Share to lead the transformation

In Focus

Rajeev Papneja, Chief Growth Officer

ESDS Software Solution

With cloud at the foundation, AI is the de facto emerging tech.

With the COVID-19 pandemic continue to govern the global economic situation and forcing businesses to adopt digital ways to achieve greater resilience, enterprises are swiftly moving to cloud services, resulting in a stratospheric demand for data center space.

In a recent interaction with Jatinder Singh of Better World, Rajeev Papneja, Chief Growth Officer of ESDS Software Solution, a Nashik-based managed service provider and data center company, outlines the latest data center trends, the company’s focus areas, and new opportunities presented by digital transformation acceleration.

Excerpts of the interview:

Better World: The last twelve months of enforced shutdowns and social distancing measures have silenced digital transformation critics. With a few exceptions, digital transformation is the only way for most businesses to get successful.  In this context, what are the new opportunities that you see in this digital-only environment?

Rajeev Papneja: ESDS is a cloud company, which is now evolving into a digital transformation catalyst. When we say digital transformation, what is happening is that it is no more just a cloud. Cloud is just one essential part of digital transformation. The emerging technologies at the top (such as artificial intelligence) and new business models create a new business way in these challenging times.

During the pandemic, we saw that people want to work more with Indian companies. There is a change in mindset, mainly because India could better navigate the crisis than many countries. Many Indian companies were dependent upon Europe for their data centers and China for manufacturing. As the COVID-19 situation worsened, they witnessed massive upheaval in their supply chains.  When the supply chain got troubled, they realized it is better to work with Indian companies because, from a supply chain standpoint, our country is better shaped now as the government started promoting indigenous manufacturing setups.

While COVID-19 presented numerous challenges for organizations of all scales, they also unboxed an era of new opportunities for many new-age thinking companies willing to experiment and refresh themselves to meet new-age consumer demands.

Many startups are emerging, and customers are now willing to work with them because of this mindset shift. SaaS and IaaS are picking big time, and many of the companies are moving to the cloud for the first time to support their growing digital businesses. This has created new opportunities for us.

Like many other modern companies, ESDS has transformed itself to meet the new-age demands and help its customers win in these challenging times.

Today, we have more than 35 to 40 software offerings for our customers in different sectors. They will keep on growing as we are seeing more demand for SaaS now. Of course, the Infrastructure will keep growing because people have realized that all these big companies who have their own data centers went into so much trouble during the lockdown. People are not going to the offices, data centers and need to adhere to the social distancing guidelines for an indefinite period.  This has made enterprises realize that it is better to be with commercial data centers in India.

Better World: How do you see the role of AI and machine learning evolving in smartening up data centers?

Rajeev Papneja: Artificial intelligence is becoming the de facto emerging technology while cloud computing forms the basis. If you look at machine learning, artificial intelligence, blockchain, and quantum computing, you will see that they are powered by cloud technology. So, fortunately, we were in that space, and our foundation has been solid. At present, the enterprise ecosystem is moving into a very different environment, where a standalone data center cannot provide everything. So, for example, you might want to have, let’s say, vertical auto-scaling for a specific workload and Microsoft 365 for your productivity needs. That is not something that we offer directly. So, you are directly or indirectly working with multiple technology partners for their unique offerings. Similarly, for specific workloads, we are working with Google Cloud or Amazon cloud. 

Rajeev Papneja, Chief Growth Officer, ESDS Software Solution

Rajeev brings to the table vision, purpose, relentless passion for technology, and life of spirituality. He has over 24 years of extensive technology, systems, and software experience on an international scale, including more than a decade of senior management experience in the United States.

He has worked as a senior consultant at major corporations like United Parcel Services, Ernst & Young, Dun & Bradstreet, to name a few, before becoming an entrepreneur.

His longest tenure was with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, the largest drug manufacturer in the world with its current headquarters in New York, where he spent more than eight years providing enterprise class technology solutions and setting up financial processes.

Awards

  • GEM of India
  • Bharat Gaurav
  • Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Excellence Award

Education

  • Doctorate in Business Administration, Frederick Taylor International University, Arizona, USA, 2001 – 2004
  • Masters in Computer Science, KTHM College, Nashik, 1994-96

So, we have entered a different era, where you will see that it will not be about just working with one data center.

Artificial intelligence or machine learning, or all these newer technologies, have forced themselves into the system of any enterprise ecosystem that you look at today. The only way for enterprises to survive today is by transforming their business models, understanding their customers’ needs, and providing exceptional experiences. These technologies are enabling enterprises to make that change.

