US Students Will Pilot Air Pollution Research In India

5,000 participants will join climate change workshops held under the India Initiative of CUNY CREST Institute.

Indoor air pollution is often five times worse than outdoor pollution, and the air purifier market in India has grown from almost nothing to over Rs 150 crore in the last few years.

(Photo: Rahul Gupta/The Quint)

Students from the United States will install more than six solar powered weather stations in three states of India in the upcoming months.

With 5,000 participants joining various climate change workshops across the country, these sessions will be held under the India Initiative of CUNY CREST Institute.

Moreover, 33 students from the Bronx Community College (BCC) and City University of New York (CUNY) will conduct air pollution research in Mumbai and New Delhi starting from January 2023.

A public diplomacy grant from the US State Department in addition to the $300,000 National Science Foundation grant with Dr. Brian Vant-Hull of CUNY Remote Sensing Earth System (CREST) Institute made this research possible.

The BCC President Thomas Isekenegbe and CUNY President Vincent Boudreau signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which was witnessed by CUNY CREST Institute Executive Director, Dr. Reza Khanbilvardi.

The BCC has been actively involved in different partnerships with India since 2019 largely because of BCC professors Neal Phillip and Paramita Sen who have received the public diplomacy grant and also heralded a sustainability focused study abroad program to Maharashtra with 15 BCC and other CUNY students. They even installed a solar-powered station there.

Consul General of India Randhir Jasiwal and his deputy Abha Jaiswal attended the event in addition to Dr. Varun Jeph, the Deputy Commissioner of Trade, Investment, and Innovation for International Affairs and Dilip Chauhan who is the Vice Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (DBATU).

Jaiswal spoke about his strong commitment to support IICCCI's collaborative work with Indian colleagues and counterparts.

As of June 2010, the aim of the CUNY CREST Institute is to serve as a CUNY-wide institute of excellence in furthering the research into earth system sciences and application of remote sensing technology in addition to other emerging technologies.

(With inputs from the American Bazaar)