Tata Chem's low-cost water purifier in WSJ's best Asian innovations shortlist
By By Dhara Tripathi | 30 Jul 2010
Considering the need of the rural population, Tata Chemicals has innovated a water purifier using nanotechnology and byproducts of polished rice to help make untreated water potable.
The fact that the purifier, branded Tata Swach, doesn't require electricity and running water unlike existing water purifiers is what makes the purifier really innovative.
Moreover it costs only Rs999 and has been designed to comply with the US Environmental Protection Agency standards on anti-bacterial properties.
"Right from the beginning, we were very clear that this product had to be developed keeping in mind households that didn't have electricity," Sabaleel Nandy, head of the water-purifier business at Tata Chemicals Ltd, told The Wall Street Journal. "It was always meant to be a poor man's device."
What inspired the team to work towards developing an innovative water purifier? The brief to the developpment team from the Tata Chemical management was simple: to learn from Thomas Edison, the father of the electrical age, and innovate a product that just as that did not even require electricity.
The water purifier is now competing against 11 other impressive innovations to win the coveted 2010 Asian Innovation Awards instiuted by The Wall Street Journal.