Context:

JClean Weather Technologies, an incubatee company in Pune’s Scitech Park has developed a new technology under the Nidhi Prayas program to disinfect closed spaces and rooms.

About:

• The technology, named Scitech Airon, was developed under the Nidhi Prayas program initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST)
• It reduces the viral load of a closed space by 99.7 percent within an hour, depending on the room size.
• The machine can be used to disinfect spaces that have been occupied by coronavirus patients ensuring that the doctors, nurses, and other care staff in quarantine facilities do not catch the virus.
• It is capable of killing a range of viruses, bacteria, and fungal infections and can disinfect a room from several allergens.
• It also decomposes pollutants like Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, and volatile gaseous organic compounds.
• The Sci tech Airon ionizer machine generates negatively charged ions that chemically react with the proteins on the outer walls of these microorganisms and other allergens leaving them ineffective and harmless.

NIDHI-PRAYAS Program:

• NIDHI-PRAYAS is National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovation Promoting and Accelerating Young and Aspiring Innovators & startups.
• This program allows the innovators to try their ideas without fear of failure, hence allowing them to reach a stage where they have a ready product and are willing to approach incubators for commercialisation.