Did you know that India’s national capital New Delhi is right now suffering from deadly polluted air which can create massive health havoc very soon? In September this year, Greenpeace released a report which described New Delhi’s air pollution level is 10 times higher than that prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO).
And, during Diwali, this level of pollution became 23 times higher.
Arvind Kejriwal led AAP Government in New Delhi is no doubt alarmed by this situation. Yesterday, the Govt. even suggested closing down of schools as the rising pollution level is threatening a large scale health hazard among young children.
AAP Government Seeking Citizens & Startups’s Assistance
In order to combat this problem, AAP Govt. has now turned to startups for bringing in solutions related with pollution.
To lure startups into the environmental niche, AAP Govt. has announced a ‘seed fund’ of Rs 2 crore for any startup which introduces a solid solution to bring down Delhi pollution.
In a series of Tweets, Aam Aadmi Party announced that Delhi Govt. is collaborating with Chicago University for getting citizen’s ideas in combating this menace. AAP said, “The time has come for environmentally conscious people to put their heads together & come up with solutions for Delhi’s pollution problem.”
Delhi Govt will provide seed funding of Rs 2 crores for the best idea, test it and scale it up across Delhi to combat pollution.
— Aam Aadmi Party- AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 30, 2015
Citizens and startups are encouraged to share their ideas by visiting: http://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/page/urban-labs-innovation-challenge-delhi
This special initiative, called ‘Urban Labs Innovation Challenge: Delhi’ is being led by The Delhi Dialogue Commission, in partnership with Energy and Environment Lab at University of Chicago, Urban Labs and the Energy Policy Institute at University of Chicago’s Centre in Delhi (EPIC-India).
The objective of this competition is to crowd source various ‘local ideas’ in combating the notorious Delhi pollution, and then choose the best among them for further action. Once the ideas are selected, a team from University of Chicago will test them in Delhi, in partnership with members from Delhi Dialogue Commission will be tested in Delhi, and the appropriate seed fund would be released for its successful implementation.
This seed fund of Rs 2 crore would be released in 2 years; and the last date for submitting ‘Letter of Interest’ is March 1, 2016.
Interestingly, University of Chicago had earlier worked with Gujarat Government, and helped to reduce air pollution in Ahmedabad by 28%.
This move by AAP Govt. can be described as a desperate attempt to bring down air pollution, which has become a climatic catastrophe now. In 2014, WHO ranked India among the countries having worst air quality, as out of top 20 polluted cities, 13 were from India.
If you are part of an organization, agency, research group, startup or an ordinary citizen having some awesome plans to combat Delhi’s pollution, then do visit here, and submit your ideas.
