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After seeing your action plan, it seems the Ganga will not be cleaned even after 200 years. You have to take steps to restore the Ganga to its pristine glory? Please try (to ensure) that the next generation is able to see the river in its original form. We don't know whether we will see it or not": reads an extract from the response of Supreme Court Justices T.S. Thakur and R. Banumathi to a government affidavit on cleaning the Ganga, in September 2014.The stink from the suburb of Jajmau pervades the air of Kanpur. One of the oldest and biggest leather clusters of India, on the bank of the Ganga, Jajmau houses an official count of 402 tanneries. Their actual number is even higher, around 700, since many homes carry out unregistered tanning operations in their backyards - animal hides can be seen drying in every by-lane. Jajmau's tanneries produce around 50 million litres a day (MLD) of effluent, according to Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) estimates, of which only nine MLD passes through the single common effluent treatment plant (CEPT) set up in the area in 1994. The rest flows into the Ganga.Jajmau may well be the single biggest source of pollution of the Ganga, but there are many others. (See What's Polluting the Ganga.) The most polluted stretch in the Ganga's 2,500-km journey from the Gaumukh glacier to the Bay of Bengal is the 750 km between Kannauj and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh - the state accounts for 667 of a total of 764 'grossly polluting industries' on the main stem of the river. Of these, 442 are tanneries. Vying with the challenge of 500 MLD of industrial waste is that of domestic waste - 50 major cities housing 500 million people also lie along the Ganga's main stem, contributing, according to a World Bank estimate, another 2,200 MLD.Efforts to clean up the Ganga began in 1985, with the launch of the Ganga Action Plan (GAP), a pet project of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. A second phase began in 1993. In 2009, Ganga was declared a National River and the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) was set up. A year later came the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) with the aim of ensuring that no untreated domestic sewage or industrial effluent would enter the river after 2020. Sewage treatment plants (STPs) with a total capacity of 869 MLD were installed under GAP-I and another lot of 229 MLD under GAP-II. Yet another set of STPs to treat 123 MLD have been built by the NGRBA. But, clearly, a good number of these are either under-utilised or do not work, since currently, only four years away from the 2020 deadline, a mere 700 MLD of the total of 2,700 MLD of wastewater entering the Ganga undergoes prior treatment.In 2014, the NDA government also launched the Namami Gange project, initially with an annual budget of Rs 2,037 crore, later increased to a whopping Rs 20,000 crore over five years till 2019. It is being implemented through state project monitoring groups (SPMGs) in the five major states the Ganga flows through: Uttarakhand, UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. (see Renewed Effort).Is the Namami Gange project any different from its predecessors? Many believe it is no new initiative, but merely a rebranding. "Namami shabd mein shradhha jhalakti hai (there is an element of faith visible in the term 'Namami Gange'), but beyond that it has nothing new," says environmentalist Manoj Mishra, Convenor of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan. Swami Jitendranand Saraswati, National General Secretary of the Varanasi-based Ganga Mahasabha, the historic NGO founded by Madan Mohan Malaviya, which has tracked the Ganga's welfare from the early 20th century. is even more pessimistic. "NMCG, NGBRA, Namami Gange? it is the same set of bureaucrats and technocrats who run them all," he says. "The previous UPA government, which set up the NGBRA with much fanfare, held only three meetings of the authority over five years. It was the same earlier with the GAP. Prime Minister Modi no doubt means well, but Namami Gange has made no difference on the ground."Jajmau JamJajmau in Kanpur, spread over three sq. km, is a prime example of the complexity of issues involved. It is an ecological nightmare, but it has also existed for a century and a half, employs vast numbers of people and earns considerable foreign exchange. The first tannery here was built in 1868 to manufacture horse saddles. Today, Jajmau has around 50 big tanneries, processing more than 200 hides a day and marked by their huge gates and high walls, and another 80 medium sized ones, handling around 100 hides daily. But much of the business remains small and informal.Not surprisingly, estimates of the industry's size vary widely - while the CLRI maintains it provides direct employment to 10,000 people and indirect to 50,000, Qazi Naiyer Jamal, General Secretary of the Small Tanners Association there, pegs the latter number at 400,000. There is greater convergence on Jajmau's estimated contribution to export earnings - the CLRI pegs export turnover from leather and leather products out of Jajmau at Rs 6,800 crore, the Small Tanners Association at Rs 5,374 crore for 2013/14.The sole CETP in Jajmau, set up under the first phase of the GAP, has a capacity of 36 MLD, but this has to comprise industrial waste mixed with domestic in the proportion of 1:3 - it thus processes only nine MLD of tannery waste. The state government and the registered tanneries jointly pay for the CETP's upkeep, which is managed by the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. In addition, every tannery is required to have its own Primary Effluent Treatment Plant (PETP), along with an Online Continuous Effluent Monitoring System (OCEMS). Earlier this year, 