RAJNI KAUL, who was married to Mahendra Kaul of the BBC and was a talented and well-read broadcaster in her own right, died on Tuesday (31), aged 92, in Faridabad near Delhi.
Her death was announced in London by her circuit judge daughter, Her Honour Judge Kalyani Kaul QC, who said: “She died peacefully in her sleep, after having her lunch at the wonderful Golden Estate in Faridabad where she had been staying during Covid-19 to protect her health.”
Rajni was predeceased by her husband, who died, aged 95, in London, on July 11, 2018. The couple met when working for All India Radio in Delhi in the early days after independence. Rajni worked for AIR, then for the Voice of America in Washington, as did her husband, and finally for the Hindi service of the BBC after she and her husband came to the UK in 1961. They made London their home.
Rajni Kaul and her husband Mahendra pictured with the Queen.
Rajni was born in Peshawar on July 15, 1929, one of five children of Indernath and Sampiyari Kapur. After Partition in 1947, the family moved to Delhi where 17-year-old Rajni was recruited by AIR to sing songs in Punjabi and Pashto for a children’s programme and occasionally to read the news in Hindi.
It is there she met the Kashmiri Pandit, Mahendra Kaul, who was reading the news in Kashmiri and Urdu and producing drama. The couple married on May 2, 1955, and their daughter Kalyani was born in December 1960.
After the couple moved to Washington, Rajni qualified as a librarian. She had a love of books and considered it “heaven” when first ushered into a library. Her husband, meanwhile, worked for the Voice of America.
A new phase began when Rajni and Mahendra moved to London. While he pioneered TV programmes for newly-arrived Asian immigrants, Rajni specialised as a children’s librarian. She also worked for the BBC Hindi Service presenting a children’s programme, which was very popular in India. A generation of young people grew up with "Rajni didi" and she would get sackfuls of fan mail which she insisted on answering personally. She also presented a women’s programme.
Rajni assisted Mahendra when and launched tandoori chicken from the Gaylord restaurant in Mortimer Street near Broadcasting House in London. “He understands masala,” Rajni once said.
When Mahendra kept getting invitations from Downing Street, she joked: “Mahendra flirts with Margaret Thatcher – she loves it.”
Honour Judge Kalyani Kaul with her parents Rajni and Mahendra.
According to one anecdote, when Mrs Thatcher came down the the stairs at 10, Downing Street, Mahendra looked up at Britain’s first female prime minister and exclaimed: “Wow! You look beautiful.” “You think so?” she said.
Throughout her life, Rajni tried to maintain her love of reading with her motto: “A book a day.” She did not care for romantic fiction, though.
She would read when taking the bus to Bush House in the Aldwych and even when walking to work. She would tell of the tall Englishman she bumped into and who admonished her, “Look up.”
In an interview with a former BBC colleague, Pervaiz Alam, she said she wanted to depart on her final journey with probably three books - something by the black American author Toni Morrison (“I am willing to touch her feet"), a translation from Japanese literature and Michelle Obama’s Becoming.
Kalyani said: “Her greatest love was for her grandchildren Symran and Callum.”
Kim, Kanye, North and Saint West out in NYC Twitter/KimKFan
Anurag Bajpayee's Gradiant: The water company tackling a global crisis
In a world increasingly defined by scarcity, one resource is emerging as the most quietly decisive factor in the future of industry, sustainability, and even geopolitics: water. Yet, while the headlines are dominated by energy transition and climate pledges, few companies working behind the scenes on water issues have attracted much public attention. One of them is Gradiant, a Boston-based firm that has, over the past decade, grown into a key player in the underappreciated but critical sector of industrial water treatment.
A Company Born from MIT, and from Urgency
Founded in 2013 by Anurag Bajpayee and Prakash Govindan, two researchers with strong ties to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Gradiant began as a scrappy start-up with a deceptively simple premise: make water work harder. At a time when discussions about climate change were centred almost exclusively on carbon emissions and renewable energy, the trio saw water scarcity looming in the background.
Their insight was that some of the world’s largest industries—semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, food and beverage—were facing acute water-related challenges long before the general public grasped the issue. “Without water, these industries don’t just slow down; they stop,” Bajpayee has often remarked. What Gradiant offered was not just a way to save water, but a way to rethink how it is used, recycled, and valued.
The Engineers Behind the Mission
Anurag Bajpayee, the company’s CEO, whose academic path took him to MIT, where he completed a PhD in Mechanical Engineering focused on water treatment technologies. It was there that he met Govindan, a fellow engineer and now Gradiant's co-founder and COO, whose expertise complemented his in fluid mechanics and process engineering.
