MP woman sits with 42-year-old fashion designer son's corpse for 5 days, praying for his revivalPolice said a milkman went to deliver milk and reported a foul odour and seeping blood, leading to the discovery of the body five days after the man died Updated on: May 26
Think tanning and pigmentation are the same? Experts decode the crucial differences between the twoTanning and pigmentation are often used interchangeably, but there’s quite a difference between the two. Experts decode the difference. Published on: May 26
‘Don’t visit Sikkim if you litter’: Anand Mahindra sparks civic sense debateAnand Mahindra’s X post on littering in Sikkim has gone viral, sparking debate on civic responsibility and tourist behaviour. Updated on: May 26, 2026 4:46 PM IST By Vaishali Kapila Share via Copy link Industrialist
China and Pakistan have reached a "new broad consensus" on deepening strategic ties to beef up development of a joint economic corridor and establish the port of Gwadar as a regional connectivity hub, the neighbours said on Tuesday (May 26, 2026)
Four All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MLAs have resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly over two days, with three of them joining the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, The Hindu reported. Three of them, Maragatham Kumaravel, the MLA from Madurantakam
Editorial independence is core to our work. Some links may earn us a commission, without influencing our opinions.Backpacking across Europe? A solo traveller and content creator suggests the perfect packing listA solo traveller shares the smartest Europe backpacking essentials
PM Modi to visit Australia in ‘near future’: Australian foreign minister Penny WongWong said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had announced that Modi would visit Australia in the “near future”. Updated on: May 26, 2026 4:46 PM IST By HT News Desk Share via Copy link Prime Minister
Woman shows ladoos melting in Delhi heat, says ‘Inki abh barfi banegi’A viral video showing boxes of ladoos turning into a soft mess has left the internet amused, as people react with memes and relatable summer experiences. Updated on: May 26
Nobel breakthrough for India’s water stress
Nobel breakthrough for India’s water stress
Nobel breakthrough for India’s water stress
This article is authored by Vijay Kanuru, global entrepreneur in residence, Massachusetts Venture Development Center, Boston.
Published on: Mar 12, 2026 7:40 PM IST By Vijay Kanuru Share via Copy link A gram of a remarkable material can have a surface area larger than several football fields. Within that invisible landscape of microscopic pores, molecules drifting in the air can be captured, stored, and released. Water (Representational Image) This is the promise of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a class of ultra-porous materials pioneered by chemist Omar Yaghi. In recognition of this breakthrough, he was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry. What began as an elegant exercise in molecular design may now offer something extraordinary: the ability to produce drinking water directly from the air. A few months ago, in Hindustan Times, I wrote about how these advanced materials could help India confront its air pollution crisis in an article titled ‘A Nobel solution for India’s toxic skies.’ The same scientific revolution may now help address another looming challenge: Water scarcity. Few scientific breakthroughs connect two of India’s greatest environmental anxieties so elegantly-polluted air in winter and water scarcity in summer. To understand how this works, consider a familiar household device: A dehumidifier. It pulls moisture from the air by cooling it until water condenses. But such machines consume large amounts of electricity and struggle in dry climates. MOFs work differently. Instead of cooling air, their internal architecture contains billions of tiny pores engineered to attract water molecules. Even when humidity is extremely low, the material can selectively trap water vapour from the air during cooler night hours. When sunlight warms the material during the day, the captured moisture is released and condensed into liquid water. In essence, the system behaves like a solar-powered molecular dehumidifier-but far more efficient, capable of working even in desert air. Solar-powered systems using these materials have already demonstrated the ability to generate hundreds to nearly a thousand litres of drinking water per day from dry air. In other words, the air around us-once considered empty-may soon become a new kind of reservoir. For India, this is not merely an intriguing scientific experiment. A country facing declining groundwater, unpredictable monsoons, and rapidly growing cities will need entirely new ways to secure drinking water. India today faces a twin environmental stress test. Air pollution in winter continues to erode public health, while summer brings water scarcity that threatens long-term sustainability across the country. This is no longer a problem limited to remote villages: even Bengaluru, Delhi, and Chennai face severe water shortages each year, with reservoirs dropping dangerously low and groundwater depleting rapidly. The climate crisis and rapid urbanisation intensify these pressures, making traditional water systems increasingly brittle. For more than a century, modern water infrastructure has relied on transporting water across long distances-from rivers to reservoirs, and from reservoirs to cities. Atmospheric water harvesting suggests a different possibility: Instead of moving water to people, we may be able to produce it wherever people live. Sometimes the most radical infrastructure is not a dam or a pipeline, but a material. The implications for India are particularly striking. Large parts of the country--from the deserts of Rajasthan to the high-altitude landscapes of Ladakh, the salt flats of Kutch, and water-stressed urban areas-face chronic scarcity despite having air that still contains