60-odd Jajmau tanneries got closure notices from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, for not having installed OCEMSAn OCEMS costs around Rs 70,000-80,000. "The point of making every tannery install an OCEMS is not clear, considering they all have PETPs anyway, which are monitored by the UP Pollution Control Board," says Imran Siddiqui, Director, Super Tannery Ltd. "The first step in cleaning the wastewater happens at our end. Environmental clearances have becoming so critical for the export market that no exporter can risk ignoring them."There is also talk of introducing CETPs that use Zero Liquid Discharge technology, whereby all the wastewater they treat can be reused, without any of it being discharged. "Since we share the CETP's maintenance cost with the government, such a move will increase the cost of the leather we produce by 15 per cent, making us uncompetitive in the international market," says Taj Alam, Managing Director, Kings International, and former president of the UP Leather Industries Association.Critics of the tanneries are sceptical of their owners' claims. "The truth is that less than 40 per cent of them have installed PETPs," says Swami Arun Puri, Mahant at Siddhnath Ghat on the Ganga in Jajmau. The capital cost of a PETP, depending on its size, ranges from Rs 25 lakh to Rs 2 crore, while the running cost is between Rs 1,500 and Rs 15,000 a day. "There is also no way to figure out how many of the installed PETPs are in use," Puri adds.Tannery owners also note that they are not alone to blame for Ganga pollution at Jajmau - the area still does not have a domestic sewage disposal system. Most of the domestic waste its 600,000 residents produce also flows untreated into the river. Jajmau also has two STPs (apart from the CETP for tannery waste) with capacities to treat 130 MLD and five MLD, but in practice these manage no more than around 60-70 MLD together. The entire city of Kanpur is also not much better off - the total treatment capacity of its STPs is just 162 MLD against the 412 MLD of sewage it produces.No doubt efforts to cope better with domestic waste are being made in UP. A detailed project report for a sewerage system for Jajmau was submitted to the state government in July last year, which includes upgrading the two existing STPs. More STPs are being installed elsewhere in Kanpur under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). There is also talk of a second, 50-MLD CETP.Beyond JajmauThe problem of contamination by industrial and domestic sewage extends across the length of the river, varying only in intensity. Non-functional STPs and CETPs are a problem all the way. "Less than 20 per cent of the sewage flowing into the Ganga is treated beforehand," says Jairam Ramesh, former environment minister whose proactive role of trying to save the Ganga during his tenure as minister is acknowledged by all. "The majority of STPs built under the GAP do not work due to lack of maintenance funds." Most STPs and CEPTs have been funded jointly by the Centre and the concerned state in a proportion of 70:30, but they are maintained by urban local bodies or the state water departments, which are all cash strapped.There is also the curious feature of corpses being dumped in the Ganga - instead of being cremated or buried - which adds to the pollution. Every month, bodies are fished out of its waters, despite a UP High Court order prohibiting such dumping and the UP government providing a grant of Rs 1,600 for the cremation of every unidentified body. "The reason is primarily corruption," says Swami Jitendranand of Ganga Mahasabha. "Many Hindus bring their dead to Varanasi, believing it to be the gateway to moksha. But the electric crematorium here rarely functions, because the contractors who supply the firewood for cremation find ways to disrupt its power supply. Buying wood for cremation proves too expensive for many. The police, too, when they find unclaimed corpses, sometimes dump them in the river so as to pocket the grant."An elaborate plan for more than 100 crematoriums in the cities along the Ganga - by building new ones and modernising those existing - is, however, being formulated.Bottomless PitNo one really knows how many thousands of crores have been spent so far on trying to clean the Ganga. The combined expenditure on the two phases of the GAP was Rs 938.57 crore till the end of 2014/15, while the NGRBA spent Rs 1,937.64 crore till end-October 2015. Funding agencies such as the World Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have also pitched with soft loans to the NGRBA. The World Bank committed $1 billion in 2011 for river protection infrastructure (of which $66 million has so far been released), while JICA has put in around Rs 500 crore on a project in Varanasi.But much more has been spent which even the government, apparently, finds impossible to collate - an RTI application by the Ganga Mahasabha seeking to know the total spend has not been replied to. "Investments have been made under different programmes of the government, but since there is no coordination between departments, no consolidated figures are available," says an official in the Ministry of Water Resources - now expanded and called the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation - who does not want to be named. "Each ministry has its own data. States through which the Ganga flows have also contributed. Some of the funds available under the JNNURM have been used, too."However, some of the projects on which much of the money has been spent are questionable. "The government keeps building STPs and more STPs in the name of saving the Ganga," says Swami Jitendranand. "Sewage treatment is a part of urban development. Why should funds for saving the Ganga be used for it? Don't towns which are not on the Ganga's banks need sewage treatment?" Yet another critic of indiscriminate STP-building is Vinod Tare, Professor at IIT, Kanpur. "If existing STPs are under-utilised or not functioning, what is the point of building new ones?" he says. "The bureaucratic mindset is to just use up funds if they are available under some scheme, without any coordination between departments or independent impact assessment."Again, there is no dearth of watchdogs ostensibly engaged in protecting the Ganga. There are the Central ministries of Ganga Rejuvenation and Environment, the NGRBA, the National Mission for a Clean Ganga, the National Green Tribunal and the Central Ground Water Authority, apart from the pollution control boards of the states through which the Ganga passes. The Supreme Court and the UP High Court have also issued orders relating to its upkeep. Why then is the river still in a sorry state? "The challenge is in maintaining the momentum over time and coordinating the different levels of government involved with the rivers as well as the users of its waters," says Genevieve Connors, Senior Water Resources Specialist, World Bank. "River rejuvenation is as much a function of multiple levels of government moving towards a common objective, as it is about competing users of water - sectors and departments - working in unison."There is no shortage of plans and proposals. Ramesh estimates that more than 60 studies related to saving the Ganga have been carried out by different agencies. There is, for instance, an elaborate Ganga River Basin Management Plan, that cost Rs 16 crore, prepared by the IITs that envisages spending a staggering Rs 1,00,000 crore over the next 15 to 20 years to save the river. "One of our key proposals is building small STPs instead of big ones and locating them close to sewage drains," says Tare, who is also the coordinator of the plan. He is also an advocate of Zero Liquid Discharge. "Treat the sewage and recycle the water," he says. "We should not let wastewater enter the river at all." The initial investment might appear large, but he believes it will be economical in the long term.But the chances of such unconventional reports being considered - let alone implemented - are dim. "There is no one in the government who has even found the time to read the report," says Tare. It is an indication of the sharp differences over the Ganga that some believe ignoring the IIT report may be the right thing to do. "It offers only technological solutions and technology is just one part of the Ganga's solution," says river activist Himanshu Thakkar, himself an IIT Bombay alumnus. "The core problem is governance. Until proper laws are enforced, Ganga pollution can never be controlled." So what laws are needed? The Ganga Mahasabha has been suggesting a National River Conservation Act and the setting up of a National River Protection Force, apart from demarcating land on either bank of the Ganga that would belong to the river and be unavailable for construction. But even with the right laws, implementation would be a humdinger, given that water is a state subject.Going with the FlowThere is also more to rejuvenating the Ganga than merely cleaning it up. It requires restoring its total health - or aviral dhara as former minister Ramesh puts it. It has many aspects but the most important is maintaining a 'minimum environmental flow'. "It was the aviral dhara concept that led to the 132-km stretch from the Ganga's origin at Gaumukh to Uttarkashi being declared an ecologically sensitive zone where no commercial activity would be allowed," says Ramesh.For further protection, he also stalled a number of hydroelectric projects using Ganga waters. "NTPC's Loharinag Pala hydropower project was 40 per cent complete when we took the unpopular decision of cancelling and compensating NTPC," adds Ramesh. Two other such projects, at Bhairon Ghati and Pala Maneri, were stopped, while another, at Vishnugarh-Pipalkoti, was redesigned to ensure more than minimum flow. But Ramesh may have stepped in too late. While environmentalists believe that at least 32 per cent of the original waters of a river constitute minimum environmental flow, and that over 50 per cent is desirable, the Ganga's minimum flow is barely around 5 per cent.Namami Gange's generous funding notwithstanding, this is unlikely to change. Experts say it is far more important for the government to meet its 2022 deadline of 'Electricity for All' - as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi - if need be by adding more power projects to the Ganga, than restoring the river's flow. And while none can doubt Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharati's sincerity in protecting the river - Ramesh revealed that she was one of the staunchest supporters of his Ganga mission, despite being part of the Opposition then - insiders note that she no longer carries the clout she used to. (Bharati did not respond to repeated Business Today requests for an interview.)Similarly, some environmentalists feel that both the courts and the government no longer accord the kind of priority to saving the Ganga as they did earlier. A Supreme Court order in August 2013 had suggested that no new hydroelectric projects in Uttarakhand's para-glacial region should be considered. "Its interpretation, however, has been since modified by the same court to restrict the ban to only those 24 projects relating to which the earlier judgement was given," says Mallika Bhanot, who heads the NGO, Ganga Ahavaan. "Supreme Court orders passed in August 2014 and November 2015 have opened the scope for new hydropower projects in that area."Bhanot says, in December 2014, the Ministry of Environment, in a submission to the Supreme Court, had agreed that no new hydropower projects should be allowed in the para-glacial region. "But soon after a meeting of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in January 2015, six fresh projects are expected to be cleared," she says (see Wrong Signals). The Uttarakhand government's Jal Vidyut Nigam has identified another 450 potential projects - 92 have been commissioned, of which 38 are under construction. "With so many new dams, almost no river flow will be left." Uttarakhand has 76 hydropower projects in the para-glacial region.Is it worth killing a river just to extract the maximum hydropower from it? "There should be a cost-benefit analysis first," says environmentalist Bharat Jhunjhunwala. He himself carried out such an analysis of one of the hydropower stations, 'Kotlibhel 1B'. He found that while the benefit in terms of power and employment generation was Rs 155.5 crore, the environmental, health and livelihood cost was Rs 798.7 crore. "The problem is that the environmental cost is never monetised," he says. These can be manifold - Jhunjhunwala notes, for example, that the prized mahasir variety of fish in the river has been shrinking in size because it is unable to migrate as freely as before. "Holding the Ganga waters in a reservoir and releasing only a minimal amount is not the same as aviral flow," he adds. He says that the blocking of the original river starts at the Maneri Bhali 1 project on the Bhagirathi River (which later combines with the Alakananda and is called the Ganga).Indeed, the Ganga's tributaries, too, deserve more attention. "There will be no rejuvenation of the Ganga if its largest tributary, the Yamuna, is not tackled at the same time," says Mishra of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan. "The Yamuna runs for 1,400 km, but after its first 178 km, and well before it enters Delhi, it has ceased to exist. What enters Delhi is not the Yamuna but sewage water, since the waters have been diverted to the Western and Eastern Yamuna canals, with only 160 cusecs allowed to pass through at the Hathnikund barrage in the name of minimum environmental flow. Similarly, with the Ganga, there is no flow left after the Narora dam."Finally, the Ganga's religious sanctity also requires taking its aviral dhara more seriously. "Electricity and irrigation are all very well, but it is the government's responsibility to ensure that the original flow is maintained at all costs," says spiritual leader Morari Bapu. He and others recall a historical agreement the British rulers entered into in 1916, at the insistence of Madan Mohan Malaviya, while they were building the first Ganga canal, by which all Ganga projects planned upstream of Haridwar would have to seek the consent of the Hindu community first. However, this rarely happens.The NDA government has plans for interlinking rivers and reviving inland river waterways, none of which can work unless the rivers have sufficient flow. Some of these suggestions make no sense to experts. Thakkar recalls that at the Ganga Manthan festival in July 2014, Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Shipping, had said that large stretches of the Ganga would be made navigable, with a barrage every 100 km. "Such barrages will only kill the river further," he says.Again, the Sabarmati River in Gujarat is often held up by the NDA as an instance of successful rejuvenation, but many have warned that the same approach will not work with the Ganga. "The amount of silt and sand in the Ganga is different, the aquatic life is different, the variations in flow, the pattern of the monsoons in the North and in the West, are all different," says Tare of IIT Kanpur.Whatever specific solutions are considered, aviral dhara is the key. "If the flow is maintained, the nirmalta (cleanliness and clarity) of the river water is automatically ensured," says Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan. "We have spent 30 years trying to clean the Ganga and 20 years doing the same with the Yamuna; both rivers have gone from bad to worse. The mistake was in believing that fixing the sewage would ensure the river's health. It did not. The Ganga is dying due to various factors such as dwindling flow, artificial barriers, loss of catchment vegetation, encroachments on its flood plains, massive extraction of sand from its banks and more. Sewage is far from being the only problem."Rajendra Singh, hailed as the 'Waterman of India' for his work in greening Alwar district in Rajasthan, and a former member of the NGRBA, notes that the Ganga is repeatedly used as a political tool even as its welfare is neglected. He says that the idea of cleaning the Ganga first came during the 1972 'First Earth Summit' at Stockholm, when PM Indira Gandhi was shown how the Stockholm River was decontaminated. She asked her officers to take note of it, so the Ganga could be cleaned similarly. After her death, Rajiv Gandhi found it in Indira's notes, and that's how, for the first time, Ganga found mention in the 1984 Congress election manifesto. "Narendra Modi played the Ganga card while contesting from Varanasi in the last Lok Sabha poll, mentioned the river in many of his speeches and created a special ministry for it," he says. "But what has the ministry done so far? This government talks of interlinking rivers and building hydropower projects rather than aviral dhara. That is because there is a lot of money in exploiting the Ganga through dams and power projects or even by trying to clean it up. There is little money in letting it flow."Source: Muddied Waters

you are ignorant od current situationbelow is the success dataStartup Watchlist: 12 Indian Agritech Startups To Watch Out For In 201FeaturesStartup Watchlist: 12 Indian Agritech Startups To Watch OutIndian Agritech Startups Raised About $36 Mn In 2017This article is part of Inc42’s Startup Watchlist annual series where we list the top startups to watch for 2018 from industries like Agritech, Logistics, Blockchain etc. Explore all the stories from ‘Startup Watchlist’ series here“Farming is a profession of hope.” And India holds the record for the second-largest agricultural land in the world, with around 60% rural Indian households making their living from agriculture.This not only speaks about millions of hopes associated with agriculture but also points out to the huge scope for agritech startups in the country to make those hopes of Indian farmers come true.Likewise, the central and state governments are proactively pursuing policies to improve farmers’ lives in India. In fact, PM Modi’s government has an aim to double the average farmer’s income by 2022. No wonder, agritech became the new buzz word in the Indian startup ecosystem in 2017 and a hot topic for discussion in most of the startup conferences and events in India.As per Inc42 Datalabs, the size of agriculture and allied activities in the country underwent a near100% growth between FY14 and FY15. Agricultural exports increased from $24.7 Bn in 2011-12 to $32.08 Bn in 2015-16; a CAGR of more than 6.75%.But a drop in landholdings (average 1.4 hectares), small and fragmented land holdings, a decreasing agricultural land versus a growing population, decreasing groundwater levels, poor quality of seeds, and lack of mechanisation are some of the challenges for the growth of agriculture in India.And that’s not enough, an absence of an organised marketing structure for produce, malpractices in the existing unorganised agricultural markets, inadequate facilities for transportation and storage, scarcity of credit, and limited access to superior technology are some of the many afflictions which obstruct the Indian agricultural sector.Thus comes a massive opportunity for agritech startups in India.Opportunities lie in areas like how to increase crop production, improving the nutritional value of the crops, reduction in input prices for farmers, improving the overall process-driven supply chain, and reducing wastage in the distribution system, among others.Agritech startups are also leveraging technology in the area of market linkages such as retail, B2C and B2B marketplaces and digital agronomy startups. They are now able to address input challenges of agriculture in India from the very beginning.The agritech startups are able to provide correct information, techniques, and efficiencies to farmers both for pre-harvest applications and post-harvest use cases. Accenture estimates the digital agriculture services market to hit $4.55 Bn by 2020, thus pointing out to the ample scope of growth for agritech startups in the country.How Did Agritech Fare In India In 2017Within the last two years, as agriculture has come back into the public mindset, there has been an increased interest in investing in this sector.As per Inc42 DataLabs, around $36 Mn was invested in 15 startups in the space in 2017. Out of these, Pune-based agritech startup AgroStar raised the highest funding of $10 Mn Series B funding led by Accel India in March this year. Mirroring Agrostar in its funding amount was Noida-based EM3 Agri Services which offers pay-per-use farm services for every step of the cultivation process and raised $10 Mn in a Series B funding round led by Global Innovation Fund (GIF) in August.Following closely was Bengaluru-based B2B agritech startup, Farm Taaza, that raised $8 Mn Series A funding in a round led by Epsilon Venture Partners in October.As we close the year and the agritech rage continues unabated, with investors such as Omnivore Partners, Future Venture Capital Company Ltd. (FVCCL) and IDG Venture among others continuing to pour money in the sector, here’s our pick of 12 agritech startups to watch out for in 2018.A List Of Indian AgriTech Startups To Watch Out For In 2018CrofarmFounded in May 2016 by Prashant Jain and Varun Khurana, Crofarm is an F2B (Farm to Business) venture. According to the website, it has over 10,000 farmers in its network and has partnered with Reliance Retail, Grofers, Big Basket, Jubilant Foodworks, Big Bazar and Metro Foods.Crofarm generates revenue through commission, starting from nearly 5% of the price in case of less perishables like potato and onions. It makes a commission of around 15% of the price of green vegetables, and 20-25% in case of fruits and exotics.The company procures products that have a longer shelf life from national sourcing zones and other products from regional sourcing zones.Crofarm Fact SheetIn August this year, the agritech startup secured about $783K from a consortium of investors, including US-based Factor[E] Ventures; Rajan Anandan, VP of Google Southeast Asia and India and Jitendra Gupta, MD of PayU India. Prior to that in August 2016, it raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Mukul Singhal and Rohit Jain, former Principals at SAIF Partners.When it comes to competition, the agritech startups that are in the same space include – Ninjacart, MeraGrocer, Buy Fresh Fruits & Vegetables Online in Delhi NCR and GrocerMax.The Farm-to-Business, Crofarm attacks one of the biggest inefficiency in agriculture wastage during distribution and selling of farm produce. By building a digitised agri-supply chain for fruits and vegetables that is efficient and has zero wastage, it increases the incomes of both farmers and neighbourhood retailers.Farmers using the Crofarm platform reportedly earn 25% more than what they would if they sold the produce to mandis (markets).No wonder, it claims to have served more than 10,000 farmers from Delhi-NCR, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and is currently servicing over 100 small and medium-sized retailers through its distribution centres.With clients such as Reliance Retail, Grofers, Big Basket, etc., Crofarm is one agritech startup that is addressing a key problem in agriculture by efficient utilisation of technology.Aarav Unmanned SystemsAn unmanned aerial vehicle startup