Hello friends,

I welcome you all to the Spotlight series of the rise.in. I am Srijan Narayan. SMB connect is one of the largest networks of SMEs in India. We have organised over hundred conferences and seminars. Business leaders share their knowledge and experience in our spotlight series. We are very excited to have Namita Banka of Banka bio who has joined us to share his incredible journey.

Q: Ma'am, first of all, we would like to know how did you begin?

A: I had a long start - as they say, the longer it is, the more beautiful it becomes. I began in the year 2000 when we used to live in Surat. My husband had gone to Germany to study. Then I decided I should do something sitting at home. I studied at the University of Delhi, and I always wanted to do something, I come from a Marwari family, where we are not encouraged to do something of our own. So, I started a jewellery business in the year 2000. After setting up my firm in 2001-02 till 2008 I did my business of jewellery design and manufacturing. After that, I moved to Hyderabad with my husband, and I had to change my field and career as there was not much scope for jewellery work and my children were small so going out and working was not an option. So, I started a business promoting green products from home in 2008. That is how I began. I started learning more about green and sustainability products and I have come thus far in that journey. It was a field that attracted me as I got a chance to do something for the Earth, this gave me satisfaction. That is how I started.

Q: This is about starting with the green initiative, tell us how you formed the present company and how you think about it, how did you choose this industry?

A: When I came to Hyderabad in 2008 and could not pursue my jewellery business, I wanted to start something that was a bit different, I started working on the green initiative, and during that time I met a lot of people who were in the corporate field. Or those who used to believe in this initiative. Talking about sustainability had just begun in 2008. I met railway officials for whom I was promoting green products like recycled printers, recycled cartridges, pens made of paper, and recycled paper, and was creating awareness about them, so there they told me that railways have introduced green bio-toilets. I was surprised because I did not know that something like this existed. They told me they were doing this in a manner that the human excreta do not fall on the ground but collect in a tank. This will help railways maintain a clean toilet. When they told me about this, I found it innovative. I felt particularly good hearing this. As a traveller, I used to face problems as the toilets in the trains used to be very dirty. And after that, my journey towards public health and working with Indian railways to improve its quality and the focus on sanitation began. I slowly kept getting increasingly involved between 2009 and 2012. There was a company called Banka Enterprises that was a sole proprietary company, with that company I used to do liaisoning work, coordinating with the railways and those who supplied these toilets, we started working with them on how to make it better and improve it from a woman's point of view. When we started doing this and meeting officers, we learnt that there was no player in the industry nor was there feedback provided to designers and railway officers, they did not get any feedback from women on the toilet design or how to maintain them. When I started telling them all this, they took it constructively That is how I came to know of the bio-toilets being introduced by the railways with an MoU with the DRDO. I then expressed my interest in becoming a supplier. Indian railways encouraged me and told me, I could do it by putting up a factory and taking part in the tenders. I was already working so I had an idea about it. Immediately I put up a small factory in 2012 and I started applying for tenders and I got a contract, I first got a development tender, that is how my journey began. I had already taken up the work of operations and maintenance of bio-toilets as I did not need a factory for that. When I took that work, I showed them if we do operations and maintenance then the feeling of quality and the user experience increases. This we did in a one-year trial, after that, they felt that operations and maintenance should be mandatory. So gradually we got more involved. On 30th August 2012, we set up our new company Banka Bioloo Pvt. Ltd. We needed investments for our factory which we got investors. They could not set up my proprietary firm company, so they merged that company with this one and made us major shareholders. And that is how we began.

Q: Ma'am this is really interesting what you are telling us. This was about the beginning, tell us about the expansion, the products that you have now and what are your supplies.

