By: Express News ServiceUpdated: October 10, 2025 08:22 PM IST 3 min readEnvironment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the government intends to “fast-track lab-validated, affordable solutions into deployment” and expand the range of practical tools available to curb pollution.In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Delhi government is set to gather ideas to help the city fight air pollution before the blanket of smog engulfs the Capital with the onset of winter.Under the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) Innovation Challenge, individuals, startups, research institutions, and firms from across India have been invited to propose affordable, and field-ready technologies that can help reduce particulate pollution (PM2.5 and PM10) in the city. The government has announced rewards of upto Rs 50 lakh.The initiative aims to crowdsource scalable solutions that target vehicles, construction sites, and industrial sources. Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said the government intends to “fast-track lab-validated, affordable solutions into deployment” and expand the range of practical tools available to curb pollution.“This year, Delhi has seen the highest number of clean air days in the last decade..but our ambition is bigger — we want every day to be a clean air day. Enforcement alone won’t get us there; this is a 24×7 innovation mission,” he was quoted as saying, according to an official statement.The scope of the challenge, said Sirsa, is to encourage wide participation. “We are throwing the doors open —startups, researchers, IITs, big companies, tech developers bring us what works on the road and at construction and industrial sites. If a solution can cut PM2.5 or PM10 substantially, install easily, and keep costs down, we will back it,” read the statement. Registrations are open till October 31 on the DPCC website.The evaluation process will have three stages — initial screening by the DPCC, followed by independent expert review with field or laboratory trials, and finally validation by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) or equivalent institutions before any recommendations for government-scale adoption.Projects that clear the second stage will receive ₹5 lakh, while those that are validated by national laboratories and recommended for government deployment will be awarded ₹50 lakh.Story continues below this adSirsa said the evaluation will focus on real-world performance and affordability. “Evaluation will reward what matters in the real world—how much pollution you actually cut, how affordable your device is, whether it adapts to Delhi’s climate, how fast it installs, and how reliably it can be monitored. The most cost-effective, high-impact innovations will score the highest,” he said.The government has also described the challenge as an “open brief” covering technologies such as road coatings that trap tyre dust, tailpipe capture devices, rooftop air-flow tunnels, advanced construction-dust controls, and industrial particulate-matter reduction systems.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:air pollution