 Let me introduce Professor Millen Sohani, an alumnus of IIT Bombay. He did his BTEC in computer science from IIT Bombay in 1986, then went to the US, spent some time there, then came back to IIT Bombay and completed his PhD in 1994. In CS, his formal interests are in optimization, that's what I am told. However, his personal interests were in hiking, trekking and his tours in the western Ghat took him to various places and he appreciated the ground situation there and that brought him to a parallel channel work on rural areas. At IIT Bombay, we have a Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas, known as Sitara and he started working with that and today he is going to tell us something about one of his projects in the Karzath area of Maharashtra. You can look at his projects in various ways, rural work, a CS professor doing something which obviously for many of you is not mainstream CS or may not be CS at all. But I think he will emphasize and we will appreciate the methodology of research and related themes in this work. Professor Sohani. So, well thank you very much for this introduction, so I am going to sit down and give talk in the old tradition of Pravarjan or Kirtan, so I hope you will appreciate the new way of doing things too or the old way of doing things. So let us, let me begin, so I hope you are all at the presentation that I had said. So engineering and society, a teaching and research paradigm for national development. So this is really to emphasize that engineering is actually a social skill, something like a potter or a carpenter, so they have to interpret society or what it needs, what the customer needs and then design for it and then satisfy the customer. So I am going to point out what is the connection of engineering and its research and development and teaching with society, so there will be four main themes in the talk, the method of science and the method of engineering, what it means, what the science mean and how does engineering extend the role of science. The second thing is about society and development, so it is you can call it the customer side or the, you know, because ultimately our output is to be consumed by society. Then I am going to connect this up and give you a case study which is on drinking water and show how engineering and society relate to each other via drinking water as an example. Finally I will just, you know, what are the outcomes of this talk and how to go ahead, so that was the last topic that I will do. So let us start with science, so of course science is about observing phenomena in the physical or social sciences and explaining them. So the first part of science is obviously observation and documentation. So I think a lot of talks in this series have been about observing stuff and you know various phenomena, noting them down, documenting it, using measurements and so on. So the first part of science is observation and writing, documenting your data. The second part is about formulating a law which tries to explain how this particular phenomenon happens, so let us call it, so it is basically constructing a relationship between, you know, the variables that we are observing. And finally when we make that law we have to test it, whether that law is correct or wrong and if it fails then we have to modify our law and so on. So these above steps are repeated till the science or till the law actually satisfactorily explains what we went out to explain. So here is an example of the levels of water in a borewell, you know, in a village called Ambitste. So I have observed this data over many years, say over 30 years and I have plotted on say on April 5th on 2005 I observed 3.8 meters so I make a plus. So each plus in that figure is actually an observation over many years. So with that this is my data, so as I said the first step is about data and document observation and documentation, so I have documented it. The second step is also illustrated here, I want to make a model for the behavior of water in that observation level. So what did I do? I just drew a straight line and the best fit straight line in that graph is, the best fit straight line is my law. So you see that the law is not bad, it does pass through most of the data and all other data I can probably explain that maybe there was an error in the observation, maybe that day was a bad day or maybe there was some extraction from the well and so on. So the law is satisfactory because it explains how water behaves in that bore well. Next let us look at the next example. So here I have picked up an example from social sciences. So here we see that each plus is actually the data related to a village in a particular tehsil or taluka. So I have taken shapur taluka of thane and you know there are about 200 or 150 villages and for each village I have plotted on the x axis the literate fraction and on the y axis I have plotted the population of the village who are under 6 years of age, so the children in the village. So if you pick a particular plus say for example, let us pick this plus. So you see here for this plus the literate fraction is roughly 50 percent and the fraction of people under or the fraction of children is 13 percent, so 0.13 and 0.15. So each of these villages is 1 you know 1 plus and if you look at this plot you see something very interesting that as the literacy improves or increases the fraction of children in the village decreases. So I will now you know to construct the law I just take the simplest law the best fit line and I see that the line is sloping down right. So that means that if I want to have a family planning objective then perhaps a good way of doing it would be to increase the literacy is that correct. So you see that these are the two things which actually unite the physical science and the social science the feeling that if you have this data you can explain this data using laws that is the basic method of science. So now let us look at engineering, so engineering really says that you know engineering first of all is where do I want to be. So science is fine, science describes reality while engineering wants you know wants our reality to be different right, so engineering by nature is about change. So for example I would like where do I want my borewell water to be I would obviously like it as close to the ground as possible and not as deep. For example where would I like my villages to be I would you know for example I would like them to be literate or I would like them to you know to population to be controlled and so on right or for example you know let us look at a more practical problem. So how should my cities public transport be right, so these are all questions which are actually which are objective which are scientific objective with society values. So is that clear, so we have moved from science to engineering in the sense that so the method of engineering is now should be clear that we have started with a societal problem, a problem with society is posed and we have