incubated at IIT Kanpur with a team of designers, artists, developers, and engineers from IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IISc Bangalore & IIST, Aarav Unmanned Systems aims to build the future of drones and their applications in the enterprise space.The startup’s drones provide high-value engineering solutions to enterprises across GIS (geographic information system) surveying/mapping, industrial inspection and precision agriculture. Thus it holds the potential for making precision agriculture scalable in the country which is far behind in employing technology.Aarav Unmanned Systems Fact SheetBy providing accurate 3D representations of the terrain surface, it can transform and change the way decisions are made in agriculture through its solutions to optimise irrigation, fertilisation, pesticide distribution and early failure warnings.In February 2016, the agritech startup raised an undisclosed amount in Seed funding from StartupXseed Ventures, The Phoenix Fund, and other investors.Related Article: Food Startup YCook Raises $5 Mn Series B Funding From 021 Capital, OikoCreditAibonoFounded by IIT Madras graduate Vivek as Airwood Aerostructures and rebranded as Aibono in January, the agritech company provides farm-related intelligence, technology, expertise and gadgets to farmers.Engaging in precision agriculture, the company helps small farmers gain from economies of scale by sharing resources and expertise. The agritech startup also advises farmers on the right amount of inputs to use for maximum yield.Aibono began in the niche area of providing Farm Management-as-a-Service whereby, a farmer gets to outsource his entire measurement, production management and decision-making processes to a Service.Aibono Fact SheetIt provides this service on a sharing basis deploying a shared Farm Manager along with shared instruments mapping the data onto the cloud. Its centrally managed Data Science and Recommendation Engines enabled by its data scientists and agronomists give precise day-to-day interventions to farmers, enabling a 30-50% increase in yields.Aibono has helped increase yields by nearly 50% for some 140 farmers it works within the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu. Given the dire need for precision agriculture in India’s $300 Bn agritech industry, Aibono’s prospects look great in the coming times.CropInCropIn integrates the agricultural sector with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by putting a network of ERP and BI (Business Intelligence) across rural India. By doing so, the agritech startup collaborates with the different value chain participants along the supply chain to monitor farm produce status closely.The agritech startup provides farm businesses a farm management software and mobile app, which enables them to do connected and data-driven farming.CropIn Fact SheetIn September this year, the Bengaluru-based agritech startup raised an undisclosed amount of Pre-Series A funding from Singapore-based Beenext, Ankur Capital and Invested Development. With this round of funding the total funds raised by the startup has increased to about $4 Mn. Last year, the startup had raised $2 Mn from Denmark based Sophia Investment.CropIn allows farm businesses to take advantage of real-time data and insight from farms (an accurate view of their operation throughout the growing season) and to improve financial, operational, and agronomy aspects. The company harnesses cutting-edge technologies – Big Data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Geo-tagging & Satellite monitoring to revolutionise the agri-ecosystem.Closely competing with Aibono, CropIn is currently present in 12 countries with a customer base of 120 clients and enriching the lives of 500,000 + farmers. The startup claims to have digitised about 2.1 Mn acres of land.By leveraging technology to facilitate data-driven farming and expand its presence in Southeast Asia and African countries, CropIn sits at the helm of startups which could effectively bring the benefits of SaaS to agriculture.Gold FarmThe origin of farm equipment aggregator Gold Farm can be traced back to Surya Power Magic, which was founded by Abhilash Thirupathy in December 2012 to educate farmers about solar water pumps. The Multilateral Investment Firm-backed company has assisted more than 750 irrigation pump owners in Karnataka harness solar power.To reach a wider section of the farming population, Thirupathy along with Karthic Ravindranath forayed into the farm services sector with Gold Farm. Launched in March 2016, the startup applies the concept of on-demand to farm mechanisation.Gold Farm Fact SheetAs an aggregator, Gold Farm partners with local entrepreneurs, who can invest in tractors and other agricultural machinery. These types of equipment are, in turn, rented out at the village level on an hourly basis.The aggregator platform currently boasts a user base comprising of 25,000 farmers from three village districts in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. At present, it takes a 10% to 15% cut from each transaction.What makes it promising is the fact that it allows farmers the availability of farm mechanisation equipment without owning them. Given that most farmers struggle on account of this, the success of the model speaks for itself.As per Thirupathy, the farm equipment aggregator has a 75% repeat customer rate. By leveraging IoT for demand generation and tracking, Gold Farm’s prospects look bright as it endeavours to make farm mechanisation equipment more accessible to farmers across all village districts in Karnataka.The agritech startup which counts Mahindra & Mahindra and Infuse Ventures as its investors compete with FarMart and Trringo in this space.NinjacartDue to marginal farming, poor logistics and zero market information, a number of middlemen get involved in sourcing