Climate

A new wave of climate ideas fighting India’s air crisis, and engineering planet-first solutions in EVs and synthetic biology — all before it’s too late.

From Smog to Safety: Solving India's Quality of Life Crisis

I want the next generation of founders to tackle core problems that directly improve the quality of life in India. While our GDP is relatively high, our quality of life still lags. China has made remarkable progress in infrastructure, safety, greenery, traffic management, healthcare, and environmental sustainability. India needs its own innovative solutions to address its unique challenges. We need practical solutions for air pollution, road safety, lane discipline, and accessible, reliable healthcare. These are massive problems in India that require local, scalable approaches. Instead of copying US solutions, we should build for India's unique challenges. We eradicated polio and created UPI in our own way. It's time to find more India-first solutions to these critical issues.

Clearing the Air: Startups Must Lead India’s Fight Against Pollution

India’s urban centers consistently rank among the world's most polluted cities—an unfortunate distinction we must urgently address. Air quality has deteriorated to critical levels, yet political incentives have not driven meaningful progress over the past decade. The onus now falls on innovation and the market to tackle this crisis. Startups have a vital role to play in developing breakthrough solutions that can reverse this trend and make our cities livable again. It’s time to harness technology, entrepreneurship, and fresh thinking to get India breathing freely once more.

Tackling Air Pollution: A Call for Scalable Solutions in India

Air pollution is one of India’s most pressing challenges—one that significantly impacts life expectancy and overall quality of life. This issue extends beyond India to several neighboring nations and emerging markets. Startups have an opportunity to drive meaningful change through two key approaches: Strengthening EV infrastructure—expanding charging networks or developing more affordable EV alternatives for motorbikes, vehicles, and public transport. Increasing green cover—scaling efforts to plant and maintain urban forests. If India follows China's approach, relocating coal plants away from cities could be another crucial step. Beyond these known solutions, innovative approaches—like Lahore’s experiment with artificial rain to reduce pollutants—could offer new breakthroughs. It would be exciting to see more progress in this space.

The Operating System for India's EV Revolution

India, one of the largest automobile markets in the world, is rapidly transitioning to electric vehicles. Unlike traditional petrol vehicles, EVs are inherently digital - much like smartphones. Yet, most EVs today lack deep software integration, operating more like feature phones rather than smart devices. This presents a massive opportunity to build a universal EV operating system (OS) that seamlessly works across different vehicle types like two-wheelers, three-wheelers, cars, and more - regardless of the OEM. Such an OS would unlock the full potential of smart, connected vehicles, optimizing costs, enhancing user experience, improving safety, and even contributing to better traffic management. Just as smartphones revolutionized navigation and daily commutes with Google Maps, an intelligent EV ecosystem could redefine urban mobility. With AI-powered capabilities, this OS could enable vehicles to learn from usage patterns, offer predictive maintenance, optimize battery performance, and even allow drivers to interact with their vehicles conversationally. A robust, standardized EV OS wouldn’t just make vehicles smarter - it would create the foundation for next-generation mobility applications. This is an emerging white space in India’s EV landscape, and the startup that successfully builds it will shape the future of transportation.

Building a Climate-Resilient Future with Synthetic Biology

Synthetic biology (synbio) holds transformative potential to drive emissions reduction and enhance climate resilience across key sectors such as food, consumer goods, waste, and fuels. In food systems, synbio can produce proteins, ingredients, and flavors with a fraction of the land, water, and emissions compared to traditional agriculture, while significantly reducing climate-related uncertainties in output. In consumer goods, it can replace petrochemical-derived ingredients with bio-based materials, lowering dependency on fossil fuels. Engineered microbes can accelerate biodegradation or convert waste into valuable products like biofuels and biopolymers. India is uniquely positioned to emerge as a synbio hub, thanks to its strong biotech talent pool and cost-effective R&D ecosystem. The integration of AI in biotechnology will further accelerate and democratize technology development. Additionally, policy initiatives like BioE3 are set to create an enabling environment that supports the scaling up of synthetic biology startups, driving India’s leadership in sustainable biomanufacturing.

AI as a Catalyst for Collective Action

Many of humanity’s biggest challenges, like climate change, are collective action problems. While AI is often seen as a tool for enhancing productivity—or even replacing human labor—what if its true breakthrough lies in enabling better collaboration among well-meaning individuals? Imagine an AI agent constantly engaging with large communities (like Reddit or a platform like Terra.do), conducting mini-interviews to understand individual goals, and forming “pods” of people with aligned visions but complementary skills. This AI could then guide these teams through project development—flagging prior attempts, identifying pitfalls, suggesting funding opportunities, and connecting them with global initiatives. Could such an AI-powered community builder accelerate project formation by 1000x and unlock unprecedented climate action worldwide?

Asia's Urban Heatwave: Can Innovation Cool Booming Cities?

Amid global uncertainty, one trend is certain: Asia’s urbanization is accelerating, driving economic growth and reshaping cities. India, with its rapidly growing urban centers like Surat, Bangalore, and Hyderabad exemplifies both the potential and challenges of this transformation—particularly in tackling urban cooling. The urban heat island effect, where dense construction creates localized hotspots up to 7°C warmer than surrounding areas, threatens livability, public health, and sustainability. This challenge extends beyond Asia, impacting urban centers globally from Phoenix to Paris. What makes this challenge compelling is the diversity of solutions it inspires: reflective cooling panels, solar-powered paints, modular microforest pods, and smart shade systems. Cities like Singapore are pioneering green building initiatives, demonstrating how technology and urban planning can mitigate heat challenges. With the market for sustainable cooling in developing economies set to reach US$600 billion annually by 2050, urban cooling represents a high-potential investment opportunity. Scalable, impactful, and critical for building future-ready cities, this is the space I would focus on if I were starting a company today.

AI for Clean Air: Tackling India's Pollution Crisis with Data-Driven Solutions

The persistent challenge of air quality in India is a compelling area for AI-driven solutions. Imagine the potential of AI to analyze vast datasets—from meteorological patterns to industrial emissions—to predict and mitigate AQI spikes. This could involve developing sophisticated early warning systems, optimizing traffic flow to reduce pollution, or even designing targeted air purification strategies. The impact of such a venture would be immense, offering a tangible improvement to public health and urban living.

Clearing the Air: The Billion-Dollar Opportunity in Fixing Pollution

If India can tackle air pollution in its major cities through entrepreneurial innovation rather than waiting for government intervention, the economic upside could be enormous. Technologies like Direct Air Capture or other breakthrough solutions could significantly improve air quality, leading to better public health, higher productivity, and a major boost to GDP. The company that successfully develops and commercializes such a solution stands to become an industry giant.

The Squeeze on India's Cities: Innovation to Improve their Liveability

As India continues its rapid urbanization on the path to becoming an economic powerhouse, our cities will face mounting pressure—strained infrastructure, congestion, and environmental challenges—all of which could impact liveability. There’s a growing need for innovative solutions that enhance the quality of urban life. It would be exciting to see entrepreneurs explore viable business models aimed at making our cities more enjoyable and sustainable. Whether through technology, urban planning, mobility solutions, or public-private collaborations, there’s immense potential to improve everyday experiences. Some of these ideas may work independently, while others could thrive in partnership with governments, local bodies, and civic organizations.