MAHA Water Mission for Water Innovation

#GS-3 #Economy #Infrastructure #Science & Technology #Environment #Water Resources

Context

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh and the Jal Shakti Minister launched the MAHA Water Mission with a budget of ₹200 crore to boost innovation in the water sector.

The MAHA Water Mission stands for Missions for Advancement in High-impact Areas and acts as a high-priority national program. It connects basic research with actual field use to build and sell effective water solutions.

The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) acts as the main body for managing research money across the country.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti serves as the nodal ministry for managing water resources and cleaning rivers.
The Department of Space/ISRO supplies satellite data and space tools for water mapping and study.

The mission has a total budget of ₹200 crore planned for five years, and selected research groups can get grants up to ₹20 crore.
Universities, national labs, research groups, Startups, MSMEs, and private companies can join hands to form multidisciplinary research teams.
The mission includes an open call for proposals so that Startups and MSMEs can build new products and working prototypes.
The program focuses on five priority themes which include water resource assessment, drinking water quality, ecological health, water use efficiency, and climate resilience.
The government also launched the Jal Sanchay Jan Bhagidari, Citizen Tracking and Reporting (JSJB-CTR) Portal and App for live tracking and public involvement.

The funding goes beyond top colleges to ordinary universities, startups, and young researchers to spark new ideas everywhere.
The project uses satellite data from ISRO to map groundwater and plan irrigation in a smart way.