People wearing masks and walking down the street is not an uncommon sight nowadays. They are compelled to put on the mask because the smoke, dust and other pollutants make the air impure and difficult to breathe, especially for infants, senior citizens and those ailing.
The level of air pollution in India is increasing at an alarming rate because of which AQI India, which is an inception of Purelogic Labs India Pvt Ltd, has launched a mobile app that helps users to search and explore the location of their choice and check real-time values of the Air Quality Index (AQI) and atmospheric PM 2.5 (particulate matter that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers) separately.
Based on the data at a specific location, the app also provides personalised health recommendations.
Talking about the app, Rohit Bansal, founder of AQI India and Purelogic Labs India Pvt Ltd, says, “AQI India’s vision is to provide better air quality solutions and healthy life to everyone. We have created a mobile app that will enable people to track pollution levels wherever they wish to travel and take adequate precautions — especially if they have elderly, children, or someone with a medical condition at home.”
Air pollution has been a big concern in India and the awareness levels are quite low. “The unseen danger is a real threat to people who are still not aware of it and this made us realise that to combat the problem we must educate society. The only way possible to spread awareness is to provide people a platform that delivers concrete data about how the rising pollution level has engulfed our lives,” he says.
The AQI India platform is user-friendly and even a school-going kid can browse through the website www.aqi.in or the mobile app available on Google play store and iTunes App store. The mobile app lets users view various parameters contributing to the real-time AQI values in major states and cities of the country. “They can even compare the data and understand these values in the time frame of 24 hours, 7 days and a month. The idea is to enable them to become aware of the air quality at various places and minimise exposure to pollution,” says Bansal.
With over 92 per cent of the Indian population reeling under the perils of air pollution, it has become imperative to identify and mitigate the root causes of this rising health emergency. “Through intelligent algorithms and high precision pollution detection sensors, the app captures every minuscule air particle to publish highly accurate readings,” he says.
With the AQI India app, parents can plan their outdoor activities and vacations in advance keeping their children’s health at the forefront. Apart from this, it will be highly beneficial to sports persons and athletes, as also the elderly and those suffering from various health conditions including respiratory disorders. Bansal says that air pollution is one of the most alarming issues that we have been fighting against for almost a decade now and we have come down to a state where we are pushing ourselves into a disease-prone environment and our future generations into a bumbling mess with unimaginable consequences.
That said, there are apps providing complex data such as Air Quality Index (AQI), so it must be tough to survive the competition. “With so many AQI apps available nowadays, we tried our best to bring forth an app that is user-friendly and provides reliable information and authentic data to the people. We struggled to find good locations in various parts of the country — remote areas and cities,” says Bansal adding that while others simply rely on government-based AQI readings, they have developed their own sensors which are currently providing real-time Air Quality Index including particulate matter 2.5 and 10, humidity, temperature, and noise pollution of the location.
