Developed for troops serving on glaciers high in the Himalayas, the non-flushing “bio-digester” toilet made by India’s top defense research body is now being offered to companies and poorer states.
It is one of 200 technologies produced by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) identified as for sale via the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The national trade body and DRDO in October forged a four-year partnership to hawk dual-use military products as part of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pledge in 2008 to offer defense technology spin-offs to the public, officials said.
The “bio-digester” is among 10 of the research body’s products put on the fast-track for sale to state governments and private companies, an Indian defense ministry official added.
“Our condition is to take any non-classified technology [that can be used] for the benefit of the common man,” said Nirankar Saxena, executive director of the chamber’s Center for Technology Commercialization, which heads the project.
The “bio-digester” toilet, conceived by a DRDO unit in the city of Gwalior, works by mixing self-multiplying bacteria with human waste in specially made tanks, resulting in the production of methane gas and water.
It was meant for Indian combat troops deployed on Siachen, a 6,300m high glacier in disputed Kashmir, where temperatures can fall to minus 50oC.
Experts say they believe about 5,000 soldiers are deployed on the frigid wasteland, where calm has prevailed since a 2003 ceasefire with Pakistan.
“Work on it began 15 years ago because excreta buried in snow by soldiers in the Siachen glacier polluted rivers when the ice melted,” said scientist Vijay Veer of the Defence Research and Development Establishment, a DRDO unit.
The bacteria used in the mountain version were found in Antarctica, but another cocktail can be used in the hot tropical plains.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS