Government to host first-of-its-kind clean-air innovation showcase at IIT Delhi later this mth

New Delhi: The Delhi government is set to host a first-of-its-kind clean-air innovation showcase at IIT Delhi in the last week of December, marking a major step in its ongoing Innovation Challenge aimed at combating air pollution. Announcing the initiative, Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the event will bring shortlisted innovators face-to-face with experts and the public, offering a transparent platform to demonstrate practical solutions for reducing particulate pollution.

Nearly 300 proposals were screened in the first round, and select entries are now being invited in batches to present before the Internal Technical Evaluation Committee (ITEC), a panel of scientists, professors and subject experts. The showcase will focus on low-cost, scalable technologies that can reduce, absorb or capture PM2.5 and PM10 emissions from BS-IV or below vehicles, as well as from ambient air.

Calling this stage the point “where ideas meet reality,” Sirsa said innovators will have to prove that their prototypes can deliver measurable reduction in particulate matter under Delhi-specific conditions. Each participant will make a structured pitch and demonstrate their device, with the

sessions held across multiple days. The audience will include DPCC and government officials, IIT Delhi students and alumni, and members of the public through wider outreach.

“We are designing this as a showcase event in full public view, so that Delhi can see, question and support the best clean-air ideas emerging from across the country,” the Minister said. He added that citizens “have a right to see how decisions are taken on clean-air technologies, which ideas are chosen and why.”

Shortlisted solutions meeting ITEC’s technical and deployment criteria will proceed to field trials and lab testing, with DPCC funding support as per guidelines. Projects demonstrating strong, verifiable results may directly advance to the final stage for potential citywide adoption. Winning entries will receive incentives of Rs.5 lakh after successful evaluation and an additional Rs.50 lakh for technologies validated by NPL-equivalent labs and recommended for deployment.

Sirsa emphasised that the Innovation Challenge forms a key pillar of Delhi’s year-round clean-air strategy under Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, combining enforcement, technology and citizen participation.

He urged residents to attend the IIT Delhi showcase and “stand with Delhi’s clean-air mission, question, contribute and help scale up what works for the city’s future.”