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Tamil Nadu Branch
Seminar on “Indo-U.S. Partnership in Water Sector – The Road Ahead” on April 28, 2012 at Hotel Taj
Club House, Chennai
Indo American Chamber of Commerce (IACC) in association with U.S. Commercial Service, American
Consulate General, Chennai as an initiative to promote investments in water sector, which is very critical
to circumvent the burning challenges in Indian water sector, has conducted a Seminar on “Indo-U.S.
Partnership in Water Sector – The Road Ahead” on April 28, 2012 (Saturday) at Hotel Taj Club House,
Chennai. The seminar opened an opportunity for technology suppliers to share across their experience
and technical know-how which could be leveraged upon to address the core issues.
Mr. Raman Govindarajan, Chairman, of IACC (TN) welcomed the audience and spoke about the
importance of water as a premier resource for domestic, agricultural, and industrial consumption, the
evolution of consumption and availability patterns in the past decades. Raman also outlined the IACC’s
activities in promoting Indo-US businesses, in the past and planned events in the future, especially in
Education, Infrastructure, Post and Logistics etc., and the potentials for collaboration between US and
Indian Organizations in Water Sector.
Mr. Jim Golsen, Principal Commercial Officer of U.S. Consulate General, Chennai, laid a specific emphasis
on collaboration opportunities to promote finance and technology transfer between US and India. He
also spoke about increasing presence of US Businesses in India, with a lot of support provided by US
Govt. by way of EXIM bank support etc.
While delivering the keynote address, Mr. B. Ramaswamy, Lead – South Region, Feedback Infrastructure
provided the water scenario in India. His note ended with the key summary of all potential areas where
US-India collaboration could help in taking the water sector to the next level.
Mr. Joseph Ravikumar, Sr. Institutional Devp. Specialist, The World Bank has shared his real time
experience by quoting one of classical case study on wastewater recycling from a petrochemical industry
in Chennai.
Dr. K. Rajivan, IAS (Retd.), Consultant, The World Bank & Former CEO, TN Urban Development Fund
brought in dimension related to equity and debt financing through PPP model is water sector by sharing
a successful case study on pooling finance model in Chennai.
The challenges & opportunities in Indian Water market for the private sector was presented by Mr.
Sanjib Saha, Chief Corporate Assurance Officer, VA Tech Wabag Ltd.
Finally the seminar ended with the briefing from Mr.K.Venkatesaperumal, Manager, Climate Change &
Sustainability Services (CCaSS), Ernst & Young Private Limited, which covered the recent regulations and
policies in India Water Sector. The principles of water management and the key measures that could be
adopted by industries to reduce their specific water consumption through case studies were also
presented.
The delegates from Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), as a team had brought in
their international experience in varied areas right from water sampling, measurement and monitoring
techniques. A specific emphasis was made on the need for the water sector to have technology
intervention to have water conservation through adoption of 3R (Reduce, Recycle & Reuse) concept.