a stakeholder somebody is posing it. For example the city you know corporation may ask that how do I improve my public transport or you know your your MLA or your local member of parliament or the minister will say how do I keep my population down right. So these are objectives which may be posed to you by let us call them customers or stakeholder. The next objective next you know the next step in engineering is to analyze the problem and separate it into elementary problem. So for example if you want to improve the public transport then may be your drivers should be trained better, may be your conductor should be more civil, may be the routes should be different, may be the timings of the air should be more frequent, buses should be, so there are many aspects to it. There may be civil engineering aspect, mathematical aspect, sociological aspect, mere curtain you know civil, civic sense or whatever. So the next step is to divide the problem into several parts right. So you know that there is this objective and there are many problems. So then the third step is to solve each of these problems right individual problems and synthesize them into a complete solution right. Once the solution is complete you present it to the stakeholder and say well here are you happy, are you satisfied, if not then we have to you know redo the engineering cycle. Just as there was a scientific cycle where you had a theory and then you tested it and it it was unsatisfactory then you have to do the thing again even here in the engineering cycle you have a stakeholder and your problem to solve you try solving it give it to the stakeholder does not work do it again right. So you see that while science tries to describe if you see reality engineering is actually about change and delivering change right. So it is not only about change but it is also it should be delivered to society. So what are the components of changing society or changing ourselves? So there are two parts to it one is one I have called as modeling and the second part is called design okay. So let me explain modeling and design in my next slide right. So here is my picture all of your college teachers and all of your teaching you know young budding engineers. So it is it is important to understand what are the basic engineering skills as we see it or we should tell our students what is an engineer what is the ideal role of an engineer correct. So here is here is a schematic or a diagram of what I call the true engineer. So there are two parts to the true engineer if you look at the top line there is a modeling and then there is design right and the you see that the true engineer is actually interacting with society on the right correct. Then you see that as the what does the modeling part do well modeling part interfaces with society. So it looks at what you know identifying the problem you know and finally deploying the problem yeah can I stop no. So these are the right and the second part is actually the design. So once I get a problem like say for example I get improve the public transport correct then you have to analyze the problem so that takes you to the yeah and then you split up the problem into many parts right there may be civil engineering part may be some psychology some sociology IT maths whatever then you you know synthesize the solution and you know deploy it right. So again deployment is also a modeling because it is interfacing with society correct. So a true engineer actually must do all of these things is that clear right and you see that it needs three important skills first of all are the societal skills right which in you know you have to you have to be able to deal with the with society understand what is going on then the creative skills and then finally the domain knowledge right that you are a mechanical engineer or your civil engineer you have to use maybe you have to design a you have to design a boiler or you know in chemical reactor or a program or whatever right. So the domain knowledge is only the last part of the engineering cycle right. So immediately you will see that the true engineer must actually be interdisciplinary he or she must have an idea of how other areas or other fields also work. So he cannot he or she cannot just say that I am a mechanical engineer I do not know what is what how is what civil engineering does right. If you want to build a water tank you may have to know about what are the rules and regulations how who to talk to how is the village arranged where should I locate the tank how do people go where is the school and so on right. So a true engineer must be able to actually handle or cross discipline it must be able to do sociology must be he may have a he may have a course training but he must be able to you know jump across different disciplines right and remember that in this the true engineering the research actually happens at this part right far far away from society right. So if research has to benefit society then we must need the skills of societal skills and creative skills right. So if our research has to go from the domain side to society then we need those middle layers otherwise our research is not going to benefit society. So let us see you know there are several models of how a society like you know for example American society has different view of engineering Indian society has a different view of engineering or different practice of Japanese engineering you remember that you know we all wow Japanese engineering is really great. So different companies different countries different cultures different times have different views of society. So let us an engineering so let us look at one particular example how does the company run. So company for example is an important construction so what does company do well company is organized in department. So there is a marketing department there is a finance department then there is manufacturing then design HR and so on right. So how does the company interact with society well the sales and the marketing department sees spots and opportunity for example they will say that a rose or you know head and shoulder dandruff preventing shampoo is now the need of the market right. So then so it spots a need so maybe some soap tablet and a new rose colored soap is needed or whatever and the sales and marketing then talks to finance and says that well we perceive this way and these are the profits that you are going to make and then maybe the finance talks to marketing marketing will talk to the design and so on and so forth and finally the product will come back to the sales and marketing team department and the product is sold right and each of these departments have employees which I have shown as little blue dots you see these are employees correct. So all of these departments have small employees sitting inside them and the company is actually doing the whole thing right is that clear. So obvious consequence of this is that the employee now need not be interdisciplinary