UK-based NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul's Caparo Group plans to install environment- friendly bio digester toilets across India which it created along with the DRDO, aimed at improving living standards in the country's rural and urban areas.
"We're privileged to work with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) technology to create bio digester toilets which we will now be installing around the country," Chief Executive Officer Angad Paul said.
"This eliminates the need for plumbing and allows faecal matter to be reduced to usable water and gases," he said at the Institute of Directors London Global Summit on Corporate Governance and Sustainability at House of Lords last evening.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked parliamentarians and the corporate sector to help build separate toilets for girls in schools across the country by next year.
In his first Independence Day address this year, Modi had also pitched for making provisions for building toilets wherein women should not defecate in open.
Noting that many people know Caparo because of the T1 car (racing car) that it developed, Angad said, "This was Caparo's first foray into composites. As a result of this, we have now developed composite housing for India which is quicker and cheaper to erect and stronger than conventional building methods.
"The most exciting part of this development is that we will soon be making the composite material from organic matter. A truly sustainable solution that serves the needs of a growing India. In addition, we are looking at aggregating this with bio digester toilets and reusable waste to energy."
Angad, son of Lord Paul, commended the Modi government's policies on hygiene and alternative energy, saying "We at Caparo India have for the last two years developed a range of products designed to improve standards in rural and urban areas.
"We started as an automotive components company in India and were part of a revolution in transportation but I realised some time ago that we too were focussed on the highest common denominator as a market.
"Part of sensible sustainable business is to react to the needs of your surroundings, and India is much more than a car and truck driving public, so now we are making electric rickshaws for both urban and rural areas."
He said Prime Minister Modi and his team are facing a herculean task and they have made the appropriate start.
"What they face in front of them is exactly what we all face as directors of corporate entities, particularly when it relates to issues of governance and sustainability," he added.
