One of the most fundamental natural resources is water. Water is the life and death of civilisations past and present. Without water, everything will grind to a standstill. Unfortunately, we have been abusing this precious natural resource for centuries. It certainly is more important than Diamond or Gold, but we have put no business value on it. Countries all over the world have failed to give water its due importance. Talk about conserving water has gained traction only in the recent past.
In India, people suffer acute water crises with no respite. There is no system in place to regulate water consumption. The few companies that offer water resource management are run on outdated measuring tools. Kritsnam Technologies is leading the way in water resource management.
Why The Name – Kritsnam?
In Sanskrit, Kritsnam means “inclusivity to all, entirety or fulfilment and self-realisation.” With the inspiration to be a transformation leader using technology, the company was founded on the 3rd November 2015 at IIT Kanpur by K Sri Harsha, Prudhvi Sagar, Vinay Chataraju, and Neeraj Rai. According to the Indian philosophy, a self-realised or fulfilled mind can produce a transformative technological outcome and hence the moniker Kritsnam Technologies.
The Emergence Of Kritsnam Technologies
Kritsnam is the brainchild of a Master’s degree thesis of one of the company’s founders that he thought of at IIT Kanpur. The thesis led to his extensive analysis of the literature on water resource management evolution for the last 50 years. He realised the domain’s potential by adopting data-led intelligence on water preservation and consumption. Moreover, he discovered that before the 1980s, water management was majorly guesswork run on outdated heuristics.
As of 2008, with the growth of technologies IoT and cost reduction in sensors worldwide, nations started adapting and implementing data-driven water resource management or smart water management practices. The adoption of computer technologies, large-scale modelling, and design-driven decision-making has evolved. However, the majority of operational activities were not real-time data-driven. Real-time data on water quantity and quality are utilised to measure water management infrastructure using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
Understanding The Technologies Used Behind The Business
Led by the vision of a data-driven water management system, Kritsnam Technologies evolved from the research and innovation centre of IIT Kanpur. The desire is to use fresh water sustainably for industrial, commercial, agricultural, and drinking purposes. Kritsnam is the merger of expertise and know-how, cutting-edge technology, and precision engineering. They understand the value of every drop of water and provide comprehensive customized solutions for smart water management in India.
At Kritsnam Technologies, the efficiency and smart management of our planet’s most precious natural resources are at the core. They’ve built a compact and low-power consuming IoT-enabled instrument to mine the water data and provide useful insights to improve efficiency in water use. They’re collaborating with interested businesses to help them achieve water sustainability.
Dhaara Smart Ultrasonic Flow Meter is a data-driven decision-making tool for water managers designed to save water and money. It enables managers to project an overall water budget plan for their organisation. It then allows them to track their actual water usage in sync with the pre-determined plan. It further helps them to identify gaps and potential weaknesses and leads them to take corrective actions for these gaps. The founder of Kritsnam shares that Kritsnam’s vision is, “Digitized groundwater, making a billion litres of water accountable every day, track, realize, and correct with Dhaara water auditing.”
Since its inception, Kristnam has saved more than a million litres of water by allowing water managers to track their water usage trends, receive alerts, and download reports in real-time. This means a live water auditing solution with the data coming from an IoT device.
The ISO4064 certified battery-operated plug-and-play device is easy to install and function. The device is tamper-proof and captures accurate data, and provides easy-to-consume insights for easy decision-making.
Positive Impact By Kristnam On The Environment
Water sustainability is key in driving the climate change agendas set by various governments. Effective monitoring and metering play a critical role in managing water resources across rivers, lakes, ponds, canals, tanks, pipes, and groundwater. Easy measurement and access to water data from the sources is an edge in the equitable allocation of the resource to all applications and also sustainably manage it. Kritsnam Technologies water data provides analytical capacity and lays the framework for water conservation actions that are scientific and engineered.