As we advance and AI and ML, robotics will play a crucial role because of companies’ continuous pressure to strengthen processes and deliver exceptional customer experiences.

Better World: Who are your major clients in India?

Rajeev Papneja: Today, ESDS is serving more than 225 governmental PSU customers, the most significant initiatives of the prime minister, and our governments, for example, the Ministry of road transport, right. All the tools we are paying for today across the new range are different from our data center. If we talk about the world’s largest smart meter project, Energy Efficiency Services Limited is replacing 250 million smart meters, all running from our data center.

The banking sector is a big focus area for us. We are working with over 400 banks, many of which are small cooperative banks. We are constantly launching new SaaS and PaaS offerings for government and banking clients. We are integrating technologies such as AI and ML in our data center offerings. None of our customer’s security is ever compromised.

Better World: That’s an exciting statement from you that none of your customers, especially in banking, have ever witnessed a data security breach. How have you been able to secure your customer’s sensitive data consistently?

Rajeev Papneja: Most of the time, you see the security compromises happening in banks. They are on-premise databases. We need to understand security because it is challenging to attack something you don’t know. And that is what cloud technology gives you. You don’t know where your data when you don’t know where your information is; how will you attack something?

Second, the most significant vulnerability today is an insider threat. Most of the threats you would have seen, or the data leaks that have happened are their sheer size.  For us, it is only zero and one. We don’t know what is there. It doesn’t make sense to us.

All these big government customers are utilizing our security operation center (SoC) as a service (SoC), all the cooperative banks are using our SoC as a service. We also have our tools that are used by many of the nationalized banks. For example, our VTMScan tool, which is a complete web scanning tool. It scans all forms of online threats and vulnerabilities.

With ransomware attacks happening with zero-day attacks happening, we use advanced AI-ML based science to deliver actionable intelligence to ensure speedy mitigation for security incidents. Another offering is eNlight WAF, a specially engineered intelligent cloud hosted web application firewall helping businesses filter incoming and outgoing internet traffic and block threats such as injection, cross site scripting and other attacks.

We’ve also launched SPOCHUB, which is a plug-and-play platform providing industry-specific offerings On Click. It enables the ISVs to display their offerings across the Globe with an “Omni Channel Proposition.”

Overall, we’ve at least 10 to 12 integrated tools that are combined. And of course, human intelligence, as I saw, is how we run our security operations. All the services offered within SoC are a service and subscription-based model. They follow an OPEX model rather than CAPEX by cutting down unsolicited costs.

Better World: Which are some of the most significant trends that you foresee, both from a data center perspective and an overall technology perspective, in the post-Covid environment?

Rajeev Papneja: One thing is for sure that people have embraced the cloud entirely. As we progress, software as a service is going to be very, very big. Going by the various market reports, in the next four years, the market for Infrastructure as a service will be $5 billion.

The market for multi-cloud management services is $10 billion. This, this is I’m only talking about India. If you look at security services, that is also around $2 to $3 billion. The digital transformation industry itself is $700 billion. It encompasses all the different applications that will help these industries evolve their business models to make their processes better, such as collaboration tools. We are currently seeing that people immediately flocked to VDI technologies, to web VPN, to CRM applications to Enterprise Resource Planning, and collaboration tools in digital transformation. These are widely accepted. And people have started moving to the cloud. As we advance, you will see that people will start exploring how we can make our business models, something like, you know, they call it everything as a service takes a so I’ll give you a small example, that there is this company, right? It’s from it’s changing the mindset from selling a product to selling a service.

Whatever mindset or analytics on historical data you could do before COVID does not work in the post COVID era. It has an entirely different perspective. But the good news is, all businesses have the same starting point today. No matter where they were in their journey, they are forced to have an identical starting point. Now whoever takes benefit of this digital transformation they are going to be successful.

Better World: What are your outside India expansion plans for 2021 and beyond?

Rajeev Papneja: Right now, we are already present in the UK. We have two web hosting companies in the UK. We are serving more than 20,000 web hosting customers in the UK. We have a small presence in the US which we never focused on earlier. We will be focusing on the US, also started in the Middle East. We have an office in Dubai we have in Bahrain. We are working on specific opportunities in Bahrain, Dubai, Oman, Egypt, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Utopia. So, there are around 17 countries that we are focusing on. We have already built a data center for unique customer needs. So, what we are seeing is that you know, these countries are where India used to be eight years back. So, for example, if you look at Dubai, they have just started their cloud journey.

