Tata's next dream: Provide low cost purified water

NEW DELHI: Whatever Ratan Tata has done so far has evoked strong reactions - his group's ambitious bid for steel maker Corus was dubbed as audacious and his dream car cheap - but there is no stopping this dream factory.
   
Having given shape to his vision - the people's car christened 'Nano' - Tata has already commissioned his team to conjure up a low-cost solution to purify drinking water.

"Anything that we can do to reduce disparity," was Tata's reply to editors when asked about his next big dream.
   
In this case, his dream is to come up with a "low cost (water) purification system". Tata said some of his group companies were already working on the idea.

Millions of people in India's cities and villages still lack access to safe drinking water. According to UNICEF, about 85 per cent of rural Indians and 95 per cent of those living in urban areas have sustainable access to safe drinking water in the country of 1.1 billion people.

Water purification systems, currently available in the market for residential use, cost anything from Rs 6,000 to Rs 15,000 in the country, where average earning of a person per month is less than Rs 3,500.

Tata, however, did not put a price tag for the budget purification system under development.