Staff Profiles

Dr. Kapil Kumar Narula
Executive Director
Dr. Kapil Kumar Narula is the Executive Director of CII-Triveni Water Institute, which aims to transform water conservation and management in India resulting in more effective and sustainable water management practices at the grassroots level. Prior to this, he was Adjunct Associate Research Scientist at the Columbia Water Center of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, USA, and served as Founder Trustee and Country Director of Columbia Water Center India office (CIPT). Before joining Columbia University, Kapil worked with the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) as Associate Director where he headed a cross cutting initiative on Water and an inter-disciplinary group of researchers. In the subsequent years, this initiative gave rise to a full-fledged multi-disciplinary division in 2008, namely, the Water Resources Division. Dr Narula was also adjunct faculty at TERI University (which was a part of TERI itself during its early years of inception) where he designed and taught courses for Master’s and Doctoral students. An alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Kapil is a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and obtained his Doctorate (Ph.D) in the field of Integrated Water Resources and Environmental Modelling Systems. His international honors include receiving German Aerospace Research (DLR) fellowship and German Ministry of Science & Technology (BMBF) research scholarship for undertaking research in Water Resources and Nitrate Transport at the Research Center Juelich (Forschungszentrum Juelich, Germany) from 1997 to 1998 and in 2002. Dr. Narula has worked for over 30 years in providing scientific backstopping and support for analysis and reporting of water scarcity in India. His work figures in several international and national scientific journals.

 
Mr. Sanjay Gupta
Senior Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
Mr. Sanjay has more than 24 years’ experience in Water sustainability and Water security domain and helped more than 400+ companies of diverse sectors in India & abroad in their water sustainability journey.

Specialized in conducting industrial water audits, feasibility studies on rainwater harvesting, road map for Zero Liquid Discharge and water & wastewater assessment studies. Instrumental in developing various products such as the Blue Rating Systems and National Award for Excellence in Water Management for the industries. Has expertise in preparing the road map for utilities and industries on water conservation and management.

He has worked with various municipalities on designing the strategies for better utilization of natural resources (Water & Wastewater), conducted more than 250 Training programs on Water management & Rural Drinking water supply and facilitated Rainwater Harvesting in industry, PSU’s, commercial buildings & SEZ’s.

Expertise in application engineering of Industrial water and waste treatments systems. Trained more than 25, 000 personal on water and wastewater management in industry and PSU’s. Prepared high-quality technical reports and provides inputs into tender documents and contractor specifications. Trained and mentored junior team members on various elements of the water conservation and managements.

Possesses sound knowledge in advanced membranes applications and new techniques in sea water desalination. Well worse operation & maintenance of the various water utilities especially water & wastewater treatment plants. Leaded commissioning of various Sewage Treatment Plant, Water Treatment Plant & Effluent Treatment Plant.

 
Ms. Shilpa Nischal
Principal Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
With over 20 years of working experience on diverse sustainable development issues particularly related to water resources, Ms. Nischal has been working towards conceptualizing, developing & implementing various watershed level activities to enable improved water scenario across geographies. Her areas of work include water resource evaluation, hydro-meteorological analyses, and hydrological risk assessment for watersheds under diverse climate change scenarios.

She works with multi-disciplinary team of professionals for applying integrated Water Assessment tools and techniques such as WATSCAN, a GIS and remote sensing-based Tool that facilitates decision making. She holds the position of Senior Counsellor at CII Water Institute, working closely with industry in areas that enable improved water use efficiency and solutions for enabling transformation from water risks to a resilient scenario.

She has also contributed to popular publications both in the capacity of author and editor.
 
Mr. Ajay Dhyani
Director
CII - Water Institute
Ajay has over 25 years of experience in Business Development and Marketing of sector specific events for the competitiveness of the Indian Industry. Over the years, he has been accountable for strategizing, conceptualizing, planning, designing and executing various activities like Business to Government (B2G) Business to Business (B2B) interactions which includes International Conferences, Workshops, Learning Sessions, Coordination of International Delegations, Project Specific liaison with State Administration to foster partnerships etc.

Ajay has an extensive experience in project conceptualizing, co-ordination and execution with innovative strategies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Delhi University.

Currently he is heading the capacity building vertical of CII Triveni Water Institute and is responsible for designing and conceptualizing of water specific events and conferences by engaging the concerned stakeholders from the industry and government.