the produce from farmers to markets. As a result, the farmer gets only one-fourth of what the consumer pays and also there is much wastage in the supply chain.It is this problem which Ninjacart addresses-cutting out the middlemen from the supply chain. In the last one year, it focussed on building a cost-efficient, reliable and scalable supply chain that can handle 300+ tonnes a day.NinjaCart has been founded interestingly by the former head of TaxiForSure, Thirukumaran Nagarajan, along with four more co-founders. Initially, it worked as an on-demand grocery delivery company and later pivoted to an end-to-end B2B agri marketing platform.Ninjacart Fact SheetToday, it moves 60+ tonnes of produce a day from farm to store in less than 14 hours at a cost lower than traditional supply chains. As a result, it helps over 2,000 farmers to sell more than 80 vegetables and fruits every day to 800+ retailers and restaurants in Bengaluru and claims to have less than 4% wastage in the entire supply chain.The Bengaluru-based B2B agri-marketing platform counts a slew of backers such as Accel Partners, Nandan Nilekani’s NRJN Trust, Mistletoe, Qualcomm Ventures, and M&S Partners. It competes with Crofarm in the same space.WaycoolWayCool aims to fix the disorganised perishable supply chain. It is an omnichannel fresh produce distribution company that distributes fruits and vegetables to multiple end-use segments spanning small local shops, modern retail outlets. The company has a retail presence currently in Chennai, through the SunnyBee brand, operating retail stores, mobile stores on trucks. In addition, there are a number of private label products that SunnyBee produces and brands through partnerships with sister companies.India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world and presents a significant opportunity for private players to profitably organise perishable produce value chains. This is what Waycool is hoping to leverage.Waycool Fact SheetThe agritech startup now claims to have over 20,000 farmers on board and says that by tying up with Waycool, farmers have been able to increase their earnings by 25%. It has also made it a point to network with small farmers rather than larger establishments; about 45% of its produce comes from farmers having less than two acres of land.Given that majority of farmers in India fall under this category, Waycool has a big opportunity to unlock the potential of these farmers and in the process reduce wastage in the supply chain.EM3 Agri ServicesFarm mechanisation services company EM3 Agri was established in 2014 by the father son-duo of Rohtash Mal and Adwitiya Mal. EM3 Agri provides pay-per-use farm services for every step of the cultivation process, including land development, land preparation, seeding, sowing, planting, crop care, harvesting and post-harvest field management.ADVERTISEMENTFarmers can access these services through a mobile app, and can also seek assistance from the company’s local fulfilment centre or “Samadhan Kendra.”With two-thirds of India’s farms smaller than a hectare, most of the small-hold farmers rely on manual labour as they cannot afford capital equipment such as advanced farm implements, tractors and harvesters.EM3 Agri Fact SheetIt is this problem which EM3 Agri aims to address through its farming-as-a-Service (FaaS) model. EM3 provides a solution to this problem by offering an entire range of interventions, from soil preparation to harvesting, where farmers pay a service fee on a per hour or per acre basis.These services are cheaper than hiring manual labour, with service levels guaranteed by the company. Depending on the services, this could range from $23 (INR 1,500) per acre to level ou the land; if the farmer is setting up rice nurseries, it can go up to $54 (INR 3,500).As per Rohtash, mechanisation brings down costs by about 25% and increases productivity by nearly 20%. In the last three years, EM3 Agri has serviced more than 8,000 farms across central India.In August this year, EM3 Agri secured $10 Mn in Series B funding from UK-based Global Innovation Fund (GIF) and existing investor, Aspada Investments. In June 2015, the startup raised $3.3 Mn Series A funding from Aspada Investments. Triingo (a Mahindra company), and Zamindara are some other startups in this space.By August this year, the startup was clocking average monthly sales of $156K (INR 1 Cr), a sign that FaaS as a model holds much potential.Intello LabsThe Bengaluru based agritech startup offers a product DIGITAL AGRI which uses computer vision algorithms to see the minutest detail on every plant and harness human intelligence to grade agricultural commodities.Intello Labs aims to revolutionize agriculture by enabling farmers, traders, millers, retailers and end users in communication though images for product quality, infestation, plant health or even soil conditions.Intello Labs uses Artificial Intelligence and deep learning for crop quality parameters like crop infestation, nutrient deficiency harvest quality evaluation of fruits, vegetables, grains and other crops and farm to fork commodities etc.The startup was also recognised as one of India’s Most Innovative Top 50 Emerging Software Product Companies by Nasscom this year.Intello Labs Fact SheetThe startup use satellite and drone images for yield estimation, and water requirements. Farmers, procurers, field agents or quality professionals can just click an image of the crop or harvested produce and Intello Labs can provide precise insights from the images.Thus it has immense potential in digital agriculture in the country, in eliminating wastage, in food grain quality grading, and in reducing crop losses due to diseases. AI can enable farmers to switch to smarter techniques to control crop infestation and reduce human interference and this is where Intello Labs’ strength lies.FarmLinkMumbai-based