Driven by supportive government policies, maturing clean technologies and growing investor appetite, India is fast becoming a hub of eco-innovation for all manner of people –– small town residents, Indian expats returning home with Ivy League education to boot, and even a few enterprising foreigners.

Interestingly, this eco-entrepreneurship trend cuts across business models ––from profit-seeking to pure social evangelism––and domains ranging from irrigation and apparel design to waste management. Enterprises like Rikin Gandhi’s Digital Green, Santosh Ostwal’s Nano Ganesh, T Raghavendra Rao’s Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects and Kranthi Vistakula’s Dhama Apparel Innovation have already hit big time.

Supported more recently by Deshpande Foundation and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Delhi-based Digital Green collaborates with local organisations to use videos of best agricultural practices to enhance the environmental and economic sustainability of small and marginal farmers in 200 villages in Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Digital Green’s CEO Gandhi, an Indian expat from the US , says, “We don’t follow the usual top-down model. Our working model is driven by people and for people.”

The bachelor in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University and master in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology is now planning to cover 1,200 villages in another two years and also to reach out to the bottom-of-the-pyramid population in Africa In contrast to Gandhi’s eco-services, Santosh Ostwal, CEO of Pune-based Ossian Agro Automation, has come up with a basic product, Nano Ganesh. A mobile phone and a modem combination, Nano Ganesh enables farmers to remotely control water pumps in faraway farms, leading to better farm management practices, including saving electricity and water.

Nano Ganesh has already become popular in states ranging from Maharashtra and Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. Ostwal says, “Apart from aiming to cater to a larger market in India, we have a potentially big global market. Our product is useful wherever water pumps are used.” Waste technology is another favourite with entrepreneurs. Mumbai-based Sustainable Technologies & Environmental Projects (STEPS) focuses on developing environment-friendly technologies to convert waste into value-added products.

T Raghavendra Rao says, “We are focused on turning waste into wealth.” STEPS has developed seven technologies, including five technologies, which have been commercialised. Going beyond obvious utilitarian products and services, Ahmedabad-based Dhama Apparel Innovation is a next-gen functional apparel firm that makes battery-powered apparel and accessories based on proprietary climate control technology for heating...