Still, companies prefer to use on-premise IT infrastructure. Now, we want to leverage our expertise, whatever we have done in the last eight years for India. We want to make sure that these upcoming countries starting with technology can feel empowered with our unique offerings and technology.

MORE FROM BETTER WORLD

India to keep leading Sustainable Energy Agenda

India to keep leading Sustainable Energy Agenda

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dhamendra Pradhan has said that India will continue to lead the global sustainable energy agenda. Delivering the key note address at the TERI’s World Sustainable Development Summit 2020 on ‘Energy Future Road Map’ here today, the Minister said “We, in India, are in the midst of a major transformative shift in our energy sector, both in scale and complexity and also the interdependence across different systems. The trajectory to end energy poverty in India, as compared to the rest of the world, is based on our special national circumstances. The right mix of enablers are being put in place to ensure that the energy transition is secure, affordable, reliable and sustainable.” He added, “to end energy poverty in the country, we will remain cognizant of the need to root economic development firmly to achieve the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals and commitments made at COP 21.”

Briefing about energy requirements, the Minister said “India is now the third largest energy consumer after the US and China. While our energy demand increased to 882 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 2017, the per capita consumption of energy is still 30% of the global average. Our energy consumption is projected to grow at 4.2 percent per annum up to 2035. India’s share of the total global primary energy demand is set to roughly double to about 11 percent by 2040, driven by strong economic development. In India, we are finding ways to achieve the twin objectives of more energy availability and less carbon through a healthy mix of all commercially-viable energy sources.”

Pradhan added that despite our system-wide energy transition measures, crude oil would continue to play a critical role at this stage of development in meeting country’s energy requirements. He said the Government has set out a road map for reducing India’s crude oil imports by 10% by 2022. “We are in the process of developing new strategies and initiatives to achieve this target. We are working towards transformation to a gas-based economy, tapping into indigenously produced biofuels, apart from adopting renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, to achieve the much-needed carbon reductions. As part of the energy transition, decarbonization of the energy sector is picking up momentum in India” Pradhan said. The Minister also stated that government is working to improve energy efficiency and productivity, demand substitution, improving refinery processes and promotion of bio and alternate fuels.

Dharmendra Pradhan also said “the biggest game-changer in our drive to bring about greater environmental sustainability and flexibility in the energy system is through the rapid deployment of natural gas in our energy mix”. He also added “we are advancing our collaboration with countries, such as Brazil and the US, to improve blending technologies in transport sector. To reduce vehicular pollution, BS VI quality fuel, equivalent to Euro 6 standard, will be supplied in the entire country from 1 April this year. Given the abundance of biomass in the country, the use of Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) will be promoted in a big way in automotive, industrial and commercial uses in the coming years.”

The Minister further said that in the global drive to secure sustainable energy, India is defining new pathways keeping in view its unique energy needs. “India will continue to play an active role in leading the global sustainable energy agenda. Our commitment to keep carbon footprint to low levels remains unwavered as we pursue to enhance energy footprint in the country” He added.

On the occasion, Dharmendra Pradhan also released a report ‘Towards a low carbon steel sector’ – Overview of the changing market, technology and policy context for Indian steel.

PM says Jal-Shakti is taking rapid strides

PM says Jal-Shakti is taking rapid strides

In Mann Ki Baat today Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Jal Shakti Campaign is taking rapid, successful strides with the aid of public participation. He shared few extensive and innovative water conservation efforts under way, in every corner of the country.

Mentioning about Jalore district in Rajasthan he said, “There, two historical step wells had turned into storehouses of garbage & dirty water. But one fine day, hundreds of people from Bhadraayun & Thanawala Panchayats took a resolve to rejuvenate them, under the Jal Shakti Campaign. Much before the rains, people immersed themselves in the task of cleaning out the accumulated filthy water, garbage and morass. For this campaign, some donated money; others their labour & sweat. As a result, these step wells have turned into their lifelines now.”

 

Similarly, Saraahi Lake in Barabanki Uttar Pradesh, was brought to life by the collective efforts of Villagers. Another example of Public participation is Village Suniyakot along the Almora-Haldwani Highway in Uttarakhand. Here villagers took it upon themselves to ensure that water reached their village. People raised money, donated labor. A pipe was laid up to the village and a pumping station was set up. Thus decade old problem of water crisis was solved.