The differentiating factors of Kritsnam Technologies:
- Ease of deployment, installation, and tamper-proof IoT-based solution.
- Single device to fulfill CGWA compliance
- No external wires.
- Compact device.
- Self-run on own power source.
- Transmits water flow data via an inbuilt GPRS system.
- Comprehensive water auditing dashboards are easily viewed on the web or mobile dashboard.
- They’re manufacturing a digital water flow meter with an inbuilt telemetry system and battery operated.
- Plug n Play battery operated and waterproof meters.
Those aspiring for efficiency and ease of reporting love Kritsnam because:
- The ultrasonic flow measurement technique and easy to consume reports via email and SMS
- A solution needed as per the regulatory demand
- To fulfill all government norms for ease in business.
- Reduce the high cost associated with water
Funding Details And Brand Strategy
So far, Kritsnam Technologies has raised 6 crores INR in pre-series A funding and will be raising series A funding in 6 months. Currently, they’re actively evaluating investors interested in this domain. They envision shaping the water foundation and building an ecosystem of water managers who share peer-to-peer knowledge.
How Is Kritsnam Technologies Different?
Kritsnam Technologies is addressing a highly neglected social issue with technological excellence and is pioneering a unique path. They’re about finding the middle path between profitability and social transformation using cutting-edge technology. They also believe in a team culture that promotes fearless work and encourages excellence backed up by a meaningful philosophy.
On choosing the dream team, the founder of Kritsnam Technologies shares that choosing a meaningful problem statement is the core. Most of the team members have known each other for more than 10 years due to their association with IIT Kanpur. The peer group of the academia has helped them identify capable people looking to work on tough problems. Everyone in the team aspires to realise the impact Kritsnam Technologies is working for. This has helped the founders to attract great minds working for their cause.
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Kritsnam And Social Contribution
One of the core focuses to bring awareness about water sustainability in different communities and sections of societies. When consumers are aware of their water consumption level through real-time data intervention, they’re more mindful. They’re teaching our society to attain water security and improve efficiency before it’s too late.
Challenges And The Story Going Forward
The biggest challenge in the industry is poor water pricing. There is no real business value for this natural resource and there is still a huge lack of awareness about water conservation. People are not mindful of their water usage and countries have neglected to price water correctly.
Going forward, water budgeting can be done across the geography if correct systems are put in place to measure flow and the level of water across all sources. Kritsnam has built Dhaara Smart Ultrasonic Pipe Flow Meter and the Vajra Smart Radar Water Level Recorder in response to these two challenges. These two products are significantly upgraded and more innovative than similar products in the market.
They will be launching products and solutions that will efficiently empower water managers with cutting-edge scientific tools to manage water resources across all sources. They also plan to develop spectroscopy-based non-intrusive inline continuous water quality measurements for pipe conduits. This will allow various Agri, domestic, and industry users to track and monitor water quality without using any chemicals continuously. They’re also building state-of-the-art live water auditing tools which incorporate the data from various IoT devices and help water managers to conduct real-time water budgeting of their organisation or process. All these are IoT products. They plan to extend their services across the world soon.
Today, some of Kritsnam’s customer base includes companies like –Castrol, Marriott Hotels, Hero, JCB, JSW, JDB Group, Lohia Group, Kanpur Plastipack, Molson Coors, Oberoi Hotels, Sunrise, TCS, Trident Hotels, Votas and many more.
Accomplishments Over The Years
Kritsnam received the NASSCOM award for ‘Emerge 50 Awards 2021’ in the Bharat category. NASA and the World Bank recognise them as one of the most disruptive irrigation technologies. They’ve successfully set up manufacturing facilities that produce 300 meters per month. Kritsnam has helped save 30 million litres of groundwater by controlling the over-extraction of water in wheat farms in one of its pilot projects with 150 farmers. They’re currently tracking 100 million litres of water per day and will track more than a billion litres of groundwater by 2023.
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