Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath backs PM Narendra Modi’s call for better water data

Zerodha Founder Nithin Kamath

Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath has called for better data on India’s water resources, saying the country needs to understand the scale of its water problem before it can find effective solutions.

Nithin Kamath was responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent call for robust water data governance and greater use of artificial intelligence (AI) to collect and analyse water data. Modi made the remarks at the National Departmental Summit on Water on September 2, calling for water-sector data to be brought together and systematically managed and analysed.Nithin Kamath said water could become one of the defining issues of the coming years as climate change leads to more irregular monsoon patterns.

“Water is probably the thing we take most for granted, and it is going to become one of the defining issues of our times.”

Nithin Kamath says India faces a groundwater problem

Nithin Kamath pointed to groundwater use in several parts of India, including Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. “A lot of India is already under water stress. In places like Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi, we are simply extracting more groundwater every year than is being replenished.”

He also highlighted India's dependence on groundwater for farming. “And the dependence is massive, with over 60% of our irrigation coming from groundwater, in a country where more than 40% of people still work in agriculture.”Kamath said water management cannot be seen only as a government responsibility because water is used by people every day. He pointed to work already being done by governments, startups, nonprofits and communities.

Why Nithin Kamath says better water data matters

Nithin Kamath said one of the key problems is a lack of awareness and reliable data about the country's water situation. “But I think at some level this is also an awareness and data problem. Before figuring out the solutions, we need to know how good, bad, or ugly the situation actually is, and today we largely don't.”He added that many borewells do not have meters, making it harder to track groundwater extraction. This is where Kamath connected his comments to Modi's recent call for better water data.

The Prime Minister had called for water-sector data to be collected in a common format and said AI could be used for both data collection and analysis.Nithin Kamath said:“Which is why the PM's recent message on better water data, and using AI and other technologies to collect and make sense of it, is an important one.”Kamath also said water is an important focus for Rainmatter Foundation and Rainmatter, which support organisations working on environmental and water-related issues. He listed Kritsnam, FluxGen, Boson White Water, Solinas Integrity, Wattr, GreenvironmentAI and Biome among the organisations and startups receiving support.“If you are building something meaningful around water, do reach out to us. We'd be happy to support🙂”