How a new cooling panel can fix stubble burning challenge, save Delhi's air

The start-up, Green Screen developed during a course at Harvard University, which aimed at creating viable solutions to intractable problems facing developing countries, such as India

Agricultural fires in Punjab and Haryana cause about half of Delhi’s air pollution, according to a new Harvard University study. Daniel Cusworth, an atmospheric chemist at Harvard and co-founder of Green Screen, a US start-up, proposes a solution by converting the farm waste that is usually burned into cooling panels for the city’s poor, to protect them from extreme summer heat.

November is when Delhi’s 16.3 million residents feel the worst effects of agricultural fires in Punjab and Haryana, crop stubble or waste set ablaze to clear land for the next crop. These fires cause about