Prime Minister urged everyone to share their stories of such endeavors of water conservation and water harvesting by using #Jalshakti4India.

Jal Shakti Abhiyan—a campaign for water conservation and water security commenced last monsoon in July, 2019. The campaign focused on water stressed districts and blocks.

IEA review of India’s energy policies is out

IEA review of India’s energy policies is out

In-depth Review of India’s Energy Policies report by International Energy Agency (IEA) was launched in New Delhi today by Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of State (I/C) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, Niti Aayog, Ambassadors, Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency, and Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog.

Thanking Dr. Fatih Birol and his IEA team for coming up with a comprehensive Report covering India’s energy sector in its entirety, Pradhan said that IEA’s findings are a vindication of the significant advances made in realizing the energy vision enunciated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, anchored by Energy Access, Energy Efficiency, Energy Sustainability and Energy Security, with Energy Justice at its core.

Pradhan said that India is now the third largest energy consumer in the world. India is in the midst of a major transformative shift in its energy sector. The energy polices already put in place by the Government and also those on the anvil, clearly demonstrate our determination to embrace this energy transition in a sustainable and responsible manner.

Pradhan said India is now the third largest energy consumer in the world. Pix: PIB

The Minister said that a number of path breaking initiatives launched by Indian Government since 2015, have redefined India’s commitment to sustainable energy. “Our key challenge as a developing country, with per capita energy consumption below the global average, is to meet the growing demand for energy. India made great strides in recent years towards achieving universal access to modern energy, including clean cooking and electricity, affordable, secure and cleaner energy for its people. The Report captures well the progress made in achieving sustainable energy for all, as reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7). It does also highlight the persisting challenges to be focused in the coming days,” he added.

Talking about the Ujjwala Yojana, Pradhan said that the remotest corners of India have been touched for cleaner fuel access under it. “We are also sharing our experience with our friends in Africa and Asia to enable them to benefit from the best practices in promotion of LPG. I do recognize that we have more ground to cover and also to ensure that the initiatives are implemented for achieving universal coverage in the country,” the Minister said.

Pradhan said that India’s transformation to a gas-based economy and developing indigenously produced biofuels, apart from renewable energy and energy efficiency measures, can potentially achieve the much-needed carbon reductions. As part of the energy transition, decarbonisation of the energy sector is picking up momentum in India. “Given India’s development imperative, our thrust is on building oil and gas infrastructure to ensure access to affordable energy to all our citizens. The report notes that India is moving towards a gas-based economy,” he said.

Pradhan said that an estimated investment of 100 billion dollar in oil and gas infrastructure has been lined up. The gas pipeline network will soon be covering the length and breadth of the country; from Kutch in Western India to Kohima in the East, and from Kashmir in the North to Kanyakumari in the South. “In yet another important decision, our Government has approved viability Gap Funding/ Capital Grant at 60 percent of the estimated cost of Rs 9265 crore for the North East gas grid project to develop gas pipeline grid of 1656 Km in the eight States of the North-eastern region,” he said.

The Minister said that We are aggressively working to build City Gas Distribution Network covering more than 400 districts of India. This network will serve 72% of India’s population with cleaner and affordable gas over more than 50 % of India’s geography. Talking about the proposed Workshop on Natural Gas on 23 January in New Delhi, he said that it will bring together for the first time all relevant stakeholders under one roof. “I am confident that these initiatives in the gas sector would bring about a transformative change in India’s energy landscape,” Pradhan said.

The Minister said that the Report acknowledges Government’s efforts in making energy security as a prime policy priority, and recognizes the efficiency achieved due to Government’s relentless march in undertaking tectonic reforms in the energy sector and continued pursuit of market-based solutions. He said “We have taken note of IEA’s recommendation for reinforcement of India’s oil emergency response policy. Enhancing international engagement on global oil security issues is already an active goal being pursued by my Ministry. Energy has become an essential commodity in our bilateral trade engagements with several key trading partners and in positioning India as an important strategic player in global energy landscape.”

Talking about the diversification of oil sources and development of alternate resources of energy as such bio-fuel, he said that these are being undertaken on an accelerated mode. “We are on the way to achieve 20% ethanol blending in petrol and 5% bio-diesel in diesel by 2030. Indeed, to promote energy sustainability, our new National Biofuel policy focuses on waste-to-wealth creation and targets to generate various types of bio-fuels from agriculture residue and municipal waste,” Pradhan said.

