NEW DELHI: As India’s capital of New Delhi prepares for winter - and accompanying season of acrid smog government is promoting a motorcycle helmet fitted with filters and a fan at back that it says can remove 80 percent of pollutants. State agencies have pumped thousands of dollars into Shellios Technolabs, a startup whose founder Amit Pathak began work on helmet, which he calls world’s first of its kind in a basement in 2016.

That was year of first headlines about filthy air that makes New Delhi nearly unbreathable from mid-December to February, as heavy cold traps dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from burning crop waste in nearby states. “Inside a home or office, you could have an air purifier,” said Pathak, an electrical engineer. “But guys on bike, they have no protection at all.” Sales of helmet began in 2019 and tests on New Delhi’s streets by an independent laboratory confirmed it can keep more than 80 percent of pollutants out of users’ nostrils, Pathak added. Pathak sees a big opportunity amid annual demand for 30 million helmets, but declined to reveal his production or sales figures. Each helmet retails at 4,500 rupees ($56), or nearly four times cost of a regular one, effectively putting device beyond reach of many riders in India. Pathak said company had also drawn interest from Southeast Asian nations such as Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.–Agencies

Published in The Daily National Courier, August, 30 2022

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