Open Philanthropy recommended a grant of $2,500,000 over three years to the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) to support a project monitoring air quality in rural India, led by Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi. Tripathi and his team will oversee the installation and monitoring of roughly 1,600 sensors in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand.
Air quality measurements can improve scientific understanding and have positive spillover effects on regional air quality, even in urban areas. If successful, this project could inform air pollution policy in South Asia, as well as establish infrastructure for more air quality monitoring in the future.
This falls within our focus area of South Asian air quality.