More than Two-Thirds of India's Milk Is Contaminated

In 1950, India produced 17 million tonnes of milk for a population of roughly 376 million. Six decades later, that number has jumped almost ten-fold to more than 146 million tonnes of milk for 1.2 billion people.

But with population and industrial growth as staggering as India's, growing pains are inevitable.

Earlier this week, the Lok Sabha, India's lower legislative house, learned that 68 percent of the country's milk is laced with contaminants like detergent, caustic soda, glucose, white paint, and refined oil considered to be "very hazardous," according to Indian news website NDTV.

But there was a silver lining, according to Indian Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan, who addressed the Lok Sabha during question period. Vardhan assured constituents that a new low-cost "Ksheer-Scanner" would be deployed that could detect adulterations in milk within 40 seconds.

Before the advent of the Ksheer-Scanner, which uses strips to identify contaminants, a separate test was required for each adulteration and basically required a full chemistry set to test the milk. But now, Vardhan told the lower house, a single scanner would suffice, and that GPS technology could eventually help pinpoint the exact location where these chemicals make their way into the milk supply.

According to Indian news website The News Minute, these types of adulterations are used to make milk look fresh and some "neutralisers" like powder and refined oil are mixed in to create a "synthetic milk" that mimics the consistency of the real stuff.

So while India continues to become an industrial and technological powerhouse, it is also using technology to help deal with the very pollution caused its rapid economic growth.