Expressing deep concerned about the crude oil price volatility, the Minister said that today, we are meeting in the backdrop of rising tensions in the Middle East and its impact on stability and security in the region.

He said “We have taken several measures to ensure investor friendly environment. IEA has noted that during the period 2015 to 2018, investments in the energy sector in India recorded the second highest growth in the world. We are happy that global oil and gas majors like Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, BP, Shell, Total, Roseneft and ExxonMobil are making their significant presence in India.”

News source: PIB. 

ONGC leads CSR spend among oil PSUs

ONGC leads CSR spend among oil PSUs

Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply in the Lok Sabha has provided the corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure details of Oil PSUs for the last three years. ONGC continues to lead the tally with a CSR spend of Rs 615 crore in 2018–19, recording a growth of 22% in the spend when compared to the spend of Rs 503 crore in 2017–18.

Oil PSUs have been undertaking CSR interventions around their work centers, earmarking 2% of their profits for CSR projects. CSR activities are undertaken under the heads identified under Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013 with special focus on health (nutrition, sanitation, and drinking water), education, skill development, rural development, women empowerment, environment centric initiatives and care for the elderly and differently abled persons.

The CSR expenditure made by following Oil PSUs during the last three years are given below:

All figures are in Rs crore.

The project / activities wise details of the funds allocated and spent on the development and other works in various districts of the country including in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and on water recharge and water harvesting in Gujarat during the last 3 years are available on the respective websites of the Oil PSUs.

CSR activities are undertaken by Oil PSUs themselves or through agencies/Departments of Central/State Governments as per their approved procedures.

Power Grid, Mahindra bag top CSR awards

Power Grid, Mahindra bag top CSR awards

President Ram Nath Kovind speaking at the CSR awards ceremony.

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented the National Corporate Social Responsibility Awards (NCSRA) in New Delhi today. The NCSRA has been instituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to recognize outstanding contribution in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Speaking on the occasion, the President noted that those sections of society that need the helping hand most are among the main beneficiaries of the CSR activities. He said that the corporations have, thus, made a worthy contribution towards the national goals. They are helping the nation progress towards the cherished goal of building a more equitable society. They have focused on sustainable projects creating a long-term impact.

The President said that broadly, CSR initiatives have been aligned with the national priorities such as public health, education, livelihoods, water conservation, sanitation, and natural resource management. He expressed hope that innovative solutions to persisting development challenges will emerge from the CSR activities.

The President also noted that the government is sensitive about the need to calibrate the CSR regime to make it more effective. In September, the scope of the CSR activities was widened to include more categories of research incubators. This thrust on research and development will immensely help innovators. He said that it is equally important to internalize social welfare in the corporate culture. He urged upon corporate to motivate their employees and sensitize them to this higher calling in service of the marginalized sections of society. He said that this single step will generate enough goodwill for wealth creators among ordinary people.

National CSR Awards have been instituted to recognize the Corporates whose initiatives in the area of CSR were aimed at achieving inclusive growth and sustainable development. The companies were awarded based on their strategic approach in CSR and its efforts in challenging circumstances, towards aspirational districts, difficult terrains/disturbed areas and national priority areas. Based on the submissions by the companies and reports of the independent assessment by CSR experts and the jury, 19 award winners and 19 honorable mentions across the three award categories were announced as per the list.

Winners in different categories:

S. No. Award Category Sub-category Name of Company
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend above INR 100 Crores Power Grid Corporation of India Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend between INR 10 Crores 100 Crores Mahindra & Mahindra Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend between INR 1 Crores 10 Crores Edelweiss Financial Services Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend below INR 1 Crore Paranjape Autocast Pvt. Ltd.
CSR in Challenging Circumstances North India SRF Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances North-East India CRISIL Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances East India Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances West India Technip India Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances South India The Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Education Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Skill Development and Livelihoods Hindalco Industries Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Agriculture & Rural Development Mahindra and Mahindra Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Health, Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Mahanadi Coal Fields Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Environment, Sustainable Development & Solar Energy Power Finance Corporation Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Women & Child Development Indian Oil Corporation Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Women & Child Development JSW Energy Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Promotion of Sports Central Coalfields Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Slum Area Development Equitas Holdings Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Support to Differently abled Minda Corporation Limited

 

Honorable Mentions in different award categories: 

