To combat pollution, Delhi govt launches innovation challenge

New Delhi: In a major push for technology-driven environmental reform, Delhi Environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Thursday announced a new Open Innovation Challenge inviting citizens, startups, and scientists to contribute ideas for devices that can reduce air pollution from atop moving buses and trucks.

“We believe that innovation is the solution to the pollution. It is innovation that will kill pollution,” said the Minister while addressing media at the Delhi Secretariat. He emphasized that the goal is to turn transportation, traditionally a pollution source, into a pollution-fighting solution. The proposed devices, to be mounted on rooftops of public vehicles, should actively remove pollutants from the ambient air. A scientific panel will evaluate submitted ideas based on efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and power efficiency, with the possibility of seed funding for promising concepts.

“Indians are, by their very nature, innovative,” Sirsa noted, adding that “their innovation is often subdued by red-tapism and bureaucratic or procedural hurdles.” He assured that the new scheme will provide a transparent, scientific framework to test and implement these solutions. “Anything good and worth having takes time. We do not believe in scheme for scheme sake,” he said.

Minister Sirsa credited the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Rekha Gupta for the initiative. “Our beloved Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji has shown us the way. Under his guidance and leadership of our Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, we are committed to promote entrepreneurship and innovation and curb pollution.”

Alongside the announcement, Sirsa reviewed a live demonstration of next-generation, fully electric dust control vehicles. Displayed outside the Delhi Secretariat, the lineup included a mechanical road sweeper, a mobile litter suction unit, and a high-pressure water jetting vehicle, each powered by lithium-ion batteries.