measurable moisture. Technologies built on MOFs could potentially allow remote communities, disaster zones, urban apartments, or even military outposts to generate drinking water directly from the atmosphere. Just as rooftop solar panels allowed households to produce their own electricity, atmospheric water technologies could one day allow communities to produce their own drinking water. At the heart of this breakthrough lies an elegant paradox of modern science: the solutions to some of humanity’s largest challenges may come from manipulating matter at the smallest scales. Scientists design pores a billionth of a metre wide. Yet those invisible architectures could reshape how cities drink, how deserts survive, and how nations secure their most essential resource. India should not treat this breakthrough as merely an imported technology. It should view it as a strategic opportunity. The country already possesses a strong ecosystem of chemists, materials scientists, and nanotechnology researchers across institutions such as the IITs, IISc, IISER and laboratories within the CSIR network. At the same time, India’s startup ecosystem is increasingly venturing into deep technologies, including climate innovation and advanced manufacturing. What is missing is not capability but national focus. If India wants to shape the next generation of environmental technologies, advanced materials like MOFs must move from academic curiosity to strategic priority. A national research mission, pilot deployments in water-stressed regions, and support for deep-tech startups could accelerate this transition. In a century where water scarcity may intersect with migration, conflict, and geopolitical tension, technologies that can generate water locally may become as strategically important as energy infrastructure. For centuries, water has defined the geography of civilisation. Rivers created cities. Monsoons shaped agriculture. Reservoirs defined political power. But what if water no longer needed a river, a dam, or even a cloud? A quiet revolution in chemistry now suggests that the future of water may come from something far more invisible-the air around us. The sky may become the world’s next reservoir. This article is authored by Vijay Kanuru, global entrepreneur in residence, Massachusetts Venture Development Center, Boston. Air Pollution News / Ht Insight / Climate Change / Nobel Breakthrough For India’s Water Stress See Less News / Ht Insight / Climate Change / Nobel Breakthrough For India’s Water StressA gram of a remarkable material can have a surface area larger than several football fields. Within that invisible landscape of microscopic pores, molecules drifting in the air can be captured, stored, and released.
This is the promise of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs), a class of ultra-porous materials pioneered by chemist Omar Yaghi. In recognition of this breakthrough, he was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry.
What began as an elegant exercise in molecular design may now offer something extraordinary: the ability to produce drinking water directly from the air.
A few months ago, in Hindustan Times, I wrote about how these advanced materials could help India confront its air pollution crisis in an article titled ‘A Nobel solution for India’s toxic skies.’ The same scientific revolution may now help address another looming challenge: Water scarcity.
Few scientific breakthroughs connect two of India’s greatest environmental anxieties so elegantly-polluted air in winter and water scarcity in summer.
To understand how this works, consider a familiar household device: A dehumidifier. It pulls moisture from the air by cooling it until water condenses. But such machines consume large amounts of electricity and struggle in dry climates.
MOFs work differently. Instead of cooling air, their internal architecture contains billions of tiny pores engineered to attract water molecules. Even when humidity is extremely low, the material can selectively trap water vapour from the air during cooler night hours. When sunlight warms the material during the day, the captured moisture is released and condensed into liquid water.
In essence, the system behaves like a solar-powered molecular dehumidifier-but far more efficient, capable of working even in desert air.
Solar-powered systems using these materials have already demonstrated the ability to generate hundreds to nearly a thousand litres of drinking water per day from dry air. In other words, the air around us-once considered empty-may soon become a new kind of reservoir.
For India, this is not merely an intriguing scientific experiment. A country facing declining groundwater, unpredictable monsoons, and rapidly growing cities will need entirely new ways to secure drinking water.
India today faces a twin environmental stress test. Air pollution in winter continues to erode public health, while summer brings water scarcity that threatens long-term sustainability across the country. This is no longer a problem limited to remote villages: even Bengaluru, Delhi, and Chennai face severe water shortages each year, with reservoirs dropping dangerously low and groundwater depleting rapidly. The climate crisis and rapid urbanisation intensify these pressures, making traditional water systems increasingly brittle.
For more than a century, modern water infrastructure has relied on transporting water across long distances-from rivers to reservoirs, and from reservoirs to cities. Atmospheric water harvesting suggests a different possibility: Instead of moving water to people, we may be able to produce it wherever people live.
Sometimes the most radical infrastructure is not a dam or a pipeline, but a material.
The implications for India are particularly striking. Large parts of the country--from the deserts of Rajasthan to the high-altitude landscapes of Ladakh, the salt flats of Kutch, and water-stressed urban areas-face chronic scarcity despite having air that still contains measurable moisture.
