From an Indian-American selected for NASA’s mission to Moon, Mars to breathing fresh air, here are the top social stories this week

Air quality in India has become an unofficial national issue by all means. India houses 10 of the most polluted cities in the world. To address this issue many individuals and organisations have come forward to tackle the menace. For instance, Mumbai-based startup Respirer Living has built a real-time IoT-based air quality monitoring device called Atmos, to measure the presence of ozone and carbon monoxide in the air.

Further, Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, an Indian-American US Air Force Colonel, is among the 11 new NASA graduates who are set to be part of the space agency's ambitious future missions to the International Space Station, Moon, and Mars.

SocialStory brings you the top stories this week.

This Olympiad for changemakers aims to motivate students to bring a positive change in society

Founded by Rahul Adhikari, International Changemaker Olympiad (ICO) tends to provide an opportunity for young students across schools to enjoy the challenges of the real world and exercise their power to create waves of transformation.

ICO gives children in schools a platform to launch their initiatives to tackle social and environmental problems. In ICO, students participate in teams, identify a problem in their home, school, or community, and develop a solution that can be implemented and scaled in four to five months.

For instance, a team of 12-year-olds saved 81,000 litres of water after selling water-saving devices (aerators) to over 120 people and helping them instal the same in their taps.

How this organisation is helping farmers, tourists follow sustainable livelihood practices in the Himalayas

Uttarakhand-based Green People is working towards a new blend of agro-tourism, eco-tourism, and rural tourism, and is looking to bridge the gap between urban and rural India through initiatives like ‘Bakri Chhap’ and ‘The Goat Villages.’

While ‘Bