Member Spotlight

Anil Sethi, Founder & Chairman – Pump Academy

Pump Academy Private Limited is a deep-tech water technology company that transforms pumping stations and treatment plants into intelligent, data-driven infrastructure. Through its flagship platform iPUMPNET, the company combines AI and Industrial IoT to deliver real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance, and operational optimisation for water utilities and industrial pumping systems across India

What led you to focus on improving visibility and performance in pumping infrastructure?

My inspiration grew from a simple but persistent observation made over many years of working directly with water infrastructure across India. Pumping stations and treatment plants are the invisible backbone of every water utility and industrial operation, yet they are often almost entirely blind to their own condition.

During site visits, I frequently found pumps running well below their design efficiency, consuming excess energy, vibrating beyond safe limits, or moving toward failure without operators having clear visibility. Most systems still relied on scheduled inspections, manual readings, and reactive responses after something had already gone wrong.

What troubled me most was that the technology to change this already existed. Sensors, connectivity, and data analytics had transformed many other industries, yet adoption in water infrastructure remained limited. I believed that if we could combine engineering expertise with modern digital intelligence, we could give pumping stations the visibility they deserve and help utilities operate them more efficiently and reliably.

With more than five decades of experience across water, energy, and infrastructure, how has your professional journey shaped your approach to innovation?

Five decades in this field have provided something no textbook can fully offer; a layered understanding of how infrastructure systems succeed or fail in the real world. I have been involved in the planning, design, and execution of water supply systems, pumping installations, wastewater infrastructure, and large urban development programmes.

Early in my career, the focus was largely on building the infrastructure that a growing nation urgently needed. Over time, however, I began to see a recurring pattern: we were very good at building systems, but often less disciplined about operating them over their full lifecycle. Assets would degrade faster than expected, energy bills would rise, and breakdowns would arrive as surprises rather than as managed events.

This experience shaped my belief that the next frontier in water infrastructure is not simply construction, but intelligent operation, ensuring that systems perform at their true potential throughout their operational lives.

How do you see digitalisation and data analytics shaping the future of water infrastructure?

Digitalisation will not simply improve water infrastructure; it will fundamentally change how utilities manage their assets and operations. For many years, utilities have operated with limited visibility, relying on periodic inspections and operator experience rather than continuous data.

With modern data analytics, utilities can move toward asset management based on evidence rather than assumption. When operators can see how individual pumps, motors, and system components are performing in real time, decisions become more precise and maintenance can be better planned.

Predictive maintenance is an important part of this shift. Instead of discovering a problem after a failure occurs, utilities can identify the early signals of developing faults and intervene before service disruptions happen. Over time, this can significantly reduce unplanned downtime and improve operational reliability. Looking ahead, technologies such as digital twins and AI-driven optimisation will allow utilities to simulate system behaviour, test operational scenarios, and continuously improve performance.

What advice would you give to young professionals who want to make an impact in the water sector?

Water is not a niche sector; it is the foundational resource on which everything else depends. The challenges of delivering reliable and efficient water services to growing populations, while addressing climate pressures and ageing infrastructure, are among the most important engineering and management problems of our time.

My first advice is to build depth before breadth. Spend time understanding how real infrastructure systems operate in the field. Visit pumping stations and treatment plants, and learn from the operators who manage these systems every day. At the same time, the future of the sector lies in the integration of engineering and digital thinking. The next generation of professionals will need to understand both the physical infrastructure and the data-driven tools that increasingly support it. Finally, be patient with the pace of change in this sector. Water utilities are understandably cautious because they provide critical public services. Innovation must therefore be reliable, practical, and built on trust.