CEO Insights Magazine

With the increasing urbanization and population has led to an increase in cost and water scarcity and the government is struggling to provide all the facilities to their citizens. With a vision of building smart cities and a balanced ecosystem, several companies are joining in with the government. One such company is IDE Technologies. An Israeli company operating in India which has some of the largest desalination plants across the world.

In an exclusive interview with the CEO Insights magazine, Nayan Shah (Sales Director), IDE Technologies, India, tells us about his journey, and IDE Technologies’ progress.

Kindly enumerate on some of the major points/factors about your organization - IDE Technologies.
IDE is a world leader in water treatment solutions. It specializes in the development, engineering, construction and operation of enhanced desalination and industrial water treatment plants. IDE has a history of 55 years and known for its innovation. Performance and timely execution. We always thrive for excellence and to provide the lowest Life Cycle Cost for the sustainable Water solutions, so customers can focus on to their core businesses. IDE holds the pride that some of the largest desalination plants across the world been built by IDE. Even in India, there are around 800 MLD of running desalination plants as on date, out of which around 600 MLDs are been built with IDE Technologies, which is quite remarkable. We are investing into Recycle and Reuse technologies. India is one of the major focus in our growth strategy and are expanding our foot-print and market penetration.

Water management is an up scaling and constantly evolving sector.

Kindly throw some light on the technology and strategy that is deployed to impart sustainable and efficient services.
You are right. India is building some of the major Water Infrastructure projects and IDE is keen to take the central role in providing the best technologies at most affordable price. We are currently working in the direction to create local strategic partnerships and also localizing our manufacturing and sourcing. It will not just help us to win more locally but also make us competitive in other markets too. We are currently working with State Governments and help to set up Desalination Plants. We can harness the sea and secure drinking water needs.

While more and more industries are mandated to go for a Zero Liquid Discharge, Industries are facing two challenges. On one had they are facing the global competition and experiencing the pressure to reduce the cost of production and on other hand – the ZLD mandate is increasing the cost of water treatment and resultant increase on the production cost. We have combined two proven technologies and providing the solution (MAXH2O Desalter) to increase recovery of the RO and downsizing the Thermal units. This ensures the lowest CAPEX and OPEX for the ZLD offerings.

In the view of updated Water discharge norms, it is very likely that Urban Local Bodies will look forward in recycling STP Treated water. The key challenge is to avoid the usage of chloramines. IDE’s Pulse flow RO technology is answer to this challenge. We are currently working at California. Treated STP water to be used for Potable application will be reality soon.

What opportunities do you foresee in the current industry?
In India, I am seeing three major trends developing in a municipal sector. Coastal Cities like Chennai,

Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and others are going for Desalination and adding capacities. Municipal Corporations are looking at the revenue stream from the STP Recycle and reuse. Concept of Hybrid Annuity will be adopted more commonly to ensure the lowest life cycle cost and to ensure the best quality. IDE is known for its BOT Capabilities and carries best in class International Experience. Some of the large projects are being under process, for instance, in the city of Chennai, it is planned to build India’s largest desalination plant, that is 400MLD. Mumbai is looking forward to diversifying their water sources and Desalination is being considered to secure water independence.

For Industrial Sector, stricter norms and even stricter compliance to those norms will be experienced. More and more industries are mandated for ZLD. So, ultra-high recovery solutions will be adopted.

What is the future roadmap set for IDE? How are you updating yourself with the latest technologies/industry trends to make IDE reach its future goals?
IDE Technologies is having two major arms, one is IDE projects and the other is IDE assets. We see that across the countries, the respective governments are looking at private and public partnerships, IDE Technologies is very keen to invest money in to such strategies. Also, bring in financial partners in India, so that we can build the required critical infrastructure. IDE Technologies has an incredible track record. And in India, when the governments are moving with a sense of urgency onto water reforms, we have a much larger role to play in building that ecosystem in India.

Nayan Sha, Sales Director
Nayan Shah is a Chemical Engineer by education and has completed his PG in Management from Narsi Moonje Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. Over his experience of 20 years into industrial water management, he has worked in several leadership roles from the startup companies to some of the larger organizations in the field of Water & Specialty Chemicals. Currently, he is serving as the Sales Director at IDE Technologies, India.

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