Water ATMS - Is the Govt Blind ?

Recently, there was a news that the Delhi Govt is setting up 250 Water ATMs across the city. With a huge budget obviusly. But what about its maintenance ? Is any agency appinted to take care of these machines ? The vendor who's supplying these machines is usually appointed through the tender system. Is he held responsible ? Will his performance be measured against regularly maintaining and submitting reports to authorities ?

There are enough evidences which can easily prove that these govt funded projects alone won't work. I know many business owners who don't do the govt work, just because of the heavy corruption in the tendering system. This is also not different. 

Recently, in a news, I read that, In Amritsar, nearly 20 machines are observed to be not functining at all. There are many cases like this about the defunct machines. Those working well, do they come into picture ? We've published a story on our YouTube channel, which is about a privately run ATM. 

The govt job doesn't end at making news from it but completing the loop.

Calculating exact need, appointing suitable vendors and payment will be on three performance basis. 

How can there be different vendors for machine supply, and running them ? If there are, their payment should be linked to the proof of the value delivered through them.

Machines supplied through CSR is also the same story. Recently I saw this is the state of CSR supplied machines with a noble cause :

What you see above is a bottle recycling unit installed on Platform no 1 of Talegaon Railway Station. 

And this one is from Swargate State public bus station in Pune. This was inaugurated very recently. But absolutely no care about maintaining.

Just news, no value.

Working Capital :- Please Spend Time on This

Enormous number of businesses fail here : Not knowing Finance. And believe me, it's not that complex as we think. I too, am not a Finance fella. I'm an engineer.

The time we think we should spend on tech things, if we spend equal time on Finance, the number of failed businesses will definitely reduce : I assure.

Fact about entrepreneurs :-

• They know they would be needing Money to Buy Machinery & Equipment
• Many of them are also smart enough to raise funding
• Many of them knows the Govt Schemes
• They also know they require Working Capital

But that doesn't mean they know Finance. It's more a Monitoring/Controlling thing, than knowing. And this needs time to invest in the game.

I see entrepreneurs offload this work to the "Finance" guy and escape the dirty ( not exactly ) work. But the work, which they think "Dirty" is the real work a Business Owner needs to care about. 

Why is this "Escape" tendency ?

One very simple reason is that we don't teach/talk enough about Finance in homes/schools/colleges. And it's often confused with "Accounts". It's more record keeping; however finance is to deal with Decisions on the basis of some important metrics.

Coming Back to Working Capital

Forget all else, but at least understand this, as it is the thing which will make/break your business. Don't escape.

Usually I don't do much link-building here, but do read the article on our main website 

Who Decided This Price ?

Whenever anybody wants to start a new Bottling Plant, he/she has a pakka conviction in mind ... 

I have to sell at Rs.20 ( as of today 🙏 )

How have you arrived at this cost ?

If you ask this question, the answer is " Because whole market does that ". Unlike other products, the Packaged Drinking Water Price in Indian Market is Rs. 20.

It's NOT regulated 

But who says it's "the" price ? You can go below ( as Jio has done ) or you can surpass as well. It is not regulated that you SHOULD sell at Rs. 20. 

Then Why no-one dares to do that ?

Fear of Rejection :-

Everyone feels that he will be rejected. And yes, possibilities are very high. As all others : The Big 3 : Bisleri, Kinley, Aquafina charge Rs. 20. If Aquafina, Kinley couldn't dare changing it , how can I ? : That's the fear in the mind. 

Can I reverse the tradition ?

Why Not ? I remember referring to a case with Akio Morita, the SONY superman. In very initial days he reversed the tradition of increasing discounts with increased quantity. Rather he proposed different pricing for different sized lots. Some cases, more no. of lots attracted more price per lot. As it was NOT suitable to SONY. 

So, It can't be Market Driven Always

Who says, it should be 20, always ? If it can come to Rs. 15, It can also go to Rs. 25, or can also come to Rs. 12. So far the cost per bottle ( 1 Ltr ) remains at 6.25; you can always keep that as a base price, and decide your ultimate selling price.

Further Strategies can be Decided

Once this fear is removed from your mind; you can always go further and do some out of box thinking. The easiest will be not going the Distributor way, which eats up your major chunk. Anyways, this is not a place to decide the exact strategy, but to explore the possibility of deciding a different price altogether.

The Technical Solution is Not Everything

Recently, I was approached by a society who are now facing acute water shortage issues as this year 2026, the rainfall is expected to be little lower than usual, hampering the local municipal water supply to the society. They had an open well, and invited me to offer solution to this whole thing as to how they can make use of that.​

I did the reiki, got their water tested etc. During this process I also proposed them a solution, the technical solution, very broadly. Naturally we even discussed the likely ball park figure of how much will be the cost etc. As expected the said that the society would go for tenders before allotting the work. Perfectly Fine. Till this time there was no point to charge them any fees. 

Now it was the time that they need exact specifications of the equipment, as well as the cost components as these are the new elements which attract certain one time costs and certain recurring type. After listing and detailing, it will give them the cost to benefit in terms of money.

And this needed some time at my end to calculate and I also demanded certain consultation fees, which was rejected by them smartly. Over feeling bad, I truly felt little pity about 2-3 things ( contemplation ) :-

• My fees was not at all huge.
• They thought "we've got ball park figures, no need of such a report at the moment".
  
• We'll make the tender specs with AI and we have so many experts present in house, why pay an outsider ?

Whatever be it, but when I relate this to any project ( Ideas ), I sincerely suggest to get the idea's financial validity and impacts it would make. Establishment is just one aspect. What's going to get affected is the Cost in terms of Money which you're going to pay for years maybe. More so over if unfortunately it doesn't work out.