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Finnish cleantech companies explore business opportunities in India
By Suman Ravikumar, SiliconIndia
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Tuesday, 09 August 2011, 00:54 IST
Helsinki: Water is one of the most essential elements on Earth and all life on Earth is based on the global cycle of water. Often, however, there is constant debate over how to preserve water and how to use it very effectively. With the ever growing population, consumption of water is increasing rapidly and the amount of waste water has also increased. They say that water will be for the twenty-first century what oil was for the twentieth century. Indeed, this century has led to the investigation of water chemistry and the physics of water technologies.
A recent survey by Deutsche bank revealed that over the next few years, large-scale investment must be made in the water sector throughout the world. Last year the global investment was roughly around 400 to 500 billon euros per annum. In the final analysis of their report it was revealed that a huge need for investment is a result of the 3 percent increase per year. The model finds that the wealthy countries of the Middle East, populous countries such as China and India as well as traditional industrial countries (U.S., Germany) are among the well positioned economies for water technologies.
India's fourteen major, 55 minor and several hundred small rivers receive millions of litres of sewage, industrial and agricultural wastes. Most of these rivers have been degraded to sewage flowing drains. There are serious water quality problems in the towns and villages using these rivers as a source of their water. India is now looking out for potential water technology solutions.
In the recent India Water tech trade mission, the Indian Water Resources Ministry said it plans to invest $50 billion in the Indian Water Market by 2012. It also mentioned that the $1.27 billion Indian water and waste water treatment market is estimated to grow annually by 10 percent.
Banking on this, we have many international companies trying to get a small edge in the Indian water industry imports.
Finnish Water Forum is one such organization in Finland which is promoting water security and water knowhow to develop sustainable business and cooperation opportunities for a wide spectrum of water sector actors internationally. The Finnish Water Forum promotes export opportunities within the water sector. Their focal point is in exploring and assessing potential water related projects and their potential funding. By export business development FWF mean a broad spectrum of water related expertise, good governance, expertise on water legislation, capacity building, research, education, consultancy, technology, technological products, chemicals and combinations of all these.
The members of the FWF also consist of Research institutions, universities and schools and they have associations with NGOs as well.
Kemira, PACS, Econet, POYRY are some of the names that have made a global footprint.
Kemira is a global two billion euro chemicals company that is focused on serving customers in water-intensive industries. The company offers water quality and quantity management that improves customers? energy, water, and raw material efficiency.
PACS is aims at developing technology, which enables intensifying the water circulation, destroying microbes that are dangerous to health, and creating more sustainable and energy-efficient solutions.
Econet is specialized in operating in water and environmental sectors providing engineering and contracting services.
Poyry is a global consulting and engineering company dedicated to balanced sustainability and responsible business. Poyry is one of the first Finnish companies to establish in India. Their first project in India was in 1992 and their clients in India included Govt of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir. They also have the municipal corporations of respective cities as their clients. Financial Institutions like kfw,WB and ADB are their clients.
Presently they have bagged the prestigious project in Kashmir region funded by ADB. They are working on J&K urban sector development investment program. The project concentrates on water supply, sewerage and drainage, solid waste management and urban transportation. The project is expected to finish by 2014.
In addition to this, the Finnish companies are also working on mitigating the climate change. Maintaining and increasing the number of carbon sinks and the use of renewable sources of energy play a key role in mitigation. Finland assists its partner countries in creating and implementing climate change adaption strategies and low carbon development plans.
Finland has tackled the problem of water management directly through its Water Services Technology Programme , funded by National Technology Agency of Finland (Tekes). Tekes is a Finnish funding agency for technology and innovation. It is the main public funding organization for research, development and innovation in Finland.
"Clean technologies lead the way for stronger ties between India and Finland. It?s also evident that an increasing number of Finnish companies are leaping at the opportunities India has to offer," said Ms. Paula Lehtomaki, Minister of the Environment of Finland on the occasion of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS).