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Karunakara M Reddy, CMD, Smaat India

Enriching lives with Safe & Clean Water

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K StevenSon

A young and restless soul was disturbed when death visited the family due to lack of access to safe

drinking water. That incident changed his life. The young lad, Karunakara M Reddy was made of different mettle.

In 1998, he pumped in Rs30,000 and founded Smaat Aqua Technologies Private Limited, a venture that provides end to end solutions in the water industry and has been changing the lives of scores of people in the urban and the country side as also their water consumption habits. Last fiscal, after 15 years, Smaat’s turnover touched Rs 85 crore and is poised to cross the Rs130 crore mark.

Smaat is India’s first ISO 9001:2008 quality certified company in Andhra Pradesh to have introduced eco-friendly non chemical water treatment units. Smaathas scaled its operations globally by offering environmental free water and air treatment solutions.

Born into a farming family in the parched Mahabubnagar district of Telangana, Karunakara M Reddy, Smaat’s founder and CMD, during his early days, worked with Pepsi when Coke enjoyed monopoly in the soft

poised to leapLoss of a family member due to lack of access to potable water in a parched village in Mahbubnagar district changes the life of a youth

Smaat water solutions poised to leap

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drinks market, after completing post graduation in Business Management from Osmania University in 1994.

“We could take Pepsi’s market share up to 45 percent despite Coke’s dominance. My employment at Pepsi during the launch of Aquafina in the state helped me gain valuable insights into the water industry,” Reddy told Business for all.

On his business idea, he says: “The business idea was to offer end-to end solution in the water segment in a country, where 80 percent people do not have access to safe drinking water, 95 percent sewage is not treated resulting in contamination of existing soil and environment. What could be a better idea than to solve these problems?

These

issues have egged me on to start Smaat.” He took Rs 30,000 from his mother to start his venture and he was the sole employee for few months. And started working in a 10 x 10 office space at Padmaraonagar in Secunderabad.

Karunakara Reddy raised $1 million from angel investors and another Rs10 crore from Andhra Bank. “I saved on a lot of money, close to

around Rs 1.2 crore on foreign exchange, as I obtained a d v a n c e

license from the Director General of

Foreign Trade ( D G F T ) for import of raw material and components to assemble and fabricate w a t e r t r e a t m e n t p l a n t s , ”

reveals Reddy.

“I single-h a n d e d l y worked for the

26 domestic sales and installations

in the first five

months. Only later, I hired another person who was skilled and held a diploma from ITI,” Reddy says.

Over a period of time, he hired hundreds of others and today the firm employs 700 people. “Initially, I hired fresh graduates and skilled workers and trained them to meet my requirements. I selected persons who shared the same zeal and passion I have,” he explains.

With a burning desire to usher in a change in the field of drinking water, he took a plunge into work in villages as he believed that any change has to be from rural India and he undertook exhaustive research of technologies available for water purification.

After numerous pilot projects, he launched the “Community Water Centre” (CWC) in 2004 using watershed with latest state-of-the-art technology water treatment equipment. He sold the recycled purified water to the village at affordable cost and the revenue earned was used for maintenance of the treatment plant.

CWC is the flagship programme of Smaat with villagers being the main beneficiaries. The driving force for establishing the CWC is the fact that more than 70 per cent of Indians do not have an access to pure

drinking water. It is

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also estimated that by the year 2020, India will be a water stressed nation, hence he took up the challenge to convert the status of the country from “water stressed“to “water resourceful Nation,” he says.

Smaat, in addition to providing water, is involved in sanitation, hygiene awareness, education promotion and women empowerment. By providing these services, he wants to ensure that there is positive growth in the vulnerable and bottom- of the pyramid sections of the society and overall societal development.

For the first time in India, Smaat has come up with a unique packed drinking water named: ‘Saqua’ with the specialty of having magnetised water. This unique water has many therapeutic benefits and helps maintain balanced pH in the body. Problems like acidity, fatigue, bone pains, slow blood clot can be averted by drinking magnetized water. We are the first in India to have brought this concept.

“Water related segments have market value of $3 trillion in the country --- ranging from water

purifiers, drinking water, bottled water, effluent treatment, sewage treatment and water treatment,” he explains.

Reddy started off with offering domestic water purifier and later gradually shifted to industrial water purification and eventually to community-based water treatment. “Initially, we started selling domestic water purifiers. But importing from other countries made it expensive. The idea was to serve the community and at the same time make business viable,” he says and adds: “we make profits in some community-based water projects and losses in others but on the whole, it is a viable business proportion. There is still a huge gap and there is a market opportunity of serving six lakh villages in the country as 80 per cent who live in these villages face issues with d r i n k i n g water.”

When some

districts in the united Andhra Pradesh were battered with floods in 2009, he came up with the idea of developing mobile water treatment plants to purify flood water and make it potable for drinking mitigating the woes during a disaster. These plants would purify water anytime, anywhere and any source of water.

He says: “Our journey began towards a million and Smaat today processes over 1300+ million litres of water per day across the world through and is an IT driven venture for maintaining quality and modernization. Meeting World Health Organization (WHO)’s standards and other pollution control norms in modern testing labs helped him bag contracts abroad.”

