Ola, Microsoft partner to collect air quality data in Delhi-NCR

Ride-hailing company Ola on Monday said it has entered with Microsoft Research to measure street level air quality data in Delhi-NCR, to support in the government’s efforts to combat air pollution.

As part of this partnership, Ola Mobility Institute and Microsoft Research will leverage their research and data science capabilities to jointly conduct research to provide periodic reports and insights from the data collected. The project is expected to collect millions of data points over the course of one year to complete the spectrum of variation in Delhi’s air-pollution, the company said.

Particulate Matter (PM 2.5) data would be collected through sensors mounted on Ola’s fleet, for which cars have been identified based on complex algorithms to ensure maximum geographical coverage of data. The sensors to be mounted in the engine compartment, have been custom made by a Delhi-based company Purelogic Labs India Pvt. Ltd, Ola said.