India's New Air Quality Monitoring System: Lower Cost, Higher Impact

New Delhi, Jun 5 (PTI) Electronics and IT Secretary S Krishnan on Wednesday inaugurated an indigenously developed air quality monitoring system that will come at the one-third price of imported units.

The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata, in collaboration with TeXMIN (ISM Dhanbad) and industry partner JM Envirolab, have jointly developed the device under the 'National programme on Electronics and ICT applications in Agriculture and Environment (AgriEnIcs)'.

"The air quality monitoring (AQM) system is deployed by industries and at various places in cities. At present, most of the sensors are imported. The indigenously developed AQM device is around one-third cheaper than imported units," Krishnan said.

The device can monitor environmental pollutants, which include parameters like PM 1.0, PM 2.5, PM 10, SO2, NO2, O3, CO, CO2, Temperature, Humidity, etc.

"We will write to other ministries and departments about the availability of such devices. It is also available on the GeM portal," Krishnan said.

CDAC, Kolkata, has transferred technology to JM Envirolab against a royalty of Rs 10,000 per device.

JM Envirolab has entered into agreements with coal mines to deploy about 500 AQM devices.

"MeitY is supporting R&D activities from proof of concept to product development to cater to the growing needs of the industries," Meity Additional Secretary Bhuvanesh Kumar said.

The AQ-AIMS comes with a mobile application named "Air-Pravah" for real-time Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) representatives at the event mentioned that the developed system will help provide various environmental clearances.