Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has launched a start-up of IIT alumni that uses Artificial Intelligence for water purification at an affordable cost.
The Gurugram based company’s patented system, ‘Clairvoyant’ uses artificial intelligence to optimise purification systems and predict future breakdowns. This helped to remotely manage, update, and repair each system in real time. They have also developed clean drinking water solutions in the form of Water ATMs, which combine Internet of Things (IoT) technology with solar energy to provide clean drinking water. The water ATMs used solar energy to pump water from rivers, wells, ponds, or groundwater depending upon the location. The water is then treated with appropriate technology to make it potable. With this innovation, the cost of purified water is expected to be brought down to as low as 25 paise per litre.
On the occasion, an MoU was also signed between Technology Development Board (TDB), a statutory body of Department of Science & Technology, Government of India and M/s Swajal Water Private Limited, the start-up company, which has been founded by ex-IITians.
Dr Jitendra Singh welcomed the financial support extended to Swajal by TDB and said that his Ministry is committed to reaching out to potential small and viable start-ups having skill and talent pool but lacking resources. He asked the CEO & Co-founder of Swajal, Dr VibhaTripathi, to scale up this technology to help achieve India’s ambitious target of providing clean drinking water to all by 2024, as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Minister said that apart from the Central Government’s initiatives like National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) and Jal Jeevan Mission, the private sector should come forward in a big way with state-of-the-art tech solutions to cover nearly 14 Crore households where clean drinking water is yet to reach.
Referring to Prime Minister’s 75th Independence Day speech, where he said that in just two years of the Jal Jeevan Mission, more than four and a half crore families have started getting water from taps, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the Ministry of Science and Technology is positively contributing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vision and Mission of “Har Ghar Nal Se Jal”.
Dr. Srivari Chandrashekhar, Secretary DST & Chairperson TDB, pointed out that this project is a combination of new emerging technologies IoT and AI, combined with renewable solar energy to cater to the need for pure drinking water in villages and remote areas.
Shri Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Secretary, TDB, said that the project will empower communities to plan and monitor their drinking water needs with community ownership and will get affordable, accessible, reliable, and clean drinking water 24×7 throughout the year. TDB is committed to supporting such innovative technologies for mass utility.
“With the financial support from Technology Development Board, a social impact start-up like Swajal could do wonders. We are looking forward to covering more states in India at the earliest,” said Dr VibhaTripathi, CEO & Co-founder, Swajal.
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