aquapreneurs'
Watch her discuss this and more in conversation with Niraj Shah on the sidelines of #Davos2024. #WEF
Read: https://bit.ly/3S0aYFW
Watch her discuss this and more in conversation with Niraj Shah on the sidelines of #Davos2024. #WEF
Read: https://bit.ly/3S0aYFW
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TVTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - Well, we are right outside the Ideas Hub
00:14 at the World Economic Forum, Davos Congress Center,
00:17 wherein I attended a close to 30 minute
00:20 eye-opening, mind-opening session on aquapreneurs.
00:24 Now, if you thought that term was slightly different,
00:26 because I heard it for the first time,
00:28 let me get in Roshni Nath and Malhotra
00:29 to talk about this.
00:30 Roshni, thanks for being with us here.
00:32 - Thank you.
00:33 - And thanks for that amazing session.
00:34 What are you guys up to out there?
00:35 - So, we've decided to unlock the aquapreneurs
00:40 all over the world.
00:41 So, these are entrepreneurs working
00:43 in freshwater innovation and solutions
00:46 with businesses from all over the world
00:49 and provide them with a platform here
00:52 at the World Economic Forum.
00:53 A year ago, we partnered with Uplink here
00:58 and we were thinking that no one's really looking
01:01 at freshwater innovation.
01:03 I think a lot of people are talking about,
01:05 of course, green energy is hot.
01:08 I think anything to do with carbon is hot,
01:11 but anything to do with water
01:13 is still not getting the due attention.
01:16 So, we launched a 15 million fund here
01:21 over the next five years,
01:23 and each year we will be finding 10 aquapreneurs
01:27 from different parts of the world
01:29 who have innovative, ready-to-scale solutions
01:34 in freshwater.
01:35 So, last year we announced the first 10 aquapreneurs.
01:39 So, the initiative is called
01:41 the Aquapreneurs Innovation Initiative,
01:43 and we had two from South America,
01:45 two from North America, two from India,
01:47 two from Africa, I think one from Europe
01:49 and one from Southeast Asia.
01:51 We launched and announced the recipients
01:55 of the second cohort now.
01:56 So, in five years we'll have 50 aquapreneurs
01:59 and our first cohort,
02:02 we started with a fund of three million for last year,
02:06 but those aquapreneurs have already unlocked
02:09 about 50 million of funding over just one year.
02:13 So, I think it's about supporting people
02:16 in freshwater innovation.
02:18 Water is the essence of life, I think we know that,
02:21 and how do they scale?
02:23 - How does something like this scale,
02:25 let's say for a country like India,
02:27 I'm trying to take India as a case example
02:29 because I saw the quantum of water discharge
02:32 in one of the presentations in India is pretty high as well,
02:35 which is not retreated or what have you.
02:36 So, how does something like this scale up
02:39 to be useful at a mass scale to a country like India?
02:43 - So, for example, if I take the case of Fluid Analytics,
02:48 who we've awarded this year,
02:50 and a lot of their work is using IoT and robotics
02:54 on measuring the data around urban water pollution.
02:59 And they're able to not only measure the urban water,
03:04 but also then, let's say, extrapolate how much of it
03:07 could be, let's say, contaminated,
03:09 connected to hepatitis,
03:11 hepatitis, and how that can affect vector-borne diseases
03:17 in and around a community.
03:20 So, again, I think that once you put numbers
03:22 and data to a lot of this solution,
03:25 then they are able to either sell it to,
03:27 for example, urban planning.
03:30 The big four consulting firms who are working
03:35 with governments and public infrastructure
03:37 on urban planning.
03:38 So, I think that what the Aquaprenures is also helping us do,
03:43 which I mentioned before, is getting these Aquaprenures,
03:46 like in India, for example, like Fluid Analytics,
03:50 connected to the buyer.
03:51 And who is the buyer?
03:52 And I think even the founder, Aseem, mentioned that
03:56 when it's B2C, it's sometimes very difficult
04:00 to convince people of water.
04:02 Because it's a very--
04:04 >> Taken for granted.
04:05 >> Taken for granted, also very abstract subject.
04:08 But I think that if you can bring in a B2B kind of ecosystem,
04:12 it becomes much easier for them.
04:14 So, we're hoping that HCL, along with WEF,
04:20 can provide them with that sort of validation
04:23 and credibility for the marketplace.
04:25 >> Yeah, most of them.
04:26 And just one last question here would be,
04:29 how, I know this is pro bono,
04:32 and this is not from a perspective of capitalism,
04:35 but what kind of scale do you anticipate
04:38 a program like this would have?
04:39 Because, I mean, everybody talks about
04:41 how the next 25 years,
04:42 the world will see freshwater challenge.
04:43 So, all that you're doing is very vital,
04:46 not for India, for the world as well,
04:47 but what kind of scale can something like this get?
04:49 And what role could HCL play out there
04:52 in getting a program like this to get scale?
04:54 >> So, for example, the other recipient
04:57 who we heard from, Field Factors,
05:00 now if you look at her scale,
05:01 just in the Netherlands, where she's piloted,
05:06 it's 1.5 billion liters of water,
05:08 which is converted into circular aquifers.
05:12 Convert that to, let's say, India,
05:14 where we have more than a billion people,
05:16 and look at the size of our cities.
05:18 And if we look at rain,
05:20 we look at urban flooding and some of these.
05:22 I mean, can you imagine if we can actually
05:24 create circular aquifers under our own cities
05:27 that can service us?
05:28 I mean, you're talking about multiple billions
05:31 of liters of water which can be used.
05:34 And some of our new infrastructure development,
05:36 if you look in some of the big cities like Delhi,
05:39 as well as Bangalore,
05:40 I think some of those are already thinking
05:43 about that development when they develop
05:45 these big societies that you and I live in.
05:47 So I think that because we're a country
05:50 which is developing, it's going to be much easier
05:53 for us to scale because we're still in the thought process.
05:57 Whereas there are some economies all over the world
06:00 and countries which are already developed.
06:01 So they have a lot of undoing to do
06:03 before they can redo.
06:05 So I think that there's huge potential.
06:07 And I mean, for HCL, just the fact that we're Indian,
06:11 and India is centered to our strategy,
06:16 I think that we can really help them provide a platform.
06:20 - Okay, I would love to, at the end of the year,
06:22 calendar year 24 sometime,
06:24 to talk to a women leader like you
06:26 who's doing such a wide array of pro bono work,
06:29 but just something that you would leave us with,
06:32 which you are looking forward to
06:34 over the course of the next 12 months,
06:36 on this angle, which maybe we can talk about
06:40 in the month of December over a slightly longer format.
06:42 - Sure.
06:43 - So what is it that you're looking forward to
06:44 before we add this up?
06:46 - Well, I think that the HCL has committed 15 million
06:49 at the WEF for uplink over the next five years.
06:52 I'd love to have more partners from India on board.
06:55 - How do people do that?
06:56 - Fresh water.
06:57 I think awareness, maybe.
07:01 - Okay, great.
07:02 Roshini, thank you so much for talking to us.
07:03 Much appreciated and keep up the great work.
07:05 - Thank you so much.
07:06 - And viewers, thanks for tuning in.
07:07 (dramatic music)
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