Utilities

<h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">I am an Electrical Engineer (1982 graduation) with a PG Diploma in Export management. During my professional career, I have attended many leadership courses globally.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I am blessed to have exposure to the various business cycles of the Power, Energy, Automation, and water/wastewater segments, with sound domain knowledge and exposure to global markets and business trends.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">I have worked in leading multinational technology organizations and Indian business houses in various capacities in Business Development, marketing, Engineering, Production, Project and Construction Management, and O&amp;M.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Over the past 15 years, I have held leadership/Board positions responsible for P&amp;L and shareholder wealth creation, focusing on order/revenue growth, cost reduction, and cash flow improvements.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Of my 40+ years of professional experience, 25+ years are in Power and Energy, and 15 years are in the Water/wastewater market segment on the global front.<br>&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q2. How are the demand for private sector investment in water treatment plants, sewage treatment plants (STPs), and waste-to-energy (WtE) projects evolving?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Potable water availability is becoming a critical issue globally, and many cities will run short of water due to misuse of groundwater.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So far, our society in India considers groundwater and drinking water a &ldquo;Free&rdquo; commodity and considers it the social obligation of the government to provide them free of cost or at subsidized rates.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">However, the use of pesticides, urbanization, and lack of focus on the discharge of untreated sewage and industrial effluent are posing challenges in the source of drinking water, which is prominently from groundwater, rivers, and freshwater lakes.<br>This is resulting in public awareness and focus on water treatment. Today, every citizen is spending a good amount of money to buy packaged drinking water as trust in utility drinking water is weaning off. Every house is installing an RO system to further clean tap water.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">This all leads to a situation in which industries and citizens are ready to pay for good-quality drinking water, which, in turn, makes investments in water treatment plants viable instead of a social obligation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the above, the legal system is also becoming strict, and special courts like the National Green Tribunal/Pollution Control Boards are being given more powers to impose financial penalties, thus accelerating investments in this field.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The advancement in technologies is also ensuring that sewage treatment evolves many benefits, like generating CNG from sludge and further treating it to make good organic manure. These technologies convert sewage to black gold, thus helping players recover a part of their investments through these byproducts.<br>&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q3. Who are the top-performing players in India's water utilities sector, and what are their market shares?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">The water utility market is a fragmented market where both local, national, and global players are present.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The global/National players like Suez, Veolia, Wabag, L&amp;T etc. are focussing on large capacity technology-driven water treatment plants, The local/construction players are securing water transmission and distribution projects covering pile laying, overhead tanks construction etc. This segment covers 60% of market with respect to value terms.<br>&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q4. How are emerging financing avenues, such as green bonds and sustainable finance, influencing investment strategies in India's water sector?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">The emerging financial avenues like green bonds/carbon credits, etc., are still at an evolving stage. The Indian government is also in the process of making such policies. However, it needs to be seen how much financial leverage will be linked to such initiatives.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further, most such schemes are owned by state governments or utilities, and the market players act as EPC contractors for PPP operators. Hence, it also needs to be seen if the beneficiaries of such models will be the owners, i.e., utilities or EPC players/operators.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q5. How are water utilities adopting renewable energy-powered water treatment solutions to reduce operational costs?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Sewage treatment plants have the potential to harness renewable energy through the treatment of sludge. This is also beneficial for the environment, as sludge is fully digested and converted to organic manure.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The byproduct of sludge treatment is biogas. This gas can further be converted to CNG for commercial use or can be used to produce electricity through gas engines, thus making treatment plants as power neutral, which is now being adopted for major Sewage treatment plants.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the above, most treatment plants require a large land footprint. These places are also being used to put solar panels on buildings/structures to offset electricity consumption.<br>&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q6. How are digital transformation and smart water technologies (IoT, AI-driven leak detection, predictive analytics, etc.) driving innovation in the sector?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Potable water is becoming scarce in most cities, with demand exceeding supplies.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The water distribution infrastructure in most populated walled cities is very old and has corrosion due to aging, etc. Hence, due to population density, the detection of any leakage becomes difficult and even more challenging to trace and rectify.<br>This is the area where digital technologies are found effective and are gradually gaining acceptance.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Further, to identify water thefts, utilities have started measuring non-revenue water losses, which are made one of the operator's KPIs. This is also leading to the usage of digital technologies to identify and prevent such leakages.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Similarly, in sewage treatment plants, the Pollution control board is adopting online monitoring and accumulation of data at the central command center with IoT algorithms, etc., to monitor abnormalities in the real-time mode to ensure that treated water meets the discharge norms at all times. This, too, is leading to accelerated digital transformation.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In the future, these technologies are likely to be adopted all across the water/wastewater domain.<br>&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">The main criteria for evaluating a company is to see its past performance record over the project life cycle. Most water/wastewater projects are awarded 5-10 years of operation and maintenance with stringent penalties for non-conformance. Analyzing such penalties, etc., will give an insight into the company's technical competency.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The other criterion is to see the performance with respect to the on-time completion of the project. This will reflect the operational efficiency of the team.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The organization band, with respect to engineering /project management/commissioning and O&amp;M resources /patents etc. will also decide the real wealth and potential of the company other than normal financial parameters.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lastly, any company can remain healthy when it retails an order book of 2 to 3 years since the typical project completion cycle is 18 to 24 months. If the company order book and revenue are synchronized in this ratio for a consistent period, then the company has the potential to grow and give a good return on investments.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Lastly, leadership bandwidth plays a very important role. A company with a set of professional and experienced KMPs is always more sustainable than an individual-driven organization, irrespective of how experienced and competent this person may be.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><h2 style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Expert Summary</span></h2><p style="text-align: justify;">Pankaj Sachdeva is a visionary business leader with over 40 years of experience in global infrastructure sectors, including water, wastewater, power, energy, and transportation. He has successfully led multi-location operations across India, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Russia, and Africa. With a strong track record in strategic planning, joint ventures, and rapid growth execution, he blends technical excellence with business acumen. His leadership style emphasizes stakeholder value, sustainable development, and community engagement. Pankaj is known for overcoming complex challenges through innovation, collaboration, and deep industry insight.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>