Tata Swach

Ratan Tata was once inspired to build a cheap car when he saw a family of four balanced on a bicycle in his native India. Now that the Tata Nano "people's car" is a reality, the business tycoon has unveiled an even more useful product for India and the world. Globally, over a billion people do not have daily access to safe drinking water. The types of water delivery systems we use are prohibitively expensive for many countries. Around 380,000 children in India alone will die this year from diarrhea, mainly caused by the water they consume. An estimated 85% of people in India do not filter their water before drinking. If there were some way to make filtering easy and affordable for them, it would prevent many cases of illness due to waterborne pathogens.

The Tata Swach will sell for about £10 each, or a thousand rupees. Replacement filters will be about 30 rupees.

See also: LifeStraw