Milind Kothari was born and brought up in a small cantonment town in Nasik, Devlali, where he did his schooling. He went on to do his diploma in mechanical engineering from the Government Polytechnic in Jalgaon. Did well in his diploma and was offered a choice of VJTI and COEP to continue his education. He decided to join COEP. Diploma students are allowed a lateral entry into the second year of the course. Milind joined COEP in 1987 and opted for the Sandwich course, which mixes academics with practical training. A lot of his friends do not know that Milind was earning and learning during his COEP days. He was a part time salesman for Maharaja washing machines after college hours. The stipend may have been a reason why he joined the COEP Sandwich training at Tata Motors. Milind had campus offers from Thermax and Bajaj Auto, but being a people’s person, he preferred Thermax, as they were offering him a sales job. 

Thermax was then known for its DNA of intrapreneurship. RD Aga, the then MD, pepped up his sales team to act as businessmen. Thermax’s competitor in the water treatment space was Ion Exchange, incidentally the company that 30 years ago, was the first employer of Milind’s interviewer, Umesh Dixit.  In the mid nineties, Thermax was the clear underdog in the water treatment market. Ion Exchange, founded in 1964, was the clear market leader those days. At Thermax, the major lesson for Milind was that it is important for a sales guy to know the basics of technology, but it is much more important that he be able to transfer this understanding to the customer. 

During his Thermax days he had to even sell the concept of waste water treatment, The customer, who ran a soya oil solvent extraction plant, wanted to know how the plant works. Milind used the analogy of the human body to explain the plant’s working. This clicked with the customer who was convinced enough to sign the deal in an hour.  

Egged on by RD Aga, Milind jumped into entrepreneurship by becoming a dealer for Thermax in 1996. (Also unfortunately the year in which RD Aga passed away of a massive stroke.) Milind continued to be on the cutting edge of technology even in entrepreneurship. He sold a lot of first time tech to customers. But into his 12th year, he realised that he was more comfortable in the world of technology than in the world of finance. To quote Milind: ‘Jab jeb main paisa nahin hota hai to dimag kaam karna band ho jata hai.’. Capital goods required a lot of capital which somehow did not materialise in his business. His partner still continues to run the company – http://www.paragonwatertech.com/. 

Failure is a much better teacher than success. Milind’s entrepreneurial knowledge has turned him into a turnaround expert. He has turned around 4 companies in the 10 years that he has spent after his return back to the corporate world. He is now a better risk manager – and has picked up the finance skills that are required to manage the business. And what is interesting is the wide variety of cultures that he has operated in. He has been part of corporates with Indian, French, German, and now Israeli cultures. We will need a separate session on cultures from Milind only to discuss the contrasts.

Umesh observed that 97% of Earth’s water is sea water. Yet only 3% is usable. Is it enough? Of the entire water usage, drinking water is merely 15%. Non potable and industrial account for the rest. Power plants, Steel, and Mining sectors are big users of water. Milind feels that managing water requires advanced planning. Continued use of bore wells has reduced the water table in all cities. We are emptying our underground reservoirs at a much higher rate than nature can refill them. Groundwater management is going to be key in future. Cost effectiveness and sustainable solutions are required.

Water is a universal solvent. Anything that cleans becomes dirty – and we call it waste. Milind feels that the only solution is water recycling, something that nature does. If we cannot recycle water, then the world should start getting ready for WW III – this one will be over water. The main water pollutants are biological and chemical. Biological contamination is easier to deal with, aeration usually works, but removing dissolved solids requires more expensive solutions. With today’s technologies, it costs only Rs. 65 to recycle 1000 liters of water. And this recycled water is potable. If the customer is ready to pay, then there should be no shortages. 

It would be even cheaper if we can find ways to reduce consumption of water. Or reduce the biological and chemical pollutants in our processes itself. Here are some domestic practices that I have been experimenting with which I feel will help reduce water pollution. 

• No use of soap or shampoo while bathing. I have been following this practice for the last 15 years. Using just plain water for a bath keeps your body bacterial flora happy, it also helps reduce the presence of surfactants and fatty acids in our sewage.
• No use of detergent for washing clothes. Have adopted this policy for about 5 years now. The trick is to soak the clothes in a water bucket for an hour. If there are stains, then bioenzymes can be used. Bio enzymes, being of bacteria origin, have absolutely no side effects for nature.
• Washing utensils with plain water. We can learn from the practices of our grandparents. The last chapati was always used to wipe the plate clean. And better still a glass of water was then used to clean up the plate and the water was then drunk up. Using the dining table as a kitchen sink. And if at all there are any cooking utensils that need to be cleaned, then store the non detergent rinse water in a stainless steel bucket. Use this water for your balcony garden. For removing oils, bioenzymes use is again recommended.

These may be ideas for Amiad, the Israel based water tech company that Milind currently heads, to work on. I would be extremely pleased if Miind and Umesh can come up with a household recycling system that can be used in a flat. My observation is that any society level measures have implementation issues. Done at individual flat level the chances of success are higher. I have successfully experimented with composting in my balcony. My trials with biogas are on at our school. And if I can take charge of water recycling of my bathroom and kitchen water, it will be one more step to sustainability. Amiad and Metito, your first retail customer awaits you. 

Milind went on to talk about the technology in wastewater treatment. When Milind started his career in the nineties, resin based water treatment plants were in vogue. These worked on the principle of ion exchange. From 2000 onwards membrane tech has become mainstream. In fact India’s first membrane tech recycling plant for textiles was set up by Milind at Chhindwara based Raymonds in 1996. A variety of membranes have come up since then for dealing with different types of waste water. The innovation nowadays is in reducing treatment costs – by lowering the pressure used for the reverse osmosis. This tech is also used for running desalination plants.

On the subject of desalination plants, I remember an interesting conversation I had with the charcha host, Umesh Dixit, whose company, Metito, is a leader in water treatment in the middle East. We had discussed a desalination plant being commissioned on the Red Sea. This plant will serve the needs of 4 towns which are closed by. The total population served is around 4 lacs. The commissioning agency in charge is the Egyptian Army. Because of the unrest in the past, development work in Egypt had slowed down considerably. But with a new truce between the army and the current prime minister, the army has become active again, but this time mostly in development projects. Egypt’s Prime Minister had even come to Umesh’s site in order to check progress.

Sea water is taken in, about 300 m away from the plant. It is first sent through sand filters. In this process about 7 bar of pressure is maintained. There are 7 pumps and 7 backup pumps for the filtration plant. After filtration, the water goes to the RO unit. The RO is basically a bag with passive sides outside and the active sides inside. This is rolled in a spiral inside the high pressure water tube. The saline water is pressurized up to 68 bar outside of the bag. This is done using 10 double stage pumps. The clean water seeps into the bag and is then sent to be storage tanks. About half the volume is transformed to clean water. The outside water in the meantime has doubled in salinity. (It is about 4.5% on the Red Sea at the inlet; at the outlet side it becomes 9%). The discharge point is about 500 m south of the inlet point. The reason for the proximity is a constant north-south current in that area of the Red Sea. After the RO plant, the water is pumped into huge cylindrical storage tanks before it is piped to the neighbouring cities.

Most of Egypt was earlier settled on the Nile. But the newer settlements are coming away from the Nile. There is hardly any rain in Egypt. The average is once in 2 years for an hour. So there is no option but desalination. Another potential crisis area for Egypt, is the setting up of dams by upstream countries like Sudan. This will reduce the flow of water in the Nile further. It may even impact power production as most of Egypt’s electricity supply comes from the Aswan dam.

Coming back to Milind now. Umesh asked him about any challenges he faces in this business. He lamented that the IT sector boom for the last 15 years has robbed other sectors of a layer of good middle management. Finding good leaders is difficult now. Milind jokes that the current generation of C suite leaders have to adopt at P2P strategy – Peon to President. Next, he talked about the Indian mindset: my waste is my neighbour’s business. How many times have we seen the dust from our floor brooming emptied out of our windows or onto the roads. Nobody wants to pay to get waste out. This common man culture seeps to the industry too. We are lucky that in India the monsoon gives us a fresh water recharge every year. But with dams silting, groundwater tables sinking and the standard deviation of the rains rising, it is going to become more and more difficult to manage water as time goes by. 

Today’s government tendering process has dissuaded a lot of good players from entering the system. If the Govt turns serious about tendering and regulation, we can start drinking water directly from our rivers. The problem is that water is a political game. And Indian tanker mafias will ensure that this problem stays. There is a silver lining though. The next gen of the business community have studied outside India – and have started realising the importance of the environment and giving back to society. Corona may also change our sensitivity to the environment. And if the New Education policy can implement a mindset change in our kids about pollution, we can look forward to a better, wetter future for India.

Feedback about session

Getting two interviewers was good. Divides the work. Also, will ensure wider distribution and attendance.

External wired collar Mike is important. Audio feed was low. Also we need a close up at times, if we can get someone to practice being a camera man on zoom it helps.

We could continue with outdoor venue. Rain gods helped. Though we don’t want too much of this help in future!

Charcha on education was an interesting one in the afternoon. No note taking, but helpful.

4 parents turned up. 6 short of target. Next time reminder calls need to be made.

Food was excellent. So were the snacks. Disposable plastic glasses for water should be avoided in future.

Swapnil’s efforts are much appreciated. Hope he can get some mileage out of the event. Will review video and suggest excerpts to Swapnil for edited versions. We will make two cuts. One where blanks and pauses are eliminated. The next will be a WhatsApp version, with 5 bullet points aka Manish Sabharwal.

Next time, will get at least 20 guests. The program may happen in English though. Feedback about language needs to be taken from nour zoom audience.

Mute all must be done. We can do a raise hand and unmute for the Q and A.