Guwahati: The Guwahati and Bombay units of Indian Institute of Technology have joined hands to work on solving the country's water crisis.
The IITs are working on the Indo-European project called ‘Low-cost innovative technology for water quality monitoring and water resources management for urban and rural water systems in India’ (LOTUS).
The LOTUS Indo-European project aims at providing solutions for several issues in the Indian water sector.
A core element of the project is a novel water quality sensor that builds on previous work of Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, France and has been further developed during the project by researchers at Université Gustave Eiffel in collaboration with IIT Guwahati and the SME EGM, Sophia Antipolis, France.
Speaking about the advantages of the developed technologies, Prof. S Senthilmurugan, Department of Chemical Engineering and Chairperson, Technology Incubation Centre IIT Guwahati, said that LOTUS water quality sensor requirements are established after collecting requirements from Indian water utility owners, operators, end users and R&D experts and therefore LOTUS sensor is expected to satisfy requirements of Indian water industries.
Successful commercialization of the LOTUS water quality sensor will provide a low-cost water quality monitoring and safe drinking water supply solution to the Indian citizens which is in line with the vision of the Centre's Jal Jeevan Mission and the make-in-India initiative.
Even during COVID times, the LOTUS team from IIT Guwahati was able to continue the groundwater sample collection and sensor development work with minimal delay and this achievement was possible with the consistent support and strategic vision of Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Former Director, IIT Guwahati to LOTUS project.
For the commercial production of the developed low-cost LOTUS sensor for the Indian market, IIT Guwahati is collaborating with Linxens India Private Limited and the new start-up Hydroscope Technology Private Limited.
The process technology licensing between both companies and LOTUS team (IIT Guwahati and Université Gustave Eiffel) is in under progress.
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