It’s now India’s turn to offer America, the global tech leader, a handy explosive detection kit (EDK) for use by the US Army and homeland security forces.
A creation of India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation, the kit is already being widely used by India’s bomb detection squads in the battle against terror. Now, a South Carolina-based company will manufacture the wallet-sized disposable kit under a technology transfer agreement with DRDO.
“We are planning to introduce the EDK to the US Army and US homeland security forces and in other global markets after getting necessary approvals from the US regulatory institutions,” said Fay Crowe, CEO and president Crowe and Company llC.
At an event organised by FICCI at the US Chamber of Commerce here on Friday, and attended by a team of Indian scientists led DRDO’s Director General Avinash Chander, the EDK made its American debut, as it were.
The team members explained how a few drops of four reagents contained in four vials can detect explosives based on TNT, RDX, dynamite, and black powder within minutes with no more than 3 to 5 milligrams of the suspected sample.
Reny M Roy, the Indian scientist who developed this technology, called the EDK an analytical tool that can avert disaster. “This little box can work as a pre-blast analytical tool and as a post-blast investigative tool,” she said, pointing out that the disposable kits have been successfully deployed in India, with the German Bakery blast in Pune being one such instance.