This IIT Madras-indubated startup is tackling air pollution where it’s most dangerous — inside hospitals

Inside a hospital in Chennai, the threat doesn’t always come from the operating table.

It floats in the air – bacteria from outside, microscopic pollutants from traffic, and invisible fumes that standard air purifiers were never designed to handle.

This is the world AirOK was built for.

Founded by Deekshith Vara Prasad, an engineer from IIT Madras, AirOK is a cleantech company that treats clean air as a systems problem, not just a hardware one.

While many purifiers focus on generic dust filtration, AirOK’s approach is to identify and target India’s unique pollution mix – from particulate matter to chemical contaminants and biological agents – sector by sector.

Deekshith’s path began in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, and passed through the intense academic ecosystem of IIT Madras. There, working on a clean-tech project under faculty guidance, he caught a glimpse of how engineering and public health could intersect. As reports showed that 14 of the world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India, the problem stopped being abstract.

After graduating in 2014, while many of his peers joined stable jobs, Deekshith chose the harder route: prototypes, trial-and-error, and long months of uncertainty. His parents were sceptical at first, but backed his conviction as early pilots began to show promise.

In 2015, he joined the IIT Madras incubation cell, gaining not just lab space, but mentorship and validation.

By 2017, AirOK had commercial-ready units. Hospitals in Chennai became the first test beds – environments where air quality isn’t a lifestyle issue but a life-or-death variable. The results were encouraging, and the product started finding its footing.

What differentiates AirOK today is its configurability. Instead of one-size-fits-all devices, the company offers systems that can be tuned to up to 13 pollutant parameters. A hospital in Delhi can prioritise smog and industrial pollutants; a school in Kerala can configure for bacterial and fungal spores during monsoon. These systems are built to be monitored and refined using data, aiming for precision filtration without unnecessary energy or filter costs.

All of this is wrapped in a service model – design, deployment, and ongoing support – that makes the technology usable in real-world Indian conditions, not just in lab reports.

Can AirOK scale this model beyond large institutions into offices, homes, and public infrastructure? How does it balance the capital intensity of hardware with the long-term value of recurring service relationships?

The deeper exploration of AirOK’s technology, business model, and ambitions sits inside the Cleantech section of The Indian Dream – 3rd Edition.

For the full narrative, visit IndianDream.club and read the complete AirOK story.