Unlike many founders who drift towards the language of venture capital and corporate strategy, Anurag Bajpayee and his team remained grounded in the technical problem: how to make industrial water treatment more efficient, more affordable, and more sustainable. The company still bears the imprint of its founders’ engineering roots. Gradiant is less Silicon Valley startup and more MIT lab, albeit one that has quietly expanded across Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America.
What Gradiant Actually Does
The company specializes in designing and building bespoke water treatment and reuse systems for industrial clients. Its technologies are aimed at enabling factories and plants to reclaim water that would otherwise be discarded as waste, reducing both the amount of water withdrawn from natural sources and the volume of contaminated water discharged.
At the heart of Gradiant’s portfolio are proprietary technologies such as Counter Flow Reverse Osmosis (CFRO), Carrier Gas Extraction (CGE) and Selective Ion Recovery (SIR), developed from the Gradiant founders’ early research at MIT. Unlike traditional methods like reverse osmosis, these systems are designed to handle highly contaminated or complex wastewater streams, enabling clients to extract clean water even from previously unusable sources.
But Gradiant does not sell “one-size-fits-all” machines. Each project is tailored to the customer’s unique needs. For a semiconductor plant in Singapore, this might mean achieving ultrapure water reuse levels of 98%; for a food and beverage factory in Texas, it might be about safely treating wastewater for discharge while minimising energy consumption. The company's approach—sometimes called "solutioneering" internally—is both its competitive advantage and its raison d'être.
Expansion Without the Usual Hype
Gradiant’s growth has been quietly impressive. From its first commercial project in the oil and gas sector, it has gone on to complete over 500 installations worldwide. The company has raised more than $400 million in funding from a mix of institutional investors and private equity firms, achieving so-called “unicorn” status, with a valuation reportedly over $1 billion.
Unlike many green tech firms, Gradiant’s expansion has not been accompanied by flashy marketing campaigns or grandiose statements. Instead, the company has preferred to build credibility client by client, particularly in Asia, where water-intensive industries and growing environmental pressures make its services indispensable. Anurag Bajpayee, never one to speak in superlatives, frames the company’s expansion as a “response to urgent need” rather than a triumph of business.
Inside Gradiant’s Operations
At its core, Gradiant is still an engineering-first company. Anurag Bajpayee and Govindan, both technically trained and heavily involved in the company’s operations, have instilled a culture where R&D is not just a department but the lifeblood of the business. The firm currently holds more than 250 patents globally, a testament to its ongoing commitment to innovation.
But Gradiant’s success is not just about technology. The company has differentiated itself by offering not just equipment but full-service solutions, including project design, construction, operations, and maintenance. This full-stack approach has been particularly attractive to clients in highly regulated industries, who need water management solutions that work seamlessly and reliably without requiring deep in-house expertise.
Gradiant’s clients include some of the world’s largest manufacturers, including Fortune 500 companies in sectors like microelectronics, pharmaceuticals, and energy. Some, like semiconductor producers, rely on Gradiant to help them meet stringent water reuse targets while maintaining ultra-clean production environments.
Navigating a Changing World
Gradiant operates at the intersection of several converging trends: climate change, regulatory pressure, and industrial decarbonisation. In many regions, water scarcity has become the limiting factor for industrial growth, sometimes more than energy availability or supply chain constraints.
While public attention often focuses on domestic water use, it is industries that consume the lion’s share of freshwater. Gradiant's pitch is straightforward: industries will have to do more with less, and Gradiant offers the tools to make that possible.
Anurag Bajpayee is keenly aware of the paradox that water, despite being vital, is often underpriced and undervalued, especially when compared to energy. “We don’t pay what it’s worth, only what it costs,” he told an audience at a recent conference. Yet, the landscape is shifting. Regulators, investors, and companies themselves are increasingly acknowledging water as both a business risk and a social responsibility.
What's Next for Gradiant?
Looking ahead, Gradiant appears poised to play a central role as industries adapt to water scarcity. Yet, Anurag Bajpayee remains cautious about the hype cycle. "The problem we’re working on isn’t going anywhere," he says. "It’s not a question of innovation alone, but of execution—of making sure these solutions actually reach the places that need them most."
In an era where water risk is increasingly material to business, Gradiant’s quiet, technically grounded approach may prove to be exactly what is needed.
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Eastern Eye. The publication does not endorse or take responsibility for the accuracy of any statements made by the author.)