 
Ms. Sipika Chauhan
Director
CII - Water Institute
Sipika has over 15 years of experience in Industrial Policy and Research. At CII she has worked with economic policy, ASCON and Manufacturing vertical. She has been associated with the analysis of various economic and sectoral issues, analysis of high frequency indicators, economic trends and conducting Surveys to understand industry specific issues and their needs. She also has worked on Surveys on Investment Climate and Ease of doing business with multilateral organizations like World Bank and British High Commission. She holds a Doctorate degree in Economics from Jiwaji University Gwalior.

At CII Triveni Water Institute she leads the Policy and Communications vertical.
 
Mr. Tuhin Mukherjee
Associate Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
Tuhin Mukherjee holds a Master’s degree in Water Resources Engineering from Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), Surat, and a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering. He brings a strong interdisciplinary background in hydrology, geomorphology, and geospatial analysis, with hands-on experience in integrated water assessment tools, GIS, and remote sensing technologies.

His work spans flood forecasting, hydrological modelling, geomorphological analysis of floodplains, and both stochastic and deterministic approaches to hydrology. Tuhin has actively contributed to research and development in water resource management, presenting his findings at international conferences and publishing in reputed journals, including a notable contribution to Geomorphological Disasters.

Currently serving as an Associate Counsellor at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), he is involved in strategic initiatives focused on water neutrality and projects related to GIS and remote sensing for sustainable water resource planning and management.
 
Mr. Anand Bhatt
Associate Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
Professionally I’m a Hydrogeologist and I have around 4 years of experience in Surface water and Groundwater sector. My specialization is Geology and their application in various water related sectors. My expertise is in Groundwater exploration and management, Hydrogeological assessment, Isotope Hydrology, Hydro-geochemistry, River-basin management and Watershed and Spring-shed management.

I have worked on various Hydrogeological projects in various states of India in (Garhwal and Kumaon regions) Uttarakhand, (Western U.P.) Uttar Pradesh, (Baddi, Solan, Sirmaur) Himanchal Pradesh, (Jaipur, Udaipur) Rajasthan, (Bellary) Karnataka and (Sonipat, Panipat) Haryana.

Prior to working with CII, I also worked with Central Groundwater Authority (CGWA), Ministry of Jal Shakti.
 
Mr. Dnyaneshwar Talekar
Associate Counsellor
CII – Water Institute
Mr. Dnyaneshwar Talekar has completed his Masters in soil and water conservation engineering. He has 6+ years of experience in watershed project planning, monitoring, and implementation with adverse knowledge of remote sensing and GIS technique & its application in natural resource management.

He has worked on basin level hydrogeological study projects and programme management across non-profit/social service sector with focus on community mobilisation, forming sustainable village level institutions, understanding dynamics at village level, understanding sustainability issues, water resource development, judicious use of available water, water budgeting, convergence with Govt schemes, & non-farm sector livelihoods development.
 
Ms. Preeti Kathuria
Manager
CII - Water Institute
An MBA in HR with more than 13 yrs of diversified experience in Thematic & Sectoral Events and Conferences. She has work closely with stakeholders for event conceptualization and sponsorships for bringing awareness in water usage across Industry. Mrs Kathuria also spearheaded workshops for sensitization on effective and sustainable water management and has been instrumental in organizing B2B/B2G meetings, helping businesses to scale their market presence. Her area of interest includes building partnerships among Industries & Government bodies for highlighting issues which require immediate action for water usage.
 
Mr. Santosh Dixit
Manager - Water Quality
CII - Water Institute
Santosh Dikshit, working as Quality Coordinator has over 13 years of experience in the field of monitoring of water quality from source, treatment processes, utility and qualitative investigation of the waste water to reuse & recycle. He has also worked at the Centre of qualitative & quantitative investigation of the water & wastewater and to undertake several external & internal waters audits & faced several legal & statutory water compliances audit with a government official.

He has a Master's degree in Environmental Science awarded by Magadh University and undergone training on aquarium management at Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park Patna and Industrial & Domestics Waste water management training from CPCB Delhi & SAIL Bokaro Steel Plant. Currently, he is responsible for coordinating water quality data collection and implementation during water audit at process & utility in different type of industrial sector. He is also responsible to Water Audit, calculate water balance, water use efficiency and identifying ways for saving water (reduce, reuse and recycle) based upon the water quality.
 
