Bringing air quality data closer to people

Good air, clean water, and food are fundamental to a good life. In that sense, they should be treated as fundamental rights.

But air quality has been steadily degrading, and it’s not really part of the mainstream conversation. That needs to change. Right now, if you look at the site (https://oaq.notf.in/), everything looks green. But as we get closer to the end of the year, things will start looking much worse.

Solving air pollution is hard, but the first step is simple: people need to know what they’re breathing.

Right now, that’s not possible. India does collect air quality data, but it’s either locked away, too broad to tell you anything about your locality, or just not published at all. There’s no single place a citizen can go to get a clear, neighbourhood-level picture.

So we set out to fix that.

Today, we’re launching an open, pan-India air quality platform, built in partnership with leading organisations in the field. The goal: give citizens, schools, local governments, and communities direct access to the data that affects their daily lives.

At Rainmatter Foundation, we’ve been committed to keeping this conversation alive, and this platform is our attempt at making that happen. All the data on the site is free and open, so others can build on top of it.