Mr. Gaurav Kapse will present his APS as per the details below:

Date: 23rd February 2026

Time: 09:00 – 10:00 AM (IST)

Venue: IITB Monash Research Academy

Meeting Link: https://monash.zoom.us/j/85662464022?pwd=X97aTSiVKsiyGbXq8JqsyaZUpaKYWx.1

Meeting ID: 856 6246 4022 Passcode: 632917

Title: The Taste of Technology: How Reverse Osmosis reassembled taste in India

Guides: Prof. Pankaj Sekhsaria, Prof. Murali Sastry

RPC Members: Prof. Anand B. Rao, Prof. Mainak Majumder

Abstract:

Though received wisdom tells us that the demand for household water purifiers is driven by issues of water quality and health concerns, my research from a subdistrict of Maharashtra (India) tells a different story. The choice and use of water purification technology are driven more by users’ perceptions of taste and less by established water quality standards. I found that formal water quality standards and government infrastructural mechanisms are not the only criteria users consider significant. Users construct meaning and quality differently from the expert and the state.

A granular study of these water purifiers across urban and rural parts of India reveals

that only a particular type of technology – reverse osmosis – has been widely marketed and is extensively used. The reverse osmosis filters lower the total dissolved solids/minerals and soften water. It is the taste associated with low-mineral soft water and its perceived health benefits of drinking this water that emerge as the most important criteria for the success of the particular technology. This research helps in better understanding the interaction of water quality as knowledge, reverse osmosis water purifier as an artefact or technology, and users as a society and its influences on each other.