at all the employee can be unidirectional you know they can only know they need not know so many things they can only know one thing correct the next thing is that what are the problems which companies are going to take up obviously which give them the maximum profit right. So you see that the company is going to take up problems which give them the best you know remuneration profits and so on no problem with that that is the way it should function right. So as a result what is going to happen what is happening is that our companies are focusing on IT, pharma, telecom and so on correct and what are our needs our needs are IT pharma you know but they are they also include drinking water you know solid base management in towns for example and so on. So the obvious question is that why are these needs like drinking water or societal needs not seeing any response why are there no companies right. So then we should see how companies start. So how do companies start well you see the way they are companies usually start by entrepreneurs ok. So what do entrepreneurs do they actually on the creative and the societal scales are formed by the entrepreneur. So you see that box which I have drawn that box is the entrepreneur right. So entrepreneur does all the societal modeling all the analysis and the synthesis and he has a few employees like civil engineer he may have one or two civil he may have one or two IT expert one accounting head and so on and that is how a company starts correct. So so you see that how you know the engineering company and entrepreneur role you know how they fit with each other. So you see that the entrepreneur actually gives you know the has a very low cost of entry he does not have to you know run big departments does not have to run a PR campaign no add nothing right. So it just needs one or two good customer and the entrepreneur is in business right. So then the obvious question is that why are not our problems development problems say water agriculture public health energy you know why are they not being addressed right. So they pose unique opportunities for entrepreneurs right correct. But for our entrepreneurs to take them up it must be clear that our engineers must engineering colleges must train them in this respect must train them how to analyze problems how to you know deploy solutions and how to synthesize you know use different areas of knowledge and come up with solutions. So unless our engineering colleges trains them to take up these skills you know our engineers are not going to become good entrepreneurs that seems to be clear. So at this point you know I have written an article it has come in this June in current science you can read it it talks about engineering in society you know. So three or four core conclusions from there is that there is a huge development deficit you know that I mean you go out of your town or city or your home and you see that there are you know we are in a mess you know our country is in a mess right we have you know agriculture mess or manufacturing mess services. So we are we have huge development problems right and that is number one point number two which is in blue is that the current set of if there is a problem then there must be you know you see for example that you know the if there is a problem then we would expect that some companies would rush in to solve it well the current companies do not seem to be solving them right they do not seem to be addressing what is going on correct. So also that is number one number two is that we know that all of you teachers know that there are about four to five lakh engineering students joining colleges every year are they finding jobs with companies no typical placement scenario is about sixty seventy percent most in the average and maybe even less. So where are these four or five like there you know they are aspiring for jobs in companies in IT firm they are not finding jobs right. So that is number two point number three is that our training in engineering colleges is actually very disciplinary it does not train our engineers to become interdisciplinary or entrepreneurs right. So we are not teaching our engineering students enough societal skills to pick up problems and start solving them. We are not teaching them how to interact with district collector or Zilla Parishas or Gram Panchayan or you know Erbin if you are in the chief engineer or executive engineer or you know NGOs or worker whatever we are not teaching them these skills right. So you see that there is now a supply and demand mismatch correct in both the corporate companies need few engineers engineer employees but we are producing so many development needs there is a lot of engineer entrepreneurs but we are not teaching them. So there is there is a supply and demand mismatch both in the company corporate sector and in the development sector. So here is a possible solution right you wonder how to now how to come out of this trap. So I think that we have to attempt both problems at the same time right. So what are the two so we have to first of all you know so this supply demand mismatch we have to redirect our engineers towards development problems. You have to say that well look at the development there are opportunities here and we must train them to actually take up these problems. So for that our universities and you know your parent institutions must participate in regional development. Now your most likely your you know your trustees or your board has connections with regional you know authorities. So you must tell them that we will become the local or regional problem you know or solution provider. We will be the local regional knowledge you know knowledge base right. So what it means is that first of all our institutions have to step in into regional development and say that well we are here we are our students are you know wanting projects. Now let us start you know looking doing projects together right talk to the collector talk to the CEO of your or you know or your city and so on and start looking for problems right and then of course you must modify our curriculum so that students can actually take such things up within their curriculum and get credit right. So remember that all developed countries the university has played a very very important role. So unless the university steps up to the job we are not going to develop right. So you see that but note that development is not easy okay most developing developed countries have done they have done a lot of thinking and have you know have decided what should the role of universities be what should the role of companies be what should the role of government be and so on right. So I am going to present to you a small case of drinking water how to you know develop this skill or for the university to interact with society okay. So I am going to just you know take a small case study right and then we will we will then we will see how to what are the outcomes. So really so what are the three two three