FarmLink is an agritech startup that functions as a supplier of value-added fresh produce. It currently specialises in end-to-end supply chain of fruits and vegetables. The company launched its commercial operations last year, and counts Star Bazaar and Vista Processed Foods as its clients.FarmLink is also in the process of piloting its B2B analytical tool, FarmTrace, which as its name suggests is aimed at helping clients track the location of the produce in the farm-to-shelf cycle.By working with local producers, FarmLink is yet another agritech startup involved in improving the supply chain from farm to shelf, one of the major pain points for farmers in India. FarmLink also promises a secured source of income for farmers through long term off-take agreements.FarmLink Fact SheetIn addition to offering support to enhance the quality and yield of crops, the agritech startup is striving to provide farmers with knowledge and extension services, geared towards improved planning and productivity, efficient adoption of scientific practices as well as stabilisation of payments and finances.In November this year, it closed $3 Mn (INR 20 Cr) funding in a round led by investment firm-cum-incubator Pioneering Ventures and agrochemical company Syngenta. Waycool operates in the same space.So far, the company has established four distribution and collection centres in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana, which are being used to procure supplies from more than 700 farmers across these three states.With the fundraise from Pioneering Ventures and Syngenta, the company is planning to increase the number of farmers on its platform to 3,000. Of this, around 40% to 50% of the new farmers will be onboarded over the next 12 months.Given that high wastage across the value chain is a big inefficiency in Indian agriculture, FarmLink’s approach to increase digitisation across the supply chain will find both many takers as well as increased competition in the coming years.Gramco Infratech Pvt LtdIndore-based Gramco primarily operates in the vicinity of villages and producing areas where it is involved in creating and leasing full service agri-infrastructure to the farmers.The infrastructure it provides spans across inputs, warehousing, collateral finance and contract farming/seed production, fully automated handling/cleaning/grading and procurement of agri-commodities by creating market links for farmers.Gramco Fact SheetGramco’s vision is to be “a complete solution provider ” right from the sowing to marketing. Integration of farm services and making available infrastructure closer to the growing areas is the need of the hour. Thus it aims to reach out and empower the farmers and give them the opportunity that so far was mainly the domain of the traders. Through offering world class infrastructure with Farm Extension Services, Inputs, Post Harvest Infrastructure and value addition, and assisting farmers sell their produce at one location, it aims to truly empower the farmers.The agritech startup which has managed to raise $2.3 Mn from The SamridhFund now offers value-added services to more than 3,000 farmers every season in MP, thus slowly changing the face of post-harvest ecosystem in rural India.TessolOwned and operated by Thermal Energy Service Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Tessol was founded by Rajat Gupta, an alumnus of IIT Delhi and Harvard, in 2013. Rajat founded Tessol in 2013 with a vision of creating a farm to fork cold supply chain.Rajat felt,“There was a lot of focus on energy generation, with solar and wind, but nothing was being done on the energy storage side.” He decided to dig deeper and realised that while the technology exists for thermal energy storage, it hadn’t really caught on.Tessol’s breakthrough, as per him , is the design of a heat exchange unit that can be charged at any power outlet in about six hours. Once charged, the unit will keep the refrigerator on the reefer truck within the optimal temperature for a full-day’s operation.Tessol Fact SheetUsing its energy storage technology, Tessol’s cold storage and transportation solutions eliminate the use of fossil fuel for cold chain transport systems. Its PLUGnCHILL range of products for transport refrigeration use the proprietary PCM heat exchanger technology to provide 60% cost savings while eliminating the use of any fuel. Tessol products are marketed pan India and are being launched in the UAE for the middle-eastern market.As mentioned before, India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, and presents a significant opportunity for private players to profitably organise perishable produce value chains.No wonder its fuel-free technology is being used by companies across poultry, horticulture, dairy and frozen food sectors including Godrej Tyson, Abad Fisheries, Mother Dairy, Chitale and Fortis hospitals. The firm has already customised 200 cold chain vehicles with modular TES units for bakeries, fruit and vegetable vendors, dairy and ice cream manufacturers and e-commerce, food processing, poultry and seafood companies.The agritech startup counts Infuse Ventures and Ankur Capital as its investors. The startup plans to expand its sales and service network across India and create more products. Rajat expects to break even if Tessol can sell between 300 and 400 units a year.In April this year, the startup was one of the six winners of the prestigious Startup Energy Transition awards instituted by the Deutsche Energie–Agentur, the German Energy Agency, for innovative business ideas in energy transition from across the world.Given that there is a dire need for innovative cold storage solutions to tackle the problem of agricultural produce going bad when in storage, Tessol has a good shot in this space. Rajat expects to break even if Tessol can sell between 300 and 400 units a year.