A: We started with a bio-toilet and then we saw that apart from railways, once we learnt about this technology with DRDO, we realised it is beneficial in the rural areas as well. To tell you, in 2011-12 I did not know about open defecation. I had never been to a village and that is why I was unaware and when I learnt there is sixty-seven per cent open defecation in India, I felt sad. Initially, I did not know that such a thing exists and when I did - I felt we are such a developing country with a booming IT sector, how is it possible that this small thing is not available in the country? Then I started travelling to villages in 2012-13. I realised the need for this - that we need toilets, and they don’t just need a structure but also a treatment tank, need bio-digesters as well. When I learnt about this railways work was being done with the help of my partner as well. I wanted to do something in the rural areas. We launched bio-toilet nationally with CSR funds that we had received and DRDO inaugurated it in Dhamra in Odisha. It was a hit programme nationally which created a buzz in the centre and other places with phrases like 'there are more mobiles than toilets', these words were coined in 2012-13 which I saw with my own eyes. Jairam Ramesh who was water and sanitation minister had said if there is no toilet you won’t get a bride which is also a love story. The world noticed that this is a big problem in India and this problem needs to be solved. Construction of toilets - the whole business was in the hands of NGOs and the subsidies were not properly reaching the people. Now the subsidy is Rs 12000, when the Modi Govt announced the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the money given to construct a toilet increased to Rs 12000 from Rs 3000 earlier. This led to awareness that this is a problem, and it can be solved. The problem is huge, and I can’t do everything. I started telling everybody that we need this and please provide us with funds and solve our problems. We had an indigenous technology from DRDO which I liked, and we sell it even today, and that is what we have scaled and not just us, many have installed the toilets after taking the license of the technology and it is a national success. Trains of Indian railways have been converted to bio-toilets, every bogey has a bio-toilet fitted. There are about two lakh coaches now in the country and each is fitted with it and every new coach that will come - it will have a bio-toilet installed. It is an achievement that I believe in the last ten years, and I am very proud to be part of it.

Q: Congratulations ma'am. I am sure it will be a very satisfying journey; this was about how you began, tell us about the first expansion, you said you travelled to rural areas, tell us when you diversified your products.

A: We have not diversified a lot - the core is an on-site waste treatment plant - the core is to replace the septic tank. It is our core even today. We have just enhanced technologies around it and upgraded them because the requirement of water quality that existed seven years ago has become more stringent. We have upgraded our technologies and increased our reach in the urban and commercial spaces, in residential areas, and with construction companies. Our core products are two – a bio-toilet and a bio-digester which is a replacement for septic tanks and the superstructure which is a bio-toilet, we have also expanded in which we provide a service of the option of recycling water. So, the entire system is just that - water and sanitation. Water and sanitation are our goals and we have innovated small products - we made a footloo which consumes only one or two litres of water in a toilet, so with these innovations, we have increased its ambit. Then we started the faecal sludge treatment plant. There are thousands of septic tanks under Swachhta Abhiyan. No one knows what to do when it is filled up. So, we put it in a plant where we treat it. The faeces turn into manure and water is recycled that we use. This we scaled up, we made eleven such plants, so we kept our core and expanded gradually around it. This is our biggest success because I feel many times an entrepreneur in an SME is stuck with a product and is unable to expand then they go for another product which diminishes the core value. I also faced it - many times I felt it is not happening let’s leave it. Sticking to the core and expanding around it helped us scale up. If you ask for a solution for the water that comes out of a house and provide us with a solution - we do end-to-end total work in the value chain. We do everything. End to End.

Q: That is very interesting. The enthusiasm and excitement with which you are telling this it is really nice...Ma'am tell us about your turnover, how many employees you have employed, and what are the future expansion plans.

A: This is important to understand about an SME, as an entrepreneur I did not want to run this company only for myself. I wanted to create an organisation and expand it. In 2016 I called my husband and asked him to quit his job, he worked in an MNC. Gradually I started increasing my team, from two, we are five, we hired people from respective domains, and this made my team strong. That was team building, secondly, for fundraising we took help from others, and we went for an IPO – it gave me a chance to showcase ourselves in a larger platform and it increased the internal compliance level, and the internal strength of the company increased. Our base became strong. our foundation became strong. Today, whether I am around or not, the company will run. This is the foundation we made. It happened gradually and did not happen in a day. Bankers supported us, we supported our banks with timely repayment when we did all of this, there was no shortage of funds. Till about 2016, we faced difficulties after that those things started getting streamlined. When Mr Banka joined our company - he brought financial discipline into our system. Generally, an entrepreneur is like 'de do' 'kar do' 'chalo ho jayega', he got rid of that and brought discipline and gave a corporate structure, this was noticed by banks, and we started getting loans much more easily, and our schemes started getting approved and we largely started getting a lot of support. We do operational and maintenance work for Indian Railways - this has provided employment to eight hundred people all over India. Since we do pan India work - in total there are about eight-nine hundred people with us, we are headquartered in Hyderabad, but we do pan India work.

Q: Ma'am the journey you started you must have received recognition and prizes for them as well, tell us about that.

