Er. Ashwin B. Pandya is currently serving as Secretary General of the International Commission on Irrigation… Read more
Mr. A. B. Pandya
Ex- Secretary General, ICID & Ex- Chairman, Central Water Commission
About AFAcademy · A unit of Aqua Foundation
Thirty years of field practice. Taught by the people who shipped it
AFAcademy is the training arm of Aqua Foundation — a not-for-profit knowledge institution founded in 2003 to make subsurface engineering practice in India and the wider region defensible, vendor-neutral, and accessible to working engineers. We do not run academic courses. We teach the workflows our faculty applied this season.
By the numbers
- Years of field practice
- 30+
- Engineers trained
- 12,400+
- Government & PSU bodies served
- 47
- Equipment platforms taught
- 7
Mission
Field-validated practice, taught vendor-neutrally, priced for emerging markets.
We exist because the gap between what subsurface engineering textbooks teach and what working sites actually require is the widest of any civil-engineering discipline. Closing it is slow work. We have been doing it for thirty years.
Aqua Foundation is the parent NGO — a Section 8 non-profit with 12A and 80G registrations. AFAcademy is its training arm. The non-profit structure lets us teach across regulator, PSU, private, and academic audiences without bias toward any equipment vendor or commercial constituency.
Our reach today covers India, MENA, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Every program is delivered in English, includes recorded lectures and live Q&A, and culminates in a participant-verified certificate.
Timeline
From 1996 to 2026.
- 1996
GPR pioneered in India
Dr. Sanjay Rana imports the first commercial GPR system in India and runs the country’s first ground-penetrating-radar investigation for a national infrastructure client.
- 2003
Aqua Foundation registered
Aqua Foundation is registered as a not-for-profit knowledge institution. The mandate: make field-validated subsurface engineering practice available to working engineers across South Asia.
- 2011
First public training cohort
The inaugural public training cohort runs in New Delhi — 22 engineers from CWC, GSI, and IIT Roorkee. The format that becomes AF Academy is established here.
- 2018
AF Academy formalised
AF Academy spins out as the formal training arm of Aqua Foundation with a permanent faculty roster, a vendor-neutral equipment policy, and an open-access glossary.
- 2021
Online programs launched
The pandemic-era pivot to LMS-delivered cohorts reaches engineers in nine countries within twelve months. The hybrid model — recorded lectures, live Q&A, certified completion — becomes the default.
- 2024
MENA & SEA partnerships
Formal training partnerships with Saudi Geophysical, Druk Green Power, and IRBM Malaysia bring AFA cohorts to MENA and Southeast Asia on a recurring schedule.
- 2026
The Subsurface Brief
The editorial publication launches, anchoring a public-knowledge mission alongside the certificate programs. 5,000+ subscribers in the first six months.
Leadership
Practising engineers — not academics in residence.
Faculty are subsurface engineers active on real projects across hydropower, transport tunnels, dam safety, and utility engineering. Every lecture is grounded in field work shipped in the last decade.
Mr. Y. K. Handa is Post Graduate in Structures from Delhi College of Engineering and Graduated in Civil… Read more
Mr. Y K Handa
Ex-CWC, Chief Engineer
Mr. Saibal Ghosh is presently serving in Central Water Commission as General Manager of Farakka Barrage… Read more
Mr. Saibal Ghosh
Chief Engineer, CWC
Mr. Naresh Kumar Mathur is former Member of Central Water Commission. He did his BE Civil from M B M… Read more
Mr. N K Mathur
Commissioner, CAD, MOJS
Mr. Murari Ratnam, former Director, Central Soil and Materials Research Station, Ministry of Water Resources,… Read more
Mr. Murari Ratnam
Ex-Director, CSMRS
Mr. S.K.G.Pandit is Post Graduate in Civil Engineering and an expert in the field of WRD with specialization… Read more
Mr. S K G Pandit
Ex-CWC, Member
Equipment platforms taught
Vendor-neutral by policy.
We teach the platforms our participants actually own. No vendor sponsors AFA programs. No equipment manufacturer underwrites our curriculum.
- GSSI
- Mala / Guideline Geo
- Sensors & Software
- PipeHawk
- Zond
- IDS GeoRadar
- Proceq / Screening Eagle
Trusted by
Government bodies, PSUs, academia, and the firms that ship.
- Central Water Commission (CWC)
- CSIR-NEERI
- ONGC
- IRBM Malaysia
- Geological Survey of India (GSI)
- NHPC
- L&T Geostructure
- Saudi Geophysical
- IIT Roorkee
- NTPC
- Fugro India
- NHAI
- IIT Madras
- BBMB
- Druk Green Power, Bhutan
- DMRC
Accreditation & registration
- Section 8 non-profit · Government of India
- 12A & 80G income-tax registered
- MSME Udyam registered
- Continuing-education accreditation pending — IEI, IGS
Next cohorts
Train with the people who wrote the workflow.
GPR Mastery, Tunnels & Tunnelling, and Dam Geophysics — all with rolling cohorts and live Q&A.