6 Indian Innovations Get $2 mn to Reinvent the Toilet

Six Indian innovators have been selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to reinvent Toilets in India. The projects will also receive a total grant of $ 2 mn.

The challenge, a collaboration between the foundation and the department of Biotechnology in India are trying to drive research, development, and production of “next-generation toilets.”

Unidentified people bath at Sulabh Sauchalaya, a public toilet run by Sulabh International which works to promote environmental sanitation on 14 March 2013 in Patna, India.

Researchers from Amrita School of Biotechnology, BITS Pilani, Eram Scientific Solutions Pvt Ltd ($450,000), IIT Roorkee, Institute of Chemical Technology Mumbai and Pradin Technologies Pvt Ltd won the grant.

According to the 2011 census data, 49.8% defect in open, 3.2% in public toilets. The situation is (expectedly) bad in rural areas where open defection stands at 67.3%.

You know what else is interesting? More Indian households have mobile phones than toilets.