Ola and Microsoft come together to measure air quality on the streets of India’s national capital

• Ola and Microsoft have inked a partnership to measure real time street air quality index in Delhi.
• As per this initiative, sensors will be mounted on Ola cabs.
• The initiative will help study air pollution across millions of data points collected over the course of one year.

Indian ride hailing unicorn Ola and global tech giant Microsoft inked a partnership to measure real-time street air quality index in Delhi.

The national capital’s residents have been gasping for air for over three weeks now as air quality index (AQI) levels have spiked beyond 1000 leading to an emergency-like situation.

Ola and Microsoft intend to study air pollution across millions of data points collected over the course of one year.

As per this initiative, sensors will be mounted on Ola cabs. The cars have been identified based on complex algorithms to ensure maximum geographical coverage of data.

“Air pollution is one of the biggest global environmental challenges of today. Most air-quality sensors today measure ambient air-quality which is not reflective of the street-level pollution people are subjected to on a daily basis. This project is part of Ola City Sense, a programme to provide intelligent data-based insights to cities,” said Anand Shah head of Ola Mobility Institute.

The data collected from the project will then be made public to help research in the area. Ola also said that the project has caught the eye of the government.

“At Microsoft Research India, we have a track record of conducting research that addresses pressing societal issues with innovative technology. The recent launch of our Societal impact through Cloud and AI (SCAI) initiative enables us to deepen our engagement with like-minded collaborators,” said Venkat Padmanabhan, deputy managing director, Microsoft Research India.