Mumbai 18th March 2013: The country's premier water and environment company, Ion Exchange (India) Ltd. lost its Founder and Chairman Emeritus with the passing away of G Shankar Ranganathan on March 18th, 2013.

Ion Exchange was formed in 1964 as a subsidiary of British Permutit on Mr Rangnathan's initiative and recommendation. In 1984 when Permutit divested their holding, he advocated and set up employee welfare trusts, a pioneering concept for India. He expanded the company's technology base through R&D, joint ventures, licensing and representative agreements making Ion Exchange one of the few worldwide with the entire spectrum of technologies, products and services. This would enable the company to offer total and integrated solutions for all sectors - industry communities and homes, urban and rural. He also built up an impressive countrywide infrastructure of factories, sales offices, dealers and service network. Under his visionary leadership, the company attained its pre-eminent position in water and environment in India and globally. Constantly scanning the environment and quick to opportunities, very early on Mr. Ranganathan took Ion Exchange into new market avenues such as desalination, water conservation and recycle, rural water treatment, services and exports.

He was convinced that people are an organization's greatest asset and had a unique ability to empower and build up people and inspire lasting loyalty. He laid a strong foundation for the company through R&D, training, and development, systems and quality standards.

Long before these became buzz words, Mr Ranganathan was passionate in promoting the importance of environmental protection, corporate social responsibility and sustainable development. An ardent environmentalist and prolific writer, he strongly believed that "what is ecologically wrong is not economically sustainable for long. Poverty and environmental degradation can be solved by rejuvenating our wastelands, generating employment for millions, creating wealth from waste, improving the environment".