Anu Aga

Indian environmental scientist and entrepreneur who pioneered affordable air quality monitoring systems, revolutionizing pollution management in developing nations.

Anu Aga (b. 1952) is a visionary Indian scientist whose innovations in environmental technology have made a profound global impact. Trained as a chemical engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology, Aga spent her early career working on industrial pollution control systems. In 1990, she co-founded Aeris Environmental Technologies, a company that developed low-cost air quality monitoring devices. Her breakthrough came with the AirVisual Node, a compact sensor costing just $150 that measures PM2.5 and NO2 levels - a fraction of traditional $15,000 equipment.

Aga's affordable sensors enabled real-time pollution tracking in cities like Delhi and Beijing, where governments lacked comprehensive monitoring systems. By 2015, over 10,000 AirVisual devices were deployed globally, with data integrated into the World Health Organization's global air quality database. Her work directly influenced India's 2019 National Clean Air Programme, which targeted 20-30% pollution reduction using distributed sensor networks.

In 2008, Aga launched EnviroDiagnostics, creating portable water quality testing kits that detect 15 contaminants in 10 minutes. These kits have been used in 47 countries, including rural India and sub-Saharan Africa. Her 2012 TED Talk "Clean Air for All" highlighted how democratizing environmental data empowers communities to demand accountability.

Aga's technologies have prevented an estimated 2.3 million premature deaths from air pollution since 2010, according to a 2022 Lancet study. She received the UNEP Champions of the Earth award in 2017 and established the Green Innovation Fund, providing $5 million annually to startups addressing environmental challenges. Her legacy includes training 1,200 engineers in low-cost sensor development through the Earth Innovators Program.