Smaat supplies 23 types of green products and purified water to close to 2 crore people through several water purifier plants in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal. His business footprint extends to thousands of villages in India and 33 countries world over. Further, Smaat also offers integrated s o l u t i o n s

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through turnkey services including design and optimisation, customisation, business procurement and production management, pilot testing, fabrication and installations. Backed by strong operational and financial capabilities, in-house research, and its continuous endeavor towards developing innovative technology, Smaat has expanded and diversified as a specialised solution provider with manufacturing and extensive Research & Development for: end-to-end water and air purification solutions, solar energy solutions, sewage treatment plants, municipal solid waste management plants, mobile flood relief plants, sea water de-salination plants, pre-filtration systems, packaging systems and environment education and awareness. His cost-effective technologies helped him expand and then, he targeted the overseas market which had good potential. The company also set up the first mobile sea water desalination plant in Saudi Arabia in 2008 Also, Smaat has plants and units in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Algeria, Egypt,

Kenya, Libya, South Africa, Uganda, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka among others. Smaat is committed to highest standards of quality for all its products, right from the initial stages to the entire production process. It conducts its operations and work practices in tune with recognized safety standards and in a manner that avoids harm to its employees, associates, customers and the general public. “We comply with local and state laws, codes of practice and regulations as laid down by authorities, provide the necessary training, tools, equipment and techniques to concerned staff to ensure that the highest possible standards are met; continuously monitor, control and improve the processes through innovation and research,” points out Reddy. Smaat ’s dream is to make people healthy all over the world through safe water and always compliments its growth strategy with its earnest policy towards Corporate Social Responsibility. The core values include Innovation, Sustainability, Commitment to quality, Service and Social Responsibility.

Future PlanS

Unveiling his future plans, Karunakara Reddy says: “Smaat aspires to be one of the most admired brands and become one among the top three in India and top 10 Environmental companies across the Globe by 2020.”

He aims at reaching a turnover of $1 billion(around Rs6,3000 crore) within two or three years. “I want to touch Rs 180 crore by next year and the goal of Rs 5,000 crore may not be impossible,” Karunakara Reddy says confidently.

In an age of fierce competition many venture into the world of business to maximise profits, rarely does one find individuals who blend a larger social cause in their business and do it with great success as Karunakara Reddy.

He is guided by the mission to ensure that every community has access to safe healthy and affordable water thorough research, identifies villages and cities to set up the CWCs depending on factors like water scarcity, access, chemical and microbial contents in water.

The larger vision is to expand and set up plants all over India, to make access of healthy water to every Indian at every place and thus building a healthy nation. It is not just about water, It is about Health, Education, Economy and Happiness.

A strong believer in Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy, which says: “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it and live on idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.’’

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Mobile treatment unit

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awardS

Smaat being pioneers in water management, waste management and environment pollution reduction, it is the only company to bag maximum number of awards (100) in the following categories: Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneur, Product innovation, Quality, Environment and Research and Development.

To be precise, the list includes:

n“Emerging Entrepreneur” by South Region CII, 2014

n“Best Innovation “ under the category of “Access to better entitlements” by Bihar Innovation Forum-2 from Government of Bihar, 2014

nWinner for NABARD Rural Innovation Award 2012

nKaramveer chakra Medal from iCONGO, 2012

nNASCOMM EMERGE 50, Top 50 Innovations of 2011

n“Outstanding Entrepreneur”- National award from Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India; 2011

n“Dare Raising Star Award- 2011 by DARE Magazine and SBI

nBest Entrepreneur Award 2011- by Hyderabad Management Association

nInternational Gold Star Award for Corporate Leadership at Bangkok (Thailand) in 2010

nUdyog Patra Award for Self-Made Industrialists-2010 by the Institute of Trade and Industrial Development

n“Global environment Excellence award” from Greentech Foundation, 2010

nAppreciation from NTR Trust in recognition of Corporate Social Responsibility efforts during the floods in (Andhra Pradesh)

nBusiness World FICCI, Corporate Responsibility Award 2009-2010

n“Most Innovative Water Saving Product”-National Award for Excellence in water Management-2009 -Confederation of Indian Industry

n“UNESCO- Water Digest Water Award 2009-2010 for Best Water treatment Project- INDRISTRIAL” in India

n“Research & Development”- National award from the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises, Government of India; 2009

n “UNESCO- Water Digest Water Award 2009-2010 for Best Water Consultancy” in India Water Award (R&D)-UNESCO - NDTV - Water Digest -2009

n‘Quality Crown’ Award 2008 by BID, at International Quality Convention, London

nBest Product Innovation award for 2006-2007 in Andhra Pradesh instituted by FAPCCI.

Business Division Nature of Revenue Business ShareCommunity water centres Providing safe and clean drinking water at 20 paise/litre. It also includes sanitation 70%Saqua Bottled/packaged drinking water 10%Projects Water treatment solutions on commercial scale 10%Smaat zone retail Water treatment solutions on domestic scale 10%

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