A: So, we got recognitions both in India and abroad. In the year before last, I got the WEP (Women Entrepreneurship Platform) award that we received from Venkaiah Naidu. We got Cartier's women initiative award in 2013 given by the Cartier group in Paris, where they mentor women entrepreneurs, they liked the idea, they liked the business and if it is a profitable business and everything is in place then they select it with a help of a jury, they gave us twenty thousand dollars which we invested in our machine. Then we got the Devi awards, I also got the Sankalp award in 2013 and I feel these awards have just helped me build the company over time because we also got cash awards and I learnt a lot as an entrepreneur and as an individual since the business was new and there was no peer who we could emulate. So, we did a lot by ourselves, and we have created this pathway for others to do as well. If we have to improve the sanitation of this country, we all will have to do it. I went to webinars and conferences, and I thank every one of them because today when they invite me, I have something to say, they give me a platform. Today when you invite me, I can say something and I am happy for that wherever I am called to do some mentorship or to impart training I ensure that I go by any means, I spare time for this.

Q: Ma'am you were telling me about your products, now I want some more clarity, I saw your website as well, and in it you mentioned water testing and the plant that you put up (faecal sludge) how does it work and if an individual wants to put it up, what are the requirements?

A: Faecal sludge treatment plant is implemented by governments; at an individual citizen level we don’t do it. Suppose there is a residential colony, you may have heard of gulpers or sewage septic tank trucks, when that tank gets filled it is taken out and thrown outside, what they throw away is dangerous as it is pathogenic. So, the Swachh Bharat mission is now Swachh Bharat mission ODF ++ (open defecation free plus plus) meaning that the excreta must not mix outside without treatment. First, we made the tank and the toilet, now that tank is a holding tank, a storage tank. What to do with those tanks when it gets filled. So, for that govt made a decision in the faecal sludge management system. In our technology, we collect it in a tank, we do a recirculation and we put a dose of an organic chemical, which separates the solids and liquid. We treat water separately and store the solid as well and we make a manure and distribute it. This is a simple technique which at the village panchayat levels and municipal level, can be done. We don’t test water commercially as of now. we just do the R&D so that we can make our systems better. So that we carry out improvements in a small space with a low price. We are DSI certified, and we put about 20-25 lakhs each year in R&D, this is our internal mandate that we will spend on R&D and expand this sector. We help those who seek help from us.

Q: You explained to me how you go about this, you were telling us how you have been working with Indian railways for the past many years, how many estimated toilets have you put for Indian railways?

A: We have put three thousand bio-toilets for Indian railways, but we maintain 15,000 toilets daily and we have put about 25,000 bio-toilets throughout India. Our revenue as you had asked earlier, gross revenue was about 48 crores last year. Let’s see how we do this year; we have a good target. Our annual growth is about 20-30 percent, we started with an annual revenue of 10 lakhs, and today we are at 50 (crores) roughly.

Q: That is a short but a very incredible journey, I am so glad you took time out to speak to us, beyond what is the other picture that you see, what are the other ways you want to see being done or you do it in the future?
A: They say entrepreneur ka dimag, 'khali dimaag shaitann ka ghar hota hai' so now are working on plastics. Plastic is a menace for us. We face plastic garbage. Right now, we are incubating, compostable material in our R&D. We will manufacture raw material needed to make single-use plastic. We are going to put up a factory for that in Hyderabad, at a cost of 3-4 crores, it is almost complete, and by December we will start that, but we will make only raw materials, we are not going to finish goods. My vision for that business is to make sure that there is an availability of genuine raw material because one can mix anything in the compostable mix, and no one gets to know. DRDO again, is a project of DRDO where they have come up with a technology where compostable raw material and finished goods can be manufactured. We are only focussing on raw materials where there should be Banka Bio's name and make genuine raw material for single-use plastic, there will be a lot of R&D, and there are different products, and packaging materials are there, we are right now doing it for carry bags only and then we will make it for films and then multi-films and all that which decomposes in nature in 6-8 months, maximum in a year, the five hundred one thousand years that we talk about is not there, this is our new beginning and I hope in four-five years we bring it to the fore.

A: All the best to you ma'am about this as well.

Thank you, Ma’am. It was a pleasure talking to you. Friends this was Namita Banka from Banka Bioloo Pvt. Ltd. who was sharing her experiences about this unbelievable business venture and I am sure everybody is infected by her enthusiasm, we were listening to your struggle and about your achievements, there is lot to learn from you. You inspired us. I thank you all for watching the spotlight series on SMB Connect’s the rise. If there is any question you have for a business leader that you want to ask about your business, then do email us at info@smbconnect.in, and we will try to get the answers from our experts. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to stay updated with the SME ecosystem.

Thank you for joining us.  We will bring another stalwart in our spotlight series in our next episode.