Every winter, air in India becomes toxic. A made-in-India wearable purifier cleans the air around you, designed for local pollution.
Every winter, we face the same problem. The air turns toxic, masks get uncomfortable, and even the best room purifiers only work indoors. Yet we breathe this air every minute. What if we could actually wear clean air wherever we go?
That is the question an Indian startup, Atovio, decided to answer. The team has built India’s first made-in-India wearable air purifier, small enough to hang around our necks and powerful enough to clean the air in our personal space.In a recent conversation with Anmay Shahlot, co-founder of Atovio, Nidhi Agarwal from Electronics For You (EFY) learned how they are solving a problem that affects more than 80 crore Indians suffering from bad air.
The startup claims that they have spent countless hours perfecting the design, running multiple tests, and making several improvements until they were confident in its performance. “Our device is the only one tested and designed specifically for Indian pollution conditions. A lot of R&D work has gone into making it suitable for the air quality challenges we face here,” Anmay added.
The purifier was tested at IIT Kanpur’s National Aerosol Facility, where researchers saw up to 90 percent reduction in pollutants within 35 cubic feet. Atovio also added a unique Turbo Mode made specifically for Indian conditions, when AQI levels cross 200 or more. No other wearable purifier in the world has been designed for such high pollution levels.
Built and assembled entirely in Hisar, Haryana, the purifier marks a step forward for local electronics manufacturing. The company’s founders refused to outsource production to China and instead set up their own lab to test air quality and improve design efficiency.
They are also working with IIT Delhi, many other academic institutions and Indian medical associations to run more tests and clinical studies. The next version will connect with a mobile app to help us track the air we breathe in real time. At an affordable price, the startup aims to make clean air something we can carry with us every day, rather than something we only hope for when winter ends.
The full interview will be live soon — stay tuned.