Technologies built on MOFs could potentially allow remote communities, disaster zones, urban apartments, or even military outposts to generate drinking water directly from the atmosphere. Just as rooftop solar panels allowed households to produce their own electricity, atmospheric water technologies could one day allow communities to produce their own drinking water.
At the heart of this breakthrough lies an elegant paradox of modern science: the solutions to some of humanity’s largest challenges may come from manipulating matter at the smallest scales. Scientists design pores a billionth of a metre wide. Yet those invisible architectures could reshape how cities drink, how deserts survive, and how nations secure their most essential resource.
India should not treat this breakthrough as merely an imported technology. It should view it as a strategic opportunity.
The country already possesses a strong ecosystem of chemists, materials scientists, and nanotechnology researchers across institutions such as the IITs, IISc, IISER and laboratories within the CSIR network. At the same time, India’s startup ecosystem is increasingly venturing into deep technologies, including climate innovation and advanced manufacturing.
What is missing is not capability but national focus. If India wants to shape the next generation of environmental technologies, advanced materials like MOFs must move from academic curiosity to strategic priority. A national research mission, pilot deployments in water-stressed regions, and support for deep-tech startups could accelerate this transition.
In a century where water scarcity may intersect with migration, conflict, and geopolitical tension, technologies that can generate water locally may become as strategically important as energy infrastructure.
For centuries, water has defined the geography of civilisation. Rivers created cities. Monsoons shaped agriculture. Reservoirs defined political power.
But what if water no longer needed a river, a dam, or even a cloud?
A quiet revolution in chemistry now suggests that the future of water may come from something far more invisible-the air around us.
The sky may become the world’s next reservoir.
This article is authored by Vijay Kanuru, global entrepreneur in residence, Massachusetts Venture Development Center, Boston.
Source: HindustanTimes
Related Posts: CBSE Class 11 Nobel chemistry breakthrough likened to ‘Harry Potter’ enchanted handbag Why Sleep Disorders Are the Hidden Crisis Affecting India’s Youth India Head Coach Khalid Jamil Prepares For First National Camp YouTube Now Offers AI-Powered Search Feature For More Users But Not In India Rohith Krishna S Becomes India's 89th Chess Grandmaster With Almaty Showing India’s First Vande Bharat Sleeper Train ‘India Mai Talent Ki Kami Nahi Hai’ Siri’s Big Upgrade 3-Month CAT 2025 Preparation Plan
Martha Mitchell was a flamboyant Washington DC socialite whose husband was embroiled in the Watergate scandal. Her shocking claims of a violent abduction and a "dirty business" were ridiculed as delusional – until they turned out to be true. Martha Mitchell was a character; everyone agreed on
57 minutes ago
From the academic year 2026–27, bilingual classes will be introduced in all government schools across 15 districts of the state. While the government had earlier announced that English would be introduced in LKG classes, a fresh directive now states that an Urdu-English bilingual medium will also
59 minutes ago
Trading scalpel for golf irons: Indian-origin golfer Manav Shah’s stirring journey to US OpenTrading scalpel for golf irons: Indian-origin golfer Manav Shah’s stirring journey to US Open Updated on: May 26, 2026 4:14 PM IST PTI Share via Copy link New Delhi
59 minutes ago
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that he was not in favour of Islamabad joining the Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel. Also read | Pakistan deploys jet squadron, thousands of troops to Saudi Arabia amid escalating Iran war tensionsPakistan’s Defence Minister
57 minutes ago
AIADMK MLA Esakki Subaya submitted his resignation today. He is the fourth MLA from the party to resign in two days. Subaya supported former ministers C Ve Shanmugam and S P Velumani. Three other AIADMK MLAs also resigned yesterday. They are expected to get tickets for upcoming byelections from the
3 hours ago
Kimi Antonelli extended his lead in the drivers' championship after Mercedes team-mate George Russell retired from the Canadian Grand Prix. Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton finished second and Max Verstappen's Red Bull made up the top three. Russell was successful earlier in the weekend when he converted
3 hours ago
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Monday announced financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the families of three persons who died in February 2003 during protests seeking to declare the Bhojshala-Kamal Maula mosque complex in Dhar district as a temple, The Hindu reported
3 hours ago
2026 Honda City facelift on wishlist? Key genuine accessories you can buyThe 2026 Honda City facelift can be accessorised with a plethora of genuine accessories. Published on: May 26, 2026 1:40 PM IST By Mainak Das Share via Copy link Limited Time Deals on Popular cars Volvo XC90 ₹ 97
3 hours ago
Lawyer seeks to register Cockroach Janta Party separately from US-based founderSudhir Jakhar, the lawyer calling himself the party’s national convener, submitted the application to the ECI secretary Updated on: May 26, 2026 1:57 PM IST By Harsh Yadav Share via Copy link A lawyer from Haryana’s
