When it unveiled its 3D the other day, Philips had another surprise in store.     And this time it was a product with even bigger potential; oh, yes, and it has the potential to solve the problem of starvation too.

It involved the most important commodity in the world – the commodity that really lies between the troubles in Tibet:  water.

With the population growing, water will be in ever more demand.  Countries such as Britain, where it always seems to be raining, will find they have an asset of extraordinary value.  It is a joke about how it’s always raining in Manchester.  Well, maybe in time Manchester and its surrounding area will find its biggest export will be water.   Forget about North Sea oil, Scotland has its water.

Nowhere is water more important than in China.  More than a quarter of its land is classified as desert, and yet it has access to a vast supply of fresh water.  In fact, it has access to the biggest supply of fresh water in the world, after the North and South Poles.  This source of fresh water is called Tibet.    Bear that in mind, if you want to know the real issue behind the troubles in Tibet; think of the water contained in its mountains, and the rivers that flow from them.

Anyway, Philips is into water purification and is especially active in India.  Recently, Sharda Prasad of Philips Consumer Lifestyle in India said, “This changing attitude of consumers indicates huge potential for growth in this segment. With almost 94 per cent of the market untapped, it’s a good time for companies to be in this space.”

Now the company has developed a water purification product that can supposedly purify water rapidly using only modest electricity.  In fact, it says the next product will be able to purify 6 litres of water in less than a minute using just 30 watts of electricity.

Its good for Philips, its good for India and it’s good for the world.

Sometimes in all this talk of a credit crunch and global economic crisis we forget that the true driver of economic success is innovation.

Innovation in food production can solve the food problem.  Innovation in renewable energy – such as solar energy, can solve the oil problem. And water purification, and beyond that, water desalination, that is to say creating fresh water from salt water – which can be a byproduct of solar energy, could actually stop there from being another world war.