Centre launches contest for smart water supply monitoring system

The Centre has launched a country-wide competition to develop smart water supply measurement & monitoring system that can be deployed at the village level in pursuit of the goal to provide water tap connection to every rural household by 2024.

The Union Electronics & Information Technology Ministry, along with Jal Jeevan Mission, has launched the information and communications technology (ICT) contest to create innovative, modular and cost-effective solution to develop the smart water system, which would collect and facilitate centralised monitoring of data.

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) has been launched to provide functional household tap connection (FHTC) to every rural household by 2024.

The Mission focuses on service delivery at the household level, i.e. water supply regularly in adequate quantity and of prescribed quality. “This necessitates the use of modern technology in systematic monitoring of the programme and to capture service delivery data automatically for ensuring the quality of services”, said an official statement.

Digitally enabled water supply infrastructure will help in near real-time monitoring and evidence-based policymaking. There is an opportunity to deploy a frugal IoT based system to monitor quantity, quality, and periodicity of water delivery.

Digitalisation of water supply infrastructure has the potential to solve some of the biggest societal problems facing the nation. More importantly, it will help anticipate and address future challenges, the statement said.

The contest will harness the IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystems of India for creating a smart rural water supply ecosystem. This challenge will provide opportunity to work for the cause of Jal Jeevan Mission and to assure potable water supply through FHTC to every rural household, it said.

The challenge will provide support at ideation, prototype development and deployment stage.

The pilot will be conducted at 100 villages. The best solution will receive a cash prize of Rs 50,00,000 and runner-ups will get a prize of Rs 20,00,000 each.

The successful developers will be given an opportunity to join the MEITY-supported incubator/centres of excellence for further nurturing of their solution. This will boost the idea and thrust of initiatives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat, Digital India and Make in India, the statement added.

Indian tech start-ups, MSMEs, companies and LLPs registered in India under the Companies Act can take up the challenge. The statement states that all participating entities must have 51 per cent or more shareholding with Indian citizen or person of Indian origin. The applicant’s entity should not be a subsidiary company of any foreign corporation.