A compact, low-cost and handy explosive detection kit has been designed and perfected for field detection

of traces of explosives. The simple test recipe yields a colour reaction, based on which explosives can be detected in minutes. It can be used for identification of all common military, civil and home-made explosive compositions. It is being used by Police and BSF for the detection of explosives. EDK has been accepted by FICCI for global marketing under the fast track technology programme for ATAC. The kit can be used to instantly identify explosives that are typically used in bomb blasts. At the simplest level, samples from the crime scene are tested against chemicals in the kit, which then determines whether the explosive used is RDX, TNT, PETN or any other chemical. DRDO has also made a pocket-sized, use-and-discard version of the kit, which can be used by local law-enforcement agencies to determine quick results in cases such as the Boston marathonbombing and New York City's Times Square episode. According to DRDO, the kit can detect and identify explosives based on any combination of nitroesters, nitramines, trinitrotoluene (TNT), dynamite or black powder. The testing requires only 3 to 5 mg of suspected sample and only 3 or 4 drops of reagents. The kit, which costs less than $ 100, comes packed in a box the size of a vanity case and in miniature vials that can be kept in shirt pockets, and contains reagents capable of detecting explosives, even in extremely small trace quantities. Upscale western versions of such a kit costs hundreds, even thousands of dollars.