things how do we identify a problem and break it up correct that is number one you know how do we get the data right and where are our stakeholders right after all who do I report to how do I judge whether my solution is successful or good right. So we need an external metric and we are working with external sources of data and external problems and an external stakeholder right and so you will say but so you know as teachers you know that unless there is an incentive for students right they are not going to do it. So if you know so the big question is that are there are there sufficient incentives for students and faculty members that is one key question. So my claim is that there are. So even if you even if your students want to job in forces the skills of interacting with society are very useful they are very useful these skills even in in even in in forces if you join in you know these skills that you learn of you know working with stakeholders and delivery you know are very important that is point number one point number two is that the sectors which I am talking about water energy and so on are the future correct they are the future. So if you learn that then it is going to in it is going to benefit students in the long run and for faculty members I think the government of India has you know so many times said that you know we should work R and D should work for society. So in my so I argue that the incentives are the right way and there are incentives for doing such a thing. So now I am just going to switch to you know how to pick a problem and how to solve it. So let us look at rural drinking water in you know if you pick out the paper nowadays before the monsoon that every day there is some drinking water problem that this happens there is no problem this has run dry a dime has so much with the and so on. So let me start with the you know much of rural India actually depends on wells right bore wells hand pumps and dug wells that is how so let us first the first norm is that the government of India calls a village safe if in that village every person has access to 40 liters of water good clean water safe water per day. So it is called 40 LPCD that is the norm if every person in the village gets 40 LPCD then the village is called safe. So that is for a village by the way for cities the norm is 150 where itself that is the first question why is the city norm 150 and rural rural norm 40. In fact you know people in villages have goats and buffaloes and so on and we do not have in city do we have buffaloes no. So in fact the rural norm should have been higher but let us now let it be we can we can work with that so we of course know that you know in the summer these wells become dry right. So you have seen this there is a one picture there is a picture of a dry well of course every dry well look similar look at the bottom there is nothing in the bottom and they all look the same. So when that happens what happens well women and girls have to go spend a long you know travel long distances to fetch water and that is a substantial amount of time and substantial amount of energy right. And in fact there is a study or a study you go you can do it yourself that about one third to one fourth of the energy and time of women actually go in fetching water guess what is the next big activity or even bigger than this. Can you guess well the answer is fetching firewood okay so cooking energy and drinking water are the two biggest needs that our country suffer right and what are there are 5 lakh engineers joining engineering college every year and all of them want IT and pharma job now there seems to be a big disparity anyway. So let us look at so you know if for example the village goes dry then many state governments initiate I think they start doing they start supplying water through tankers but when water supplied tankers the consumption of water availability actually goes down to 10 or 15 LPCD just 10 liters of water per person per day as bad as that. So this is of course a very adverse impact on the well being of the women and you know and girls but of course on the children if the mom is away mother is away for you know half the day fetching water 10 liters of water then what can the child expect and expect to learn a lot is the food going to be good no. So besides the women and children you know the whole family and the livelihood for example you know once they start half the women work as laborers so they are not going to earn that money so everything really dramatically changes. So I think that cooking energy and drinking water are two major problems and opportunities I will call them as opportunities for our engineers. So here is some analysis that I did that our team in IT Bombay we are doing so in Thane district we analyzed what is the you know drinking water situation. So let me just quickly summarize how does so basically it has 15 Thalukas or which 5 are tribal and there are habitations or what is there are 8000 habitations and 900 gram panchats by the way do our engineering students know what a gram panchats means what sort of animal is it are we telling them no well anyway let it be so we will begin to teach them. So then you look at if you count the staff and so on there is one rural drinking water engineer or you know maybe two for every 20,000 people is that going to work no. So there is actually a great need for the development need there is if somehow governments can be convinced that you know our engineers can deliver value then government may hire you. But you have to show that you can deliver you can improve the situation. So here is so we analyzed so you see this is the map of Thane and these red spots are the places are the villages which are tanker fed in which there is severe drinking water stress. So the 4 Thalukas are Javar, Mukhada, Murbar and Shahpur and largely these are tribal. So these are the Thalukas where they are tribal. So no surprise there either. So what we did was we plotted for Javar, Mukhada, Murbar and Shahpur the amount the fraction of scheduled tribe the tribal people. So you see that Javar has 97 percent tribal Mukhada 91, Murbar 24 and Shahpur 35. But if in the tanker fed villages you can find out what are the fraction of tribals you see well 97, 93. So Javar Mukhada fine but in Murbar you see that the fraction of tribal people in the tanker fed 74 percent and Shahpur 62 percent. So what does it mean? It means that tribal villages have a greater chance of facing water scarcity correct. So you see here now we have divided the problem we started with drinking water which we thought was a technical problem and then we now we see that well there may be a social problem as well correct. So when I showed it to the collector he started you know he started asking the engineer what is the meaning what is going on. So then anyway but we looked at it further. So if you look at the mean elevation of these villages then in Murbar and Shahpur well in Shahpur you see this blue number is 997. So