An Indian engineer claims to have designed a reusable and portable water purifier that costs less than half a dollar in this footage from December 2.

Niranjan Karagi, the entrepreneur is a student from Belgaum in south India's Karnataka.

A video shows Karagi demonstrating the ease of use of his inexpensive purifier called NirNal. He takes a PET bottle filled with murky water. He takes off the cap and replaces it with his tiny experiment before pouring it out into a glass. Surprisingly, the dark cloudy water in the bottle is filtered out to produce clean drinking water.

Karagi was playing football when he saw school students drinking from a potentially unsafe water outlet. To help such students get access to safe drinking water, Niranjan designed NirNal, a water filter that can be fitted on most PET bottles in the market.

The first prototype of his invention took about a period of over three months to manufacture. The funds required to begin his startup were acquired from Deshpande Foundation in Hubli, along with a token amount from his parents.

Once the product was manufactured on a larger scale, Karagi went from school to school in rural areas to demonstrate his product and generate some revenue. The revenue thus generated was later pushed back into the startup to manufacture more of such inventive purifiers.

Later, NirNal received a grant from the Government of Karnataka worth Rs 20 lakh (USD 27065), after which the startup began to receive orders from Central Reserve Police Force of India.

When the product went viral, the company started exporting the same product to at least 15 different countries including the United States of America, Qatar, Singapore and Malaysia.

Over the past couple of years, Niranjan has updated the technology and now, his portable device can not only remove about 99 percent of bacteria from the water but also filter up to 300 liters of water.

The social impact of his product has been significant. With the distribution of his product to various villages, schools, and even India’s military, it is evident that NirNal has been widely acclaimed for its ingenious and inexpensive technology. But on a personal level, Niranjan is happy with the fact that children could use his filter, knowing that they would always have a reliable source of water as they grow up.

Niranjan’s initial wish to provide clean water to everyone has become more and more of a reality through the means of his portable water filter. This reality was made possible for thousands of people as over 200,000 units have already been sold. Karagi wishes to see all places in rural India, and the world alike, with no access to clean drinking water using this ingenuity.

NirNal is now working towards a project which converts saline water from the sea to clean drinking water.

An Indian engineer has designed a reusable and portable water purifier that costs barely Rs 30 (USD 0.41). Niranjan Karagi, the entrepreneur is a student from Belgaum in south India's Karnataka.

A video shows Karagi demonstrating the ease of use of his inexpensive purifier called NirNal. He takes a PET bottle filled with murky water. He takes off the cap and replaces it with his tiny experiment before pouring it out into a glass. Surprisingly, the dark cloudy water in the bottle is filtered out to produce clean drinking water.

Karagi was playing football when he saw school students drinking from a potentially unsafe water outlet. To help such students get access to safe drinking water, Niranjan designed NirNal, a water filter that can be fitted on most PET bottles in the market.

The first prototype of his invention took about a period of over three months to manufacture. The funds required to begin his startup were acquired from Deshpande Foundation in Hubli, along with a token amount from his parents.

Once the product was manufactured on a larger scale, Karagi went from school to school in rural areas to demonstrate his product and generate some revenue. The revenue thus generated was later pushed back into the startup to manufacture more of such inventive purifiers.

Later, NirNal received a grant from the Government of Karnataka worth Rs 20 lakh (USD 27065), after which the startup began to receive orders from Central Reserve Police Force of India.

When the product went viral, the company started exporting the same product to at least 15 different countries including the United States of America, Qatar, Singapore and Malaysia.

Over the past couple of years, Niranjan has updated the technology and now, his portable device can not only remove about 99 per cent of bacteria from the water but also filter up to 300 litres of water.

The social impact of his product has been significant. With the distribution of his product to various villages, schools, and even India’s military, it is evident that NirNal has been widely acclaimed for its ingenious and inexpensive technology. But on a personal level, Niranjan is happy with the fact that children could use his filter, knowing that they would always have a reliable source of water as they grow up.

Niranjan’s initial wish to provide clean water to everyone has become more and more of a reality through the means of his portable water filter. This reality was made possible for thousands of people as over 200,000 units have already been sold. Karagi wishes to see all places in rural India, and the world alike, with no access to clean drinking water using this ingenuity.

NirNal is now working towards a project which converts saline water from the sea to clean drinking water.