It is good to read the news that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government aims to have bio-toilets in all trains in India by 2019. On July 27, 2012, the then Minister of Rural Development and Sanitation, Jairam Ramesh, had said, “Indian rail is the world’s largest open pit toilet.” The effort of the NDA to have 100 per cent coverage for bio toilets will fulfil the dream of the former United Progress Alliance minister of making the Indian Railways system open-defecation free.
A look back into the history of biogas will help here. Tushar Moulik of the Indian Institute of