3 hours ago
South Korean seven-piece BTS have won Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards (AMAs) for the second consecutive year, cementing their status as one of the world's biggest bands. The award, considered the ceremony's grand prize, is just the latest crown jewel for the so-called kings of K-pop
3 hours ago
The ET Most Innovative AI Product Awards 2026 recognises the AI Platforms, Infrastructure & Developer Tools category. It highlights the technologies powering the next phase of enterprise AI from platforms and MLOps to observability and developer tools. These innovations are enabling scalable
3 hours ago
Vedant Shrivastava posts correct CBSE answer sheet, alleges marks slashed for right answerClass 12 student Vedant Shrivastava has received his correct answer sheets after CBSE admitted to a mix-up with his Physics paper. Updated on: May 26, 2026 1:13 PM IST By Sanya Jain Share via Copy link Class
3 hours ago
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced plans to boost the state's economy to Rs 10 lakh crore by 2028. He stated the tabling of the Uniform Civil Code bill demonstrates the government's dedication to the rights of minority women. Sarma also noted the election results reflected public
3 hours ago
Air India has rolled out an upgrade to its Maharaja Club loyalty programme, allowing members to earn and redeem Maharaja Points on Air India Express flights covering more than 55 destinations across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. The move broadens the scope of the airline group’s
3 hours ago
Hansal Mehta has long been recognised as one of India’s most emotionally observant storytellers. Whether through the raw realism of Shahid, the intimacy of Aligarh, the unsettling tension of Scam 1992 or the deeply human narratives that run across his body of work
3 hours ago
Tech Tonic | Ferrari Luce, Sir Jony Ive, and a subversion of ethosFerrari Luce is trying to tell the carmakers of the world that cars don’t have to feel like driving a tablet. Published on: May 26, 2026 11:43 AM IST By Vishal Mathur Share via Copy link The first car from Sir Jonathan Paul Ive
3 hours ago
SC stays Delhi HC ruling against barring law students over attendance shortageA bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the interim order while issuing notice on a petition filed by the Bar Council of India (BCI) against the November 2025 judgment of the Delhi HC Published on: May 26
3 hours ago
Hema Malini’s blush pink saree for receiving Dharmendra’s Padma Vibhushan is all about elegance and simplicity. See picsVeteran actor Hema Malini looked graceful in a blush pink saree as she accepted late actor Dharmendra’s Padma Vibhushan at the 2026 ceremony in New Delhi
3 hours ago
Bengaluru traffic police slaps auto driver over accident, viral video sparks outrageMany on social media have tagged Bengaluru Police, urging them to take a look into the matter where a cop allegedly slapped an auto driver. Published on: May 26
3 hours ago
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday (May 25, 2026) called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resume bombing Beirut in response to increased explosive drone attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli troops and northern Israel towns. Mr
3 hours ago
has reported a net profit of Rs 48.4 crore for FY26, its first full financial year after the completed its with , marking a turnaround from a Rs 216.7 crore loss in the previous year.Total income more than doubled to Rs 1,402.7 crore in FY26 from Rs 603.8 crore in FY25
3 hours ago
Partnership, the firm cofounded by Indian entrepreneurs , Sanjeev Kumar and Ashish Kumar, has launched a dedicated frontier-tech investment platform, (Fundamentum Frontier Advisors), with Rs 3,000 crore to invest in artificial intelligence and deeptech startups.Of this, Rs 2
3 hours ago
The admission process for IGNOU July 2026 session has commenced for Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and online programmes. Interested students can apply by visiting ignouadmission.samarth.edu.in. The Indira Gandhi National Open University has started the admission process for the July 2026
3 hours ago
Editorial independence is core to our work. Some links may earn us a commission, without influencing our opinions.From instant coffee to incredible: The best easy-to-use brewers for a better morningGood coffee at home no longer needs cafe visits, as these coffee machines can handle espresso
3 hours ago
5 crystals to bring luck and financial growthGemstones are tools to connect your goals with your actions and mindset. Here are five crystals that are often linked with luck and financial growth. Updated on: May 26, 2026 1:20 PM IST Edited by Kanakanjali Roy Share via Copy link While crystals are
3 hours ago
The U.S. military said it carried out “self-defence” strikes in southern Iran, including on missile launch sites and boats placing mines, even as President Donald Trump said on social media that negotiations were “proceeding nicely”. The strikes were done “to protect our troops from
3 hours ago
Wall Street is abuzz with next month’s expected blockbuster debut of Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker SpaceX, but few of the biggest IPOs in recent years have paid off for investors who bought in when the deals came to market. A Reuters analysis of the 50 IPOs with the highest
3 hours ago
