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Here's What a Mention by Google CEO Sundar Pichai Did to an Indian Website

Here's What a Mention by Google CEO Sundar Pichai Did to an Indian Website

By Sriram Sharma | Updated: 18 November 2015 12:15 IST

After failing to grab much investor interest, this Chandigarh-based startup that has created an online marketplace for water pumps is having its moment in the sun.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai cited Pumpkart's success story in his speech before PM Narendra Modi at the 'Digital India' dinner for top tech CEOs at San Jose, California.

"In Chandigarh, a one-man retailer was selling water pumps and he decided to take his business online and today he is the largest retailer of water pumps in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu," Pichai said.

KS Bhatia, CEO and Founder of Pumpkart.com said that despite lack of funding interest, he was motivated to pursue his idea for social good, as he didn't want India's rural farmers to be cheated while making a very big capital intensive purchase. A chemical engineer by education, he had worked in the pump industry for over 17 years, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He said that Pumpkart.com had seen three times the web traffic before the announcement, from an average of 5,000 daily visitors to 15,000 daily visitors in the last couple of days.

"When consumers get pumps for 10-20 percent less than market prices, why won't they come?" he said, in a telephonic conversation with Gadgets 360. "I just want to serve the people, that's my aim. I don't want India's farmers to be cheated."

Bhatia said that in some cases, pumps are sold at as much as a 50 percent higher cost from what they are buying online. "This is a very big capital item for the farmers, after tractors. While tractors can be shared between groups of farmers, water pumps cannot. Tubewell pumps cost as much as Rs. 1,00,000, he said. If he can save as much as Rs. 20,000-25,000, that is a huge benefit to him," he said.

Pumpkart claims to provide doorstep delivery of products across the country, with EMI and COD options on select products. Bhatia said that the website lists more than 2,000 SKUs from more than 100 brands.

He acknowledged difficulties in penetrating remote areas. "We are unable to capture the rural area. Surface transport companies like DTDC and BlueDart are not able to gave delivery in those remote areas. We have already spoken to India Post, but we haven't gotten any support," Bhatia said.

Apart from pumps, Pumpkart has expanded its offerings to products like heaters, sanitary-ware, garden accessories, water purifiers, inverters and stabilisers. Bhatia said that he plans to expand its use case to commercial buildings and industry.

Bhatia declined to share any financial metrics of Pumpkart, but said that the top five markets in terms of sales are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal, and Uttar Pradesh.

The website gets an average of 50,000 visitors from the desktop, according to Similarweb. Pumpkart's Android app has less than 5,000 installs on Google Play.

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