Delhi’s corporates are allowing work from home, installing air purifiers, to save their employees from pollution

• On Sunday (November 3), AQI levels went beyond 1000 in multiple places in Delhi.
• Corporates in Delhi have been facilitating work from home as well as providing flexible timings to help employees stay indoors.
• Many have also installed advanced level air purifiers to control air quality inside office premises.

Delhi’s severe air pollution levels has everyone worried. Schools are shut, odd even scheme is announced, and masks are selling like hotcakes. On Sunday (November 3), AQI levels went beyond 1000, and just then, Monday blues for professionals took a serious turn.

But corporates too have taken steps to protect their employees from Delhi’s toxic air

Work from home

Almost all major companies urged their employees to work from home and stay indoors. Companies like H&M, Coca Cola, KFC and offered flexible work timings as well as work-from-home option. H&M India reportedly gave its employees the flexible timing option till November 15.

Securing the workplace

Many companies are securing their workplaces, making way for a sustainable approach. Times Internet in its Delhi offices of Noida and Gurugram installed “electrostatic precipitators/chemical filters in the centralized air conditioning plant”. This ensures that the air quality inside the office premises ranges between good and satisfactory levels.

Startups like Hike too installed the same in 2016. Hike’s advanced Oxidation system based on Ionized Hydro Peroxides.

“The system is based on Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) i.e., Hydrogen Peroxide to reduce microbial contamination and gaseous contamination . Hydro-Peroxides are very effective at destroying harmful microbial in the air and on the surfaces.It does not require the pollutants to travel to the unit for treatment or filtration. These oxidizers produced are friendly which means that revert back to oxygen and H2O after the oxidation of the pollutant,” explained the company.

With this, the average AQI at Hike has been at 89 throughout October.

AQI level at Hike on November 6, 2019

No surge pricing

Ride-hailing companies Ola and Uber both announced that they would cancel surge pricing as the Indian capital suffered. Uber started a campaign called #Leaveyourcarbehind, to promote shared mobility.

Meanwhile, Ola announced that there will be no peak pricing on rides during the period of the odd-even scheme which is between November 4-15.

“The implementation of the odd-even scheme offers an opportunity to further unlock the potential of shared mobility. We are ensuring that all our services across cabs, autos, bikes and shared cabs, will be available to serve citizens,” said Arun Srinivas, chief sales and marketing officer at Ola.