IFAT India 2014: "India’s environmental technology sector is confident” 

On October 11, the second edition of IFAT India – International Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Refuse and Recycling – concluded successfully, underlining itself as the leading platform for environmental technology in India. Exhibitors and visitors were equally satisfied and confirmed the importance of this trade fair for the highly promising Indian market.

Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Urban Development of the Government of India, said: “We looked for a platform that provides a good stage for the stakeholders to understand more about the new opportunities and weave their future plans to make advantage of the same. It should also provide municipal and government authorities the opportunity to witness the solutions for environment technology under one roof and we look forward to IFAT India to assist in this endeavor.”

Gerhard Gerritzen, Deputy Managing Director of Messe München, commented: "As regards to environmental technology, there is much potential in India; with the new government and the investment in the environmental sector that is being planned, the sector can look to the future with confidence”. Bhupinder Singh, Deputy CEO of MMI India, added: “This year the quality of visitors was much appreciated by the exhibitors. There are already several projects on environment that are undertaken with the involvement of the private sector and the government. IFAT India serves an important market and we felt this clearly in the last three days."

Once again around 5,000 trade visitors took part in India’s leading environmental technology trade show; and again this year the exhibitors made particular mention of the professional quality among the visitors.

Raja Bhujle, Managing Director of Sovereign Tech, said: “IFAT India 2014 has been much more productive in terms of responses than last year. We hope that the authorities and regulators take the benefit of selecting and deploying proven technology that is being exhibited this year.”

In total 123 exhibitors presented their products and solutions at the show. Hall 5 at the Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) in Mumbai was again well filled, as the exhibition took up 5,000 square meters of exhibition space. Around 63 percent of the exhibiting firms came from outside India – for example from Italy, the UK and the US. International interest in the event was also reflected in the national pavilions from Austria, China, Germany and Switzerland.

S. Sundararaj, Customer Relations Manager of NETZSCH, stated that “IFAT India creates a wonderful environment to conduct business. Events such as IFAT India 2014 are appealing for visitors and are more beneficial for the exhibitors as well.“

For the first time IFAT India offered its trade visitors an extensive technical and scientific supporting program: Indian and International experts from science, universities and pollution control boards presented the latest developments and practical solutions. As well as talks given by the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (Deutsche Vereinigung für Wasserwirtschaft, Abwasser und Abfall – DWA), there were also presentations by German Water Partnership (GWP) and the German Society for International Cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit – GIZ).

Sachin Rasal from ROOTS Multiclean Ltd. noted: “In comparison to last year, there is an increase in the number of visitors. We are also looking forward to a good response from both the industry and the government. Trade fairs like IFAT India 2014 primarily help to get connected with new prospective customers and to benefit from emerging opportunities.“

In 2014, as in the previous year, the GIZ “All Environmental Journalism Competition Awards” were presented on the first day of the fair. As well as winners in the categories of Print, TV, Radio, Internet and Photography, an award was also presented to the best contribution on the subject of the rejuvenation of the Ganges. Michael Steiner, the German Ambassador to India, presented the "Clean Ganga Award" to Nitin Sethi, Associate Editor from Business Standard.

Steiner further underlined that "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ganga rejuvenation priority is an excellent example that India is thinking big. The Clean Ganga Fund is a brilliant idea."