New Delhi, Nov 5 (IANS): The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims to provide a tap connection to every rural household by 2024 with particular focus on 'service delivery'. Also, the digitisation of the water supply infrastructure has the potential to solve current problems as well as help anticipate and address future challenges, said a government statement.

The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology in partnership with the National Jal Jeevan Mission, Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Jal Shakti had announced an ICT Grand Challenge to develop a "Smart Water Supply Measurement and Monitoring System" in order to harness the power of technology in water management.

The Jal Jeevan Mission would be the user agent of the Grand Challenge and C-DAC, Bengaluru is the implementing agency and would provide technical support for the challenge. C-DAC will also provide technical support for Proof of Concept (PoC) development to the shortlisted candidates. It would also provide mentoring support and technical guidance to them.

The Challenge has witnessed participation from all over India with 218 applications received from LLP companies (15), Indian Tech start-ups (76), Individuals (46), 33 other companies, 43 MSMEs and others.

"The evaluation of the applications is currently in progress. Shortlisted submissions will be invited for presentation in front of a duly constituted jury, which would conduct these online presentations and review the applications for identifying the top 10 for the next round of prototype development," said a statement from the Ministry.

The Grand Challenge includes Ideation to Prototype Stage, Prototype to Product Stage, Product Deployment Stage, and announcement of three winners. All these stages will be carried out with funding from MeitY and the National Jal Jeevan Mission. Based on evaluation throughout these steps, one winner and two runners-up will be selected. The winner will be awarded Rs 50 lakh while the runners up will get Rs 20 lakh each.

The Grand Challenge will harness the vibrant IoT eco-systems of India for creating a smart rural water supply eco-system to measure and monitor the delivery of the water supply in rural areas.

This Challenge will provide an opportunity to work for the Jal Jeevan Mission and to assure potable water supply through Functional Household Tap Connections to every rural household.