the tanker fed villages are roughly 60 meters higher than the non tanker fed than the average right. Well in Murbar they are the same. So in Shahpur it is likely to be a technical problem while in Murbar it is likely to be a social problem right. Why? Because villages you know tribal villages and non tribal are at the same height but tribal villages are not getting water well in Murbar tribal villages are much higher in Shahpur correct. So this sort of so we see that just one snapshot has actually you know just the spatial you know if you look at the spatial by the way in this is where the western ghats are right. So these are this is the hilly part correct next. So then we looked at you know where are the rural regional schemes where are they you know drinking water schemes and where do you see well the schemes are all over on the western side of the district. So eastern side is where the need the intense need is well and the schemes are on the all on the way. So you see that there has not been much investment on the eastern side and may be because of that there is drinking water stress correct right. So if you show this to the planner then they understand yeah now I see what you are saying. So may be we need we need to invest more in that area correct well. So on this other side I have just plotted the reverse in the reservoir okay reverse. So this is again all of this data is available. So what I expect is that our engineering colleges should teach our student to analyze such data or regional data. They will themselves start asking the right questions. So the obvious question is that why cannot we have more rural regional drinking water scheme right. We should have them more. So then you see that there are many issues there are technical issues right there are economic issues and there are social and government issues right. What are you know that should pay the technical issues are clear. I mean all engineers know that you have to well design build tanks simulate the stuff then optimize and so on and so forth. So economic issues are that capital and running costs benefits and who is to then by the way what are the social and government issues well who is to pay right ownership is the is the Zillapurishev going to run the scheme who is going to own it is it a private public partnership who is going to collect the bills what if somebody does not pay right. So there are many social and government issues as well. So there are technical economic and so I think that our engineers should be taught to understand all of these issues. So here is what we did. So we started with Karzath Taluka in another district which is actually just south of Thane and we you know on our own we said that is a scheme like this feasible or not. By the way Raghat district is just south and has a similar problem. So let us pick these you know these Vadi's and villages which have a severe drinking water stress and let us see a techno economic feasibility of whether a rural regional drinking water stream is possible. So by the way we did this. So you know if I am going to produce a feasibility study then it had better be acceptable the to the government. So in my feasibility study I used exact government norms their way of designing stuff their costing methods right. So I want my feasibility study to be accessible and acceptable to the government or to the district administration. So I use exactly PWD norms and procedures right everything and I made sure that my reporting is back to the PWD local MLA and other people okay. By the way this study was done by three students over six months that is all okay. So let us see what does the scheme have. So essentially if a large scheme will have a source then a jack well and a pump then a water treatment plant then a mass balancing reservoir and then clusters of villages each fed by individual tanks right. So there is a cluster here, there is a cluster here, there is a cluster here and so on right. Is that clear? So this is what a scheme looks like there is a source then a pump and treatment plant and by the way from this MBR or mass balancing reservoir everything is gravity fed okay. So the energy costs are in taking the water from here from the jack well source to the MBR after that it is all gravity. Is that clear? So this is how a drinking water scheme looks like. So essentially you know here are the basic steps. First of all you have to assess the these right where all which are the villages which need water, how severe is it right and what is the extent. So you have to meet with all stakeholders, you have to meet with the you know Taluka administration, you meet the Gram Panchayat, the Sarpanches, you know NGOs who are reporting these problems. You meet all of them right and assess what the demand is. Then you have to do the you know locate a source, you have to locate maybe there is a lake or a reservoir but you know you do if you want to take water from it maybe there is other competition, competitive users. So you do you know you have to take clearance and so on. Then you have to go through the population data and plot the demand. What is going to be the demand 2012, 14, 15, 20, 30 year you know horizon. So you have to extend what the current and the past population was and produce the future in a scenario. So after this this first step and the second step now the technical problem specification is ready. So this was the modeling part right. This part was the modeling part right correct. Now let us look at the technical part. You know you have to cluster the villages and pipe diameter, head calculate and compute core and so on. So this is typically what is what we teach in our engineering college. Do we teach this? The first part no but this is equally important okay. Now after that the final thing is to take it back to the people. You know to the PWD, to the Thaisildar, to the BDO, to the Gram Panchayat and so on correct. So here are some pictures. So by the actually visiting villages, you know ascertaining what the demand is, doing technical design, meeting with NGOs, meeting with the you know the Taluka officer. So by the way here is the Sarpanch, one of the Sarpanchayat. Here is the you know assistant engineer of the Thaisildar. Here is me and here are some students okay. So this is another student. These are students and co-faculty members. These are actual students. By the way this was Saraiwadi which is a tribal village. So you see that you have to do all of these things and then the students actually end up learning a lot more next. So by the way this is you know it is about 120 square kilometer area. This is the extent and just to give you what the area looks like next and this is the source. This is the source of the of the source for the that we picked up. So it is actually the discharge from a Hydel power station. So it is perennial right. So selecting a source for a rural drinking water scheme must be must be robust. It cannot be seasonal correct. Otherwise the scheme is bound to