Tata Swach wins Sniff Award for New Product Innovation in LeapVault Change Leadership Awards 2010
May 18, 2010

Mumbai: Tata Swach, the recently launched low-cost water purifier, won the much coveted Sniff award for new product innovation at the Leapvault Change Leadership Awards 2010 in a glittering ceremony held at Mumbai on May 15, 2010. Salman Khursheed, minister for corporate affairs and minority affairs, Government of India, was the chief guest for the awards.

Said PK Ghose, executive director and chief financial officer, Tata Chemicals, “We are very happy to win this accolade. Tata Swach combines technology, performance, convenience and above all, affordability to serve the basic human right of millions of consumers. Just as Tata Chemicals dedicated itself to the eradication of goitre with Tata Salt, so with the launch of this product we committed ourselves to address the problem of water-borne diseases. These welcome gestures boost our motivation and will definitely help us accelerate our efforts in making this wonderful innovation available across India.”

The LeapVault Change Leadership Awards endeavour to applaud the work of thought leaders who have not only accepted but lead the change in their respective fields. These awards are the world’s first-ever change leadership awards in exclusive association with Who Moved My Cheese, Inc — the global leader in change management and leadership consulting and coaching — and are committed to acknowledge individuals and organisations that have shown exceptional ability and passion for driving and leading the change.

Tata Swach is the result of years of collaboration between several Tata companies, including Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Chemicals. Based on an innovative concept developed by the TCS Innovation Labs — TRDDC, the Swach technology combines low-cost ingredients such as rice husk ash with superior nanotechnology. The efficiency of the product has been rigorously tested to meet internationally accepted water purification standards.

Water-borne disease is the single greatest threat to global health, with diarrhoea, jaundice, typhoid, cholera, polio, and gastroenteritis spread by contaminated water. According to a 2007 United Nations report, half of the world’s hospital beds are occupied by patients suffering from water-borne diseases. In India, such diseases cause more than 1.5 times the deaths caused by AIDS and double the deaths caused by road accidents.