Two Machines that can change India

                                                          Bikash Choudhury            

‘What’s App’ has created a rage like no other, in mobile computing space in recent times; a day does not pass when a friend or family politely request you to use the application and add him in the network. It is indeed a useful application for instant communication with minimal cost. However, India needs two products that its poor people can afford just like a mobile phone. These two applications could solve half of India’s problems. Excuse me to propose an automatic toilet and an automatic bio-composter. The biggest, and by far the most inscrutable problem that India face is cleanliness, hygiene and pollution of air and water. That has defied a solution. Our river system continue to be poured with untreated black sewage water our cities and towns have become a dump yard of solid waste and our rural areas practice open defecation that add to the health hazard and consequent cost on public health. India currently spends about 40 billion Dollars in importing electronic goods and our IT exports have touched 80 billion Dollar.  Can’t India invest just 1 Billion Dollar to design and produce these two machines? It is said “necessity is the mother of invention”. If such machines does not constitute a necessity; then, what else? A few years from now 40% of our population would live in urban space in over 500 cities and towns that would make the cost of providing sewerage connection to urban homes prohibitive as one kilometer of such connection would cost over one crore rupees and treatment of such a huge quantity of black water would certainly break the back of urban municipal bodies. The solution lies in an ‘automatic toilet system’ or even better we can give this a sobriquet of ‘smart toilet system’ keeping with times that could process the night soil into manure and convert black water for tertiary use in garden. This machine alone could save a few thousand billion dollars for our country while conserving our water bodies, river systems and public health.

The solid waste disposal system of our cities and towns has almost nearing a breaking point that begs for a creative solution. If we could design a bio-composter that converts bio wastes of homes into vermin compost;  then, half of solid waste disposal problem could be contained as bio-waste constitute 50% of all solid waste. On top of it the home production of compost would lead to a movement of kitchen garden that translates into better public health. Apart from the direct benefits of such machines; the production and consumption of such machines could create a multi billion dollar Industry with an employment potential of a half a million keeping the potential demand and scale of operations in mind. Our IIT & NIT system could design and develop such technology that could put western mobile technology & what’s app to shame. Shall we?