Mr. Neeraj Rai
Associate Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
Neeraj Rai has completed his Engineering in Biotechnology from Uttar Pradesh Technical University Lucknow. He is having more than 5 years of working experience in the field of Environment & Compliances. Mr. Rai has earlier worked with textile, food and pulp & paper industry on various projects like ZLD, Water conservation and hazardous waste management.

Before Joining CII, Mr. Rai was working as Assistant Manager – Environment & Compliances in Jubilant Bhartia Group .
 
Mr. Vipin Varghese
Manager & Head - Programmes
& Outreach
CII Water Institute
With over 7 years of experience in Programs and Outreach, Vipin Varghese has distinguished himself by his contribution in the execution, handling & leading numerous sectoral programs, conferences, and Water Awards organized by CII-Water Institute.

His area of interest also includes engaging with Industry & government, Conference designing, branding and communication, facilitate international networking and marketing related strategy formulation.

Mr Varghese holds a master’s degree Business Administration, & over the years gained considerable expertise on handling end to end activities of National and International conferences, B2B Meetings, supervising entire Operations; inclusive of formulating & implementing the department’s Standard Operating Procedures, managing all aspects of operations, like sponsor relationships, Industry & Government Liaison etc.
 
Mr. Vikash Shivhare
Associate Counsellor
CII - Water Institute
Vikash Shivhare is specialized in Remote Sensing and GIS, having 6+ years of professional experience in Remote Sensing and GIS with a diversity of applications including water resources, and hydrological modeling with climate change impacts. He completed his master’s in Geoinformatics from TERI School of Advanced Studies. He is well versed in geospatial technology with the intersection of geospatial data science and machine learning with python programming. He has worked on the development of a fully automated GIS-based model for mapping and monitoring the natural resource and environment, facility management, decision-making for smart infrastructure planning, and other spatial frameworks for efficient planning and development. He has also worked on CSR-based projects related to watershed management and development in the Maharashtra Region. His major publication in peer-reviewed journals focused on the SWAT hydrological modeling, Climate change impacts, Morphometric analysis, Watershed prioritization, groundwater potential zone, floods, etc.

In a Nutshell, He is a motivated and solution-oriented professional to solve the spatial problem allied to water resources using geospatial technology.
 
Mr. Shailendra Kumar Tripathi
Field Manager
CII-Triveni Water Institute
Shailendra Kumar Tripathi is having Diploma in Civil Engineer. He has been working in the field of water resource management since last 22 years. His expertise in the water sector lies in the areas related to Water use efficiency; Water audits & water footprints; Water conservation; Watershed management, water supply and sanitation (need assessment, construction of individual house hold toilet, community toilet, implementation of pipe line water supply schemes, construction & supervision of overhead tanks, construction of clear water reservoirs, laying of rising mains as well as distribution mains), integrated water resource management. He is having experience of conducting more than 100 comprehensive water audits and water conservation projects for Governments, PSUs and across multiple industrial sectors. Before joining CII-TWI, he was worked with the Water Resource Department at TERI, New Delhi.
 
Mr. Vivekanand Pandey
Associate Counsellor (Hydrogeology)
CII - Water Institute
Vivekanand Pandey is a hydrogeologist with experience of hydrogeological study, Geophysical Survey, Geophysical borehole logging, Tube well Design Pumping test analysis and Well Field Development. He has worked on various hydrogeological projects of Delhi Government, Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Jal Board

He has completed his masters in geology from University of Delhi. Before joining our organization, he has also worked with WAPCOS Ltd, Ministry of Jal Shakti as a Hydrogeologist.
 
Mr. Bharat Ramachandran
Engineer
CII - Water Institute
Bharat Ramachandran has an M.Tech in water resource management from TERI School of Advanced Studies, Delhi. With a diverse background spanning Environmental law & policy mechanical engineering, clean energy, and a deep passion for environmental conservation, particularly water, he brings a holistic perspective to sustainable water management. Skilled in GIS, hydrology, and understanding the socio-economic dimensions of water, Bharat is dedicated to applying his knowledge to create sustainable solutions for industries. Currently working as an engineer at CII TWI, he focuses on conducting water audits and promoting water neutrality in Indian industries, helping businesses optimize water use and reduce their environmental impact.
 
