Thursday 17 February 2022

Procuring Technology for “ Drinking Water “

Dear Shri Harsh Shringlaji

( Foreign Secretary – jsbsm@mea.gov.in )

Congratulations for setting up KRA ( Key Result Areas ) for our Ambassadors in various countries ( especially, in relation to “ procuring high technology “ ) , as reported below :

04 Feb 2022

Extract :

Ø Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla has written to all mission heads that Indian embassies will function as a team and all officers will be judged on parameters of enhancement of trade, procurement of technology and selling India as a tourism destination.

Ø On August 6, 2021, PM Modi has addressed the heads of missions virtually with the focus on enhancing Indian exports, procuring high end technology for India, and promoting India as a global tourism destination.

It is in this context that foreign secretary Shringla reminded all the mission heads last week that annual assessment for all officers in the embassy will be largely done on their performance on 3Ts including the ambassador himself.

Each officer apparently will have to self-assess herself or himself on their performance regarding 3Ts and then set up targets for next years

Technologies that can help us solve our myriad problems, are under development ( or already available commercially ), all over the World.

It is very likely that some of these news might escape your attention. In turn, you may not be able to alert our ambassadors to inquire / evaluate these for possible “ acquisition “ by India ( by Indian PSUs / Private Sector Firms / Research Labs etc )

Before alerting the concerned ambassador(s), you may want to forward this e-mail to the following High-powered TECHNOLOGY COMMITTEES of GOI, for giving their opinion ( within a week of being referred ? ) :

Troika of Technology ?............ [ 20 Feb 2020 ]

As a citizen, I believe it is my duty to bring to your notice, such technology-related news whenever I come across one

Here is one :

[ A ] Technology ( brief description ) :

A very cheap ( $ 4 ) device made from abundantly available materials for desalinating salty-brackish water into pure drinking water, using only SOLAR energy and needing approx. 11 sq ft of terrace space

Device is capable of producing enough drinking water for one family, every day ( 10 Litre for family of 4 ? )

Technique is more than 80 percent efficient at converting solar energy into water vapor with water that has up to 20 percent concentrations of salt.

[ B ] Country where developed :

USA – CHINA

[ C ] Inventor / Developer :

MIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University

https://news.mit.edu/2022/solar-desalination-system-inexpensive-0214

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28457-8

[ D ] Source of News