Harish Anantharaman, MD, Accelerated Cleaning Systems India Pvt. Ltd
In a strikingly confident interview, Harish Anantharaman, MD, Accelerated Cleaning Systems India Pvt. Ltd introduces the new wave of hygiene solutions under VIBASAFE, which are recognised across the world and all set to conquer India markets too.
Please introduce your organisation and its USP.
VIBASAFE™ is a hygiene and infection control equipment and solution provider. However, what sets us apart is that none of our solutions involves or promotes chemicals (not even herbal/organic/biodegradable etc.), or any consumables for that matter. We are a technology company. Our intent is to bring to India the world’s best equipment and latest approaches in infection control and hygiene.
What is different about your approach towards infection control and hygiene?
Disinfection tends to have a defensive or reactive approach; it’s what you do post encountering an infection. A country like ours cannot afford to keep chasing a virus or pathogen; we need to find ways to stop it from spreading and occurring in the first place. We need to be very aggressive and proactive. It’s ironic that we are using the same tools to prevent an infection, and also to disinfect. You can’t expect to win a new age war using weapons from the 18th century.
What are the different technologies you are using for this?
We provide contactless, non-consumable, non-chemical in-situ cleaning solutions. From the Nanobubble Aqueous OZONE floor cleaning caddy, Portable Electrostatic with Multipolar Charge technology to antimicrobial coatings which last for three years and UV light for occupied spaces, we are presenting technologies never seen before in India.
How are you going to help various types of facilities reopen safely?
There is a serious concern for safety amongst clients and clear lack of confidence about the cleaning and infection control protocols being followed. The area of concern for facility owners is getting back the customers and their confidence to enjoy the facility. The VIBASAFE cleaning program addresses all this. We listen to the client’s objectives and provide them with needed solutions after studying the resources at their disposal.
With frequent audits and handholding, we help our customers raise the bar when it comes to their bio-security needs. All this builds trust amongst staff, customers and of course, an environment-conscious brand identity.
‘Prevention is better than cure’ – how do your solutions embody this statement?
Our brand tagline is ‘Prevent Protect Preserve’. Prevention of infection and precluding a conducive environment for pathogen growth is the basis on which our solutions are built. The core reason for hygiene inefficiency is financial cost, lack of quality labor and procurement delays. The technologies we employ and suggest to our customers have been tested keeping in mind the Indian context.
For example, the NAO caddy is unique, it requires only raw water to be filled and plugged to an electricity socket. When switched on, it churns out high pressure Aqueous Ozone water to be sprayed at the target area. Its built-in powerful vacuum cleaner sucks out more than 98% of the leftover water, thus drying out in seconds, with no rinsing or mopping required. Anyone can operate it; it saves so much time at no extra cost.
Our electrostatic sprayers help us cover more than 50,000 square feet in an hour – much more efficiently and safely than labour would, using traditional spray-and-wipe techniques and consuming 80% less chemical than normal sprayers.
Are your products FDA and EPA approved and perform as they claim?
Our products and technologies are approved by the USDA, FDA and are registered with EPA. The NAO caddy has received Green Seal approval. Some of the products for whom we are sole distributors in India are being used by NASA, US Army, US Airforce, Pentagon and the White House, including private MNCs like Nestle. In India, we are also promoting special equipment for infection control which has been manufactured under license from Boeing with grants from NASA, for their planes, cockpits and member airlines and airports.
What’s your model for growth in India?
We are headquartered in Mumbai, with branches in Lucknow, Pune and Ahmedabad, and are on course to setting up an enviable distribution network across 12 cities by the year-end. We follow a hybrid model where we expect distributors to provide demos and deploy service infrastructure (for which we provide training) with minimal stock. We employ our own trained sales personnel across territories to assist and take responsibility along with distributors for promoting our products and solutions across the country.
