Business - Small indian companies play big role in Olympics

BANGALORE/AHMEDABAD: Organisers of the Beijing Olympics are banking on a clutch of small Indian companies to make sure everything goes smoothly at the sporting extravaganza. From managing the new airports messaging system, to making portable potties, this edition of the Olympic games is already a success story for these companies. When thousands of visitors land at the newly upgraded Beijing international airport, they will be breathing pure air thanks to the 45 heat recovery ventilators made by Bry Air, a Gurgaon-based company that did Rs 150 crore in revenue last year. Bry Air’s units reclaim energy from exhaust airflows of the air conditioners and then use eco-friendly heat exchangers to heat or cool incoming fresh air, as per the need. “In this way, we recapture around 80% of the energy that is lost with the outgoing air, and also help in increasing the quantity of fresh air,” says Bry Air Asia MD Deepak Pahwa. This means lower energy bills and higher purity of the air you breathe. Also Bry Air units will make sure that those attending the event at the main conference centre do not suffer from induced attention deficient disorder which brings a drop in productivity and loss in concentration, due to pollutants in stale air circulating in conventional air-conditioned rooms.
Another Indian company will take care of safe landing and smooth check-in . Not an easy task, considering that Beijing expects an influx of almost 4.4 million spectators from across the world, which means tremendous logistic pressure during the Olympics. The solution has been provided by the Kolkata-based Skytech Solutions which has designed and implemented the airport messaging software to act as the nerve centre of Beijing airport’s communication system during the premier sporting event.

Called CIIMS (Central Information Integration Management Systems), “the software is an automated messaging service between the airport and the air-traffic controllers, various gates, terminals, ground crew and the numerous airlines,” says managing consultant Ashutosh Chattopadhyay. The company offers comprehensive solutions and software development services to the airline industry. CIIMS is an intelligent communications network, programmed to react to multiple situations at a time, and respond accordingly, he says. “The Chinese authorities are pulling out all stops to ensure that Beijing airport is fully equipped to handle every situation for this pinnacle sporting event, so our product had to be the best in its class,” says Mr Chattopadhyay. Also, Ahmedabad-based Sintex Industries has collaborated with UKbased toiletries major Poly John International to manufacture and supply nearly 3,000 portable toilets to the Beijing Olympic Games. The toilets, which is designed by Poly John, are manufactured at Kalol, near Ahmedabad, under the brand name Pace. “We have signed a contract for manufacturing with Poly John to supply these globally-accepted toilets for the convenience of athletes,” says Sintex Industries marketing director Sanjib Roy. Sintex will use special plastics and some metal parts as fixtures for the toilets that weigh 85 kg each and can be fixed and unfixed in an hour to other events easily. Each toilet will be manufactured in three conditional processes, roto-moulding, extrusion and thermoforming, and will cost nearly Rs 20,000. To top it all, a Pune-based company is making the roving boats and canoes, on which rests, or rather floats, the water sports events. Sunny Sebastian’s Sunny Water Sports is going to supply about 200 kayaks, roving boats and canoes for the water sports events. To make sure it’s the best in quality, the firm has forged an alliance with an European water sports major and designed it to match up to international standards. “We are excited to be making this stuff for the competition that marks the pinnacle in sporting achievement,” says Mr Sebastian.