Scientists at CSIR-NCL Pune, with support from the Water Technology Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, have recently developed a novel hybrid technology to bring safe and healthy drinking water. What is the name of the hybrid technology?

Correct — B, SWASTIIK. SWASTIIK is the hybrid water-disinfection technology developed at the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune under the Department of Science and Technology's water technology initiative. What makes it hybrid is the pairing of two effects — hydrodynamic cavitation, in which collapsing bubbles in a flowing stream generate the shock and heat that kill microorganisms, together with natural additives from plant oils that improve the kill rate at lower energy. The aim was a chemical-free method that could be run at community scale without leaving disinfection by-products in the water.

• (a)SafeWater — A generic name of the sort attached to many water programmes, and not the label given to the CSIR-NCL work.
• (c)Arsiron Nilogon — A genuine Indian technology, but a different one — it removes arsenic and iron from groundwater and was developed at Tezpur University in Assam, where that contamination is the local problem.
• (d)Fluoride Nilogon — Also from the same Tezpur University group, and aimed at removing excess fluoride from drinking water. Both Nilogon methods treat chemical contamination rather than microbial contamination.

Drinking-water treatment has to deal with two different problems. Microbial contamination is handled by disinfection, traditionally with chlorine, which works but can leave by-products and needs a supply chain. Chemical contamination — arsenic, fluoride, iron — needs removal rather than disinfection, and the method has to be matched to the contaminant. Cavitation-based disinfection sits in the first group and is attractive precisely because it adds nothing to the water.

Three of the four options are real Indian technologies, which makes the item a test of matching a name to a laboratory rather than of recognising the odd one out. Sorting them by what they treat is the reliable route: the two Nilogon methods deal with chemical contamination in Assam's groundwater, while the question describes disinfection for safe and healthy drinking water at a Pune laboratory.

• SWASTIIK was developed at CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, with support from the Department of Science and Technology's water technology initiative.
• It combines hydrodynamic cavitation with natural additives to disinfect water without chemicals.
• Cavitation kills microorganisms through the shock and heat released as bubbles collapse in a flowing stream.
• Arsiron Nilogon and Fluoride Nilogon come from Tezpur University and remove arsenic, iron and fluoride from groundwater.
• Chemical contamination and microbial contamination call for different treatment routes.

• Choosing the most literal-sounding name in the option set.
• Assuming all four options are inventions of the examiner; three are real technologies.

A name-matching item built from genuine Indian research programmes, so guessing by plausibility fails.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Arsiron Nilogon, a technology for treating groundwater, was developed to remove

  • (a)Arsenic and iron
  • (b)Fluoride and nitrate
  • (c)Lead and mercury
  • (d)Bacteria and viruses

  Answer(a) Arsenic and iron — the method comes from Tezpur University in Assam.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Hydrodynamic cavitation disinfects water by

  • (a)Adding chlorine in controlled doses
  • (b)The collapse of vapour bubbles in a flowing stream
  • (c)Freezing and thawing the water
  • (d)Passing the water over activated carbon

  Answer(b) The collapse of vapour bubbles in a flowing stream — the shock and heat released destroy microorganisms.