As India faces its worst water crisis, why we need to look at startups like Kheyti

#News(AgriTech) [ via IoTForIndiaGroup ]

In a recent tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed upon the vitality of increasing water use efficiency through sprinkler and drip irrigation, including in sugarcane cultivation.

This comes in the wake of the most severe water crisis that India is facing today, especially with our headlines full of Chennai’s ongoing water scarcity. According to a recent study by government think tank NITI Aayog, nearly 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress, with about two lakh people dying each year because of inadequate access to safe water. And the crisis is about to get worse.

The report adds that by 2030, India’s water demand will be twice its available supply, leading to severe water scarcity for hundreds of millions of people and an eventual loss of up to six percent in the country’s GDP.

Groundwater availability, which accounts for about 40 percent of India’s water supply, is getting depleted at an ‘unsustainable’ rate and about 70 percent of our water supply is contaminated resulting in illness, or worse, death. But the biggest impact of this water crisis is acutely lived and felt by the farmers of our country.

And as the government and various stakeholders seek larger enterprises to solve the issue, I would urge them to look at our startups too. For example, sowing the seed for farmer revolution is Hyderabad-based Kheyti, founded by Sathya Raghu V Mokkapati, Kaushik Kappagantulu, Saumya, and Ayush Sharma.

Read More..