S. No. Award Category Sub-category Name of Company
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend above INR 100 Crores ITC Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend above INR 100 Crores Tata Steel Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend between INR 10 Crores 100 Crores National Aluminum Co. Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend between INR 10 Crores 100 Crores Maruti Suzuki India Limited
Corporate Award for Excellence in CSR CSR spend between INR 1 Crores 10 Crores Tata Technologies Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances East India Hindustan Copper Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances East India Mecon Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances West India Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Limited
CSR in Challenging Circumstances South India Mineral Exploration Corporation Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Education Mahindra and Mahindra Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Skill Development and Livelihoods JSW Steel Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Agriculture & Rural Development HDFC Bank Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Health, Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Tata Sponge Iron Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Health, Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation ITC Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Environment, Sustainable Development & Solar Energy Schneider Electric IT
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Women & Child Development Rail Vikas Nigam Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Promotion of Sports IndusInd Bank Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Promotion of Sports India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited
Contribution to the National Priority Areas Support to Differently abled Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

 

Clean Ganga Mission holds workshop on river flow

Clean Ganga Mission holds workshop on river flow

A two-day International Workshop on Environmental Flows Assessment and Implementation for India was held in New Delhi. Indian, European and international experiences were brought together by National Mission of Clean Ganga (NMCG), along with Indo-German Cooperation.
It is increasingly recognized that the goal of attaining healthy river ecosystems can best and most sustainably be reached by integrated environmental management. The workshop includes discussions on Environmental Flows assessment and Implementation for sustainable river basin management, and various aspects of E-Flows in depth. Relevant Indian implementers and stakeholders along with national experts and International experts including those from Germany, Austria, United Kingdom, Bhutan, Poland, The Netherlands and South Africa are present during the workshop.

In order to advance the successful e-flows implementation in India, this workshop aims to bring Indian, European and international experiences together. A rich variety of cutting- edge topics and expert speakers from various backgrounds serve to promote challenges and solutions regarding e-flows assessment and implementation.

International workshop on Environmental Flows Assessment and Implementation for India was inaugurated by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Jal Shakti at Delhi. The exchange of Indian, European and international experiences was brought together by National Mission of Clean Ganga (NMCG) along with the Indo-German Cooperation with its project “Support to Ganga Rejuvenation” (SGR). Shekhawat also formally released the first version of the Guidance Document on Environment flow assessment in India. The deliberations in this workshop and further research work would help in coming up with advanced version of this e-flow guidance document in future.

It is already accepted around the globe, that the demand for water is increasing due to population growth, rapid urbanization and industrialization and that rivers are a critical natural resource, crucial for human well-being. The Ganga River, for example, supports a population of more than 400 million people by providing a multitude of domestic, agricultural, industrial, and power generation uses, and it also serves for recreational, livelihood and spiritual purposes.

The Ganga provides a unique ecosystem, which is home to India’s National Aquatic animal the Gangetic Dolphin, as well as Gharials, turtles and several birds and other wild animals. Other rivers like Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi etc. are also crucial ecosystems and sources for ecosystem services for us and we need to protect these towards sustainability and equitable water use.

Given the current scenario, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said that, “We are committed to protect these lifelines for our future generations. We have the identified aim of Aviral and Nirmal Dhara- continuous and clean flows as our tribute to Mother Ganga and we intend to extend this to all other rivers in the country.” He added further that, “Maintaining Environmental-Flows in rivers is very important not only for the country but worldwide since water has become a global challenge. We have to come together and act together to tackle this global challenge.”

“Under the Namami Gange programme, we have been quite serious about maintaining the continuous flow of Ganga. Last year, we recognized the minimum river flow to be maintained and also notified. We have started monitoring for its implementation as well.

We have made a beginning, but there’s a lot to learn from experiences of other countries where this has developed over a period of time” added Rajiv Ranjan Mishra, DG, NMCG. The international workshop aims to assist in the e-flows implementation in India by answering the following questions:

  1. What are the overall aims and targets for e-flows assessment in India?
  2. What are the short- and long-term steps to implement e-flows according to the overall aims and targets.

“We will learn from their vast experience and will also learn from the national experts present regarding the different scenarios within India,” emphasized Mishra, DG, NMCG.
In India, the European Union through the India-EU Water Partnership (IEWP) as well as the Indo-German Cooperation with its project “Support to Ganga Rejuvenation” (SGR) in order to promote cooperation in the water sector, has brought together stakeholders, such as governmental institutions, businesses and the civil society. Currently, a guidance document on the “Assessment of Environmental Flows in India” is being developed as part of the IEWP Action Plan and the draft version was launched during the workshop by the Minister, Jal Shakti.

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