fail. So this is how we so this is this is our source next. So these are the habitations okay. These are so we have by the way you are using Google Earth right. So these are the have been pointed every location every habitation. So by the way you know what in in in my area may be not in your area right. In my area each habitation will flee to 300 people and you know mainly it is close to their farms. In Cochrane bed how do people stay? Well people stay close to their farms right. So all the habitation you know in a in a gram panchayat there may be 10, 12, 15 habitation correct. So I have located all the habitation here. So what do I do latitude, longitude, elevation, population and growth rate. Once all of these are done I know what the demand is next. Then here is my network. So I know those 70 odd habitation each red dot is a cluster. So there is going to be a tank as for that cluster right. Once I have a tank for each cluster right. Then I have to you know and this this is the you know at this this spot is where the main balancing MBR is. So from this is the source what is going to flow up from here to here and then by gravity it is going to go everywhere else okay. So we have to minimize the cost and you know of this network and do the engineering design. So it includes next. So here is a close up you know for example note that there are many things to be taken care of here. For example we have seen that if you want to implement it then the pipeline must go along roads because otherwise nobody is going to give you their land correct. So these are things which you must you know you talk to PWD and understand how are how are how are things designed and use exactly their norm. So for example here we are showing what are where are the bends in the pipe that has to be accounted for and simulated correct. Next so here is the close up here is the here is the reverse and here is the water treatment plant and the MBR. So by the way all of this is actually a play on elevation then gravity fee and so we essentially use a couple of simulators and a design tool and we also did a bit of a patching and so on. Next so finally after all of this right so what was the output well we came the we came with the final economic output that if you want to supply 200 LPCD then the per capita investment would be roughly 7000 and at 40 LPCD the per capita you know investment would be roughly 2200 this was in 2010 correct. So by the way the government of Maharashtra norm is 2300 that if a scheme falls within 2300 per capita then it gets automatic approval. So what are we shown where we have shown that the we have shown essentially that the net investment for pipe water at 40 and 200 is economically feasible right. So by the way for cities with the 200 LPCD norm the norm is roughly you know 10000 for example Thane city or Mumbai city the investment per person is in of the order of 10000 okay. So once you by the way we also computed the energy cost which is roughly 5 rupees 5 rupees per cubic meter fine. So you see if you do such a by the way on our moodle the full report and the full presentation which we made to the district collector is available on our web page on moodle right. So you see this report actually changes reality why because now the people will say well IIT has done this report it shows that it is feasible why you guys not doing it right. So that create this knowledge this knowledge which is local or a regional institute has created has now taken the step forward one step forward to easing the difficult you know difficulties of the people right. It has you know a regional institute has now taken up you know has tried to improve the living standard of our of the neighboring area right and do you see engineering opportunities here sure you know if this scheme is to be taken up it is going to need engineers it is going to need applied social scientist it is going to need demographer it is going to need so many people and going to it is going to create value correct next. So what are the outcomes well for Kerzer you know Kerzer Taluka well it says well development is it brings about development correct and so by the way the report was presented to the local MLA and to the six surpenges to the six grand panchayats and the report was adopted unanimously by the six grand panchayats right. So now you got to understand how governance works the way it works is that the if there is a proposal you know we have a democracy right. So grand panchayats have to adopted officially right adopted in the grand sabha and then take the demand to the Tercil office then the Tercil office aggregates the demand and gives it to the district design or district engineer and then they have to sit and design it. So now what has happened the demand has gone from these six grand panchayats because they now know there may be a solution. So they have now taken the demand to the district engineers and now the engineers have to the state engineers have to either refute what we have said or do the design detailed design is that clear. So all of this has so all of this is actually happening. So now if you look at for us for the institute right. So what have I what have I been saying that you people should also you know take up such a role. So now this part is how does it benefit the institute. So if first of all you know there is a lot of R and D content in it okay we novel use of GIS Google new optimization problems all of them are publishable in international journals all of this result is actually publishable international journals okay. So and of course we need we discover new uses of you know we design simulation packages you know adapting simulation packages to our need and so on. So the first two are really you know novel and you know actually publishable R and D the last part is really important recognition for the institute that we are now known in cursor as oh that I T well let us if there is a new problem let us go to I T let may be they have something to say right. So I am sure that your engineering college if it you know get such a name in your taluk or district it is going to be very important and I am sure your board of governance or your institute is going to like it or your collector or whatever is going to like it. So I think that you know this is really this is I mean there is a win-win situation now you get engineers get employed or understand these skills you know it brings our development you know every right. So exactly what we want we want our local universities to be local problem solvers is that clear. So you would say now where do I okay now this is really nice what do I do now okay. So first of all you know you do not have to look at drinking water of course very important but there are many other sectors like the energy public transport water public health and so on town planning if you know town all sorts of needs are coming up just you have five days ago there was a fire in a big Bombay building right in the Manthrala now just doing an analysis