Mr. Aditya Anand
Engineer
CII - Water Institute
Aditya Anand has completed his B. Tech. in Electronics and Communications Engineering from VIT, Vellore. He has got rich experience of internships from Defence Research Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Delhi. Aditya has been trained in the fields of Sensors, Wireless Communication Systems, Disaster Management, Project Management and Business Continuity. Aditya has written a Paper on “Fire Data Acquiring System with Short Range Wireless Communication” – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (the”IEEE”). The paper was presented in the 4th International Conference on Innovations in Power and Advanced Computing Technologies (i-PACT) in December 2023.
 
Mr. Kanuri Manohar
Engineer
CII - Water Institute
Kanuri Manohar holds an MTech degree in Chemical Engineering and currently serves as an Engineer at the CII Water Institute. With over four years of research experience, his expertise spans several key areas, including environmental management, mineral processing, iron making, and process optimization within the iron and steel industry.

Manohar has a strong interest in data science and has been a key member in multiple projects that integrate advanced analytical techniques into industrial processes.

At present, Manohar is focused on water audits at CII Water Institute, where he works on optimizing water usage across various industries. He is also working on water pinch analysis, a methodology for improving water efficiency by identifying potential areas of conservation in industrial settings. His work aims to help industries reduce their freshwater consumption while optimizing wastewater management. ultimately supporting to more sustainable water practices.

Before joining CII-TWI, Manohar worked in Tata Steel and CSIR - National metallurgical laboratory.
 
Ms. Aparna Upadhyay
Engineer
CII - Water Institute
Aparna Upadhyay holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering from Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT), Jaipur, and a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering. She has over three years of experience in environmental and water resource sustainability, focusing on innovating water and wastewater systems, managing and implementing field projects in rural settings, conducting baseline assessments and on-field studies, and building community capacities.

Her work has also involved conducting quality assessments of wastewater and water and evaluating efficiencies of various disinfection techniques for treated wastewater. Currently, she is working as an Engineer at CII, contributing to initiatives around water neutrality. Prior to this, she worked with Development Alternatives on various water projects.

Aparna has also presented her research works at international conferences and has a publication in the Journal of Environmental Management.
 
Mr. Rakesh kumar
Senior Manager - Finance
CII-Water Institute
Rakesh kumar has overall experience of more than 26 years in area of Finance and Accounts management. During his overall tenure he has gained experience in financial planning, monitoring, and framing rules and regulation related to financial management. Last 10 years he is working with Central Team of Finance of CII and handled various profile which includes managing all FCRA Grants, Utilization Certificate towards all Govt and Private Grants, and other various important profile before taking responsibility of Finance & Accounts of CII Water Institute. He has degree in MBA in Finance and Post-Graduate degree in Commerce.
 
Mr. Ardhendu Sekhar Mahapatra
Executive Officer
CII Water Institute
Ardhendu brings a unique blend of expertise, transitioning from a degree in mechanical engineering to obtaining a PG diploma in broadcast journalism from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi. With over four years of experience in the content space, Ardhendu has showcased his versatility by excelling in various roles, including content ideation, scriptwriting, and content strategy development.

Combining his technical background with strong communication skills, Ardhendu has demonstrated an ability to translate complex technical concepts into easily understandable language, particularly in his previous roles within SaaS-based organizations. His proficiency in simplifying intricate ideas has proven invaluable in effectively conveying messages to diverse audiences.

Ardhendu's professional journey also includes valuable experience at Prasar Bharati, India's public broadcaster, where he served as a media trainee. Here, he actively contributed to researching and crafting media plans for a wide range of entities, including PSUs, governmental organizations, and corporates
 
Ms. Tanisha Roy
Executive
CII - Water Institute
Tanisha Roy holds a Bachelor's degree from Miranda House, Delhi University, and a Master’s in Politics & International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). With experience in managing social impact CSR projects and producing insightful research, she has previously worked on a financial literacy project with RBI and contributed to initiatives in skill development, nutrition, and education with organizations like American Express, Gartner, HCL, and KFC. Passionate about sustainable development, Tanisha is dedicated to finding evidence-based solutions to social challenges and making a meaningful impact on India’s development landscape.