As India's capital of New Delhi prepares for winter — and the accompanying season of acrid smog — the government is promoting a motorcycle helmet fitted with filters and a fan at the back that it says can remove 80% of pollutants.
State agencies have pumped thousands of dollars into Shellios Technolabs, a startup whose founder Amit Pathak began work on the helmet, which he calls the world's first of its kind, in a basement in 2016.
That was the year of the first headlines about the filthy air that makes it nearly impossible to breathe in New Delhi from mid-December to February, with the heavy cold trapping dust, vehicle emissions and smoke from burning crop waste in nearby states.