Major Achievements

"Swachh Bharat has the backing of Biotechnology" "Swachh Bharat" has been taken up as a serious research area in the country's laboratories keeping in mind the reality that biotechnology offers immense scope to leapfrog several levels towards the objective of public hygiene and health.

• Biotech Options for River Cleaning - Biotechnology based research including demonstration project(s) on river cleaning have been taken up by DBT. Some innovative major projects on improvement of conventional wastewater treatment systems and development of new and innovative bioremediation technologies at the source point of industrial pollution are expected to be initiated by the Department.


• Biotech for cleaning of Barapullah drain - A foundation was laid for setting up of the on-site test laboratory and pilot plant to mark the beginning of work on cleaning the Barapullah drain for the joint DBT, The Netherlands and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) project LOTUSHR on 9th May, 2017 by the Hon'ble Minister of Science & Technology, India, Minister of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands, Mr. Bert Koenders and Lt. Governor of Delhi, Sh. Anil Baijal. The project aims to demonstrate a novel holistic (waste-) water management approach that will produce clean water that can be reused for various proposes (e.g. industry, agriculture, construction etc.), while simultaneously recovering nutrients and energy from the urban waste water, thus converting drain into profitable mines.


• Sanitation - A "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge-India" for developing proof of concept research in waste management was supported along with Gates Foundation under this programme implemented by the PMU set-up at DBT - Public Sector - BIRAC. six projects have been supported to develop new design for efficient water use and pathogen treatment. Hundred bio-toilets are now being installed for technology demonstration in North East India.


• Commercialization of technology for clean energy from agricultural waste - The first indigenous technology has been developed for commercial production of ethanol from lignocellulosic waste at DBT-ICT Centre, Mumbai, a demo/pilot plant with a capacity of 10 tonnes biomass per day to produce 3000 L ethanol/day on a continuous basis has been set up at IGL, Kashipur. The technology has now been transferred for commercialization to two Oil Manufacturing Corporations (OMCs) —Bharat Petroleum Cooperation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Cooperation Ltd. Each company will set up a 400 tonne plant to produce 100 Lakh Litres of ethanol per day by 2018. This is expected to yield 3 crores litres of ethanol per year to meet national demands.


• Mission Innovation - India has partnered with 23 countries to accelerate research and development in clean energy and is committed to double its investment by 2020.