of a building about evacuation times and so on is going to you know is going to save lives and save costs. So there are plenty of opportunities. So there are you know what perhaps you should do it you go to www.sitarat.itb that which I have linked and study this TDSL program there or go to my web page and look at all that stuff. So set aside some funding have two or three coordinating faculty members per institute okay they are going to interact. So you know identify two or three faculty members who are good at interacting with people outside who actually work in the you know private sector or work with government agencies and so on. So form a cell set aside some funding you know modify the curriculum to you know allow BTEC students or engineering students to take up such projects right and you know have your institution have a broad meeting with the collector you know with the board you know your principal and have meeting and say that we we are here okay and Sitara can help if indeed you are interested then what are the various models that this interaction can bring about what are the you know and by the way Sitara also has this EMTEC program in technology and development. So we actually train our in the master's program we train our students to take up exactly such a role right. So we may you know you may want to hire one of our EMTEC students graduates as a coordinator regional coordinator where he or she we have trained him him on her to take up such problems formulate them and give it to solve solution you know you know put it up for solution right. So you may want to contact this by the way you should also look at the Sitara EMTEC program for how it is designed you know how what is there you know it has many parts and I think it would be interesting for you also at the graduate level for the undergraduate level the TDSL program is perhaps the right thing at the graduate level is the EMTEC pro and technology and development okay. So really I mean I have just explained that what our vision is the development vision is that engineering colleges must be regional providers. So eventually I think that local you know eventually DST will discover that if you are producing you know DST will rush I hope that if you are if you are doing quality work at the regional level I am sure that DST funding will follow I do not I mean of course you have to make a nice proposal and so on but getting the collector to say that well we want these problems all and they are doing a good job I am sure that there is funding you know state level funding or DST or DIAT or whatever you will get the funding right. So I think that you know research funding is to be concentrated at places like IIT's to actually go down to regional institute right and that will happen only when you start you know saying that we are the regional solution provider okay. So I hope that this was useful thank you very much. So if you have any questions that study that you did in 2010 yeah we want to know how much did it cost and what whether it has been implemented till now or not because it's been almost two years since then right. So actually you know that's a good question yeah that's a good question. So first of all all the reports are there in all the reports are there on Moodle or also on my web page and the study was done in 2010 which is about two years ago and the report was presented only in September October 2010 so end of 2010. So by the way now there are several other issues which are connected. You see it's a big you see it's a big this this rural drinking water scheme is going to be really big. So who's going to invest? So I don't think it remains a technical problem now. So it now is a policy problem so is there going to be a private partnership and so on correct. So don't think that you know the technical problem is the only thing but the feasible technical feasibility now opens an avenue. So now we are going to see you know the government it has to go to the ministry and say oh well we want public private partnership to solve this problem. So we have to you know we have we have to come now only after the technical thing is solved will it go to the implement the funding and the and you know in institutional phase and the policy phase. So this is it is in the mantra life it's like it's working out. Any does that satisfy you? But the reports are all there on our web page or on Moodle. No I am more concerned about implementation of whatever study that you did because if somebody from IIT Bombay does a study it carries a lot of web but say a private college like ours does this study it will have not less web. So probably the implementation for our project will be. No you're right but you're right I think I understand what you're saying that IIT understand what you're saying but Sitara can help. I mean if you're we can technically evaluate it we can develop partnership you can borrow IIT's name or whatever but it has to first of all it has to be technically sound correct. And that is and the other thing is that once it is technically sound it can go to the collector collector will send it for you know the collect by the way you have to compete with the local implementing agency that's one thing and that you know the collector or the local administration is going to appreciate that there is a second opinion. Yeah Thank you for your inspirational thought provoking lecture. So we have in a round we have a Periyar Pura scheme. So we adopted 65 villages in a round Periyar Manema University. Also we have a Periyar community radio for giving social programs to enrich their societal problems. So can we have a rural education through our Periyar community radio? Is there any possible way to import rural education through our Periyar community radio or some Akash Akash through Akash tablet? Can you have a... Actually there are many funding for that funding. Well I am not I myself am seeking funding all the time now but not really but what I am saying is that well that's very nice to hear what all you have done. I think that you know perhaps if you if you can document and send me some reports of what you have done maybe then I can you know reply to it more carefully. So what I would like first of there are two things you should probably send me some reports and secondly have you integrated the curriculum structure and R and D structure to what you are doing in society. Okay so I think that you know don't regard development as a emotional question but as a professional question okay that it is not about doing good or you know you know doing things out of the heart but it is good engineering actually means development. Okay so it is more about the way engineering is taught and not about doing good. I hope you understand what I am saying. So please do send me reports. Thank you sir. Sir good afternoon and let me congratulate you and your team and IIT actually. Sir I am from Sinhankar Institute of Lonavala. Lonavala itself is a remote place actually we have taken this kind of initiative we wanted to educate some of the illiterate students which are located nearby Lonavala. We have taken one project but unfortunately we could not complete that project. The second project which now you have listed in and we are very much interested to work with is the energy sector actually you know the situation of Maharashtra in the rural places most of the villages don't get the electricity for 24 hours. So that's the good project and where we can think about the renewable energy sources to be implemented in the Maharashtra and in this kind of project actually if you are to implement we need a lot of funding for doing research for doing survey and getting it implemented and if we want to have this kind of project to be implemented can we get some help and the guidelines from the IIT site that is my one question and the second one is that as you have started your own MTech courses it is possible at IIT and since it's autonomous institute but since we are affiliated to certain universities sometimes it becomes difficult for us to have this kind of courses in our curriculum so can we have some corresponding kind of courses from IIT where our students can interact with IIT people and they get actually idea of how this project or how these work can be done at the rural places over to you sir. Thank you so first of all you see that I keep saying it to everyone that development is an intellectual question it is not an emotional question you are helping illiterate students all that is good but that is not engineering that is number one and engineering college must do everything which is technically sound okay if it involves talking to illiterate people good but you cannot say that something I am doing good from the heart is does not make will not give you funding or give you will not satisfy your engineers so it has to be first of all a very sound technical and social that it has to be scientific that is number one so though you know that you are working with NGO helping illiterate people and all that is okay but that is not the way to go you have to put it in a more robust and sound footing that is number one number two a lot of our studies need very minimal funding you just need travel to and fro and Delhi DATADA I am sure your institute will have that funding all the other tools that we use are free okay so first you start doing things funding will follow is that okay yeah sir my second question was as like IIT are having their own curriculum about the empty code and we have actually we are located at certain places and we are affiliated I understand so actually actually all we have collaborated with a college in Karzath college in sangly and so on so they may I mean they are managing to do it through their BTEC project you know that BTEC project in their BTEC project they are doing such work so there are always ways out of doing doing this and if you want to approach the university we will help you yeah that is in the word first of all I wish to congratulate you for making this excellent presentation and showing as to how engineering can be viewed as a socially responsible activity okay I wish to know what are the other activities that sitara is doing up this prototype I understand there was one on making efficient bullet cards and bicycle those types of things so please visit the web page okay the second question is according to you how much is the rural need for water per day per person 200 300 300 lpcd thank you very much in Margaret engineering college sir how we can utilize the research in computer science for the enhancement of agriculture productivity in a rural area I think you know well I can answer this in many ways but this is not about applying something to something we are talking about a methodology of research so if you have questions on that I will answer otherwise send me an email I will answer that question so stick to the point bhanariaman institute technology erode how to assess the center of technology projects sir so you why don't you visit the web page why don't you visit our web page so it actually you see if you see the presentation it has two web pages on the first slide so visit those web pages never call it because best harvesting system in the last one basically it's a rural area and I want to regret this but the man keep following this there is no funding available as in I require right now and I don't know how to apply the funding for some institute like mh rdi ct and others so sir is there any way to make a proposal I will repeat the question they said how can I use sensor network in agriculture or some such area and how do I make a proposal well I think that I will answer the first thing that my point of my talk was that don't start with sensor network start with the problem and if the problem needs sensor network then it will get funded you understand what I was saying is that we are our engineering is teaching people to start with sensor network and look for a problem that is not the way to go start with the problem and see what what skills you need I hope that is clear I'm Bapu Islam for word hello I'm Sushma yes I'm Sushma Kulkarni director of Rajaram Bapu Institute of Technology I don't have any question because we are already associated with sitara one of the professors had the inquired that how it can be included in curriculum and how we can do it but we are actually already doing it we have started this semester now and sitara especially dr sony supporting us completely and value-added trainings and everything is supported and provided and I'm very sure that large number of institutes can take up such projects a network with the social NGOs and all those things and you can go ahead and students also enjoy the feedback which I'm getting from my students and faculty that they're enjoying doing this project so this was just a feedback which I wanted to give to professor Soni and all the professors who wish to take up this project thank you Yeji Kwanbatur word Sir we have a question on your case study sir you have presented a good case study on drinking water and some of the data you have been you could be added to make a better case study that you have started or began with water scarcity and concluded with economic water distribution the past data on average rainfall ground water ground water level and delay in monsoon may also be taken into account and you have not mentioned that what are the various schemes which has been implemented to improve the level of ground water levels so good question actually yeah thank you very much actually if you visit my webpage and there is a there is a link to water research on my webpage there you will see the extent of study that we are doing we look at ground water we look at surface water we look at reservoirs water supply schemes ground water testing modeling observation wells everything so this case study could not illustrate all aspects but that research is ongoing thank you you are effort taken this direction thank you once again