In 2004, Sirshendu De, a professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, started to work towards saving those from underprivileged backgrounds in West Bengal from drinking groundwater with arsenic contamination. Professor De was at hand to demonstrate his filter at Festival of Innovation organised by the office of the president between March 4 and 10. While he had initially developed the filter as an answer to West Bengal’s arsenic contamination, now 10 states in India, including Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Manipur face the same problem. Long-term exposure to arsenic contamination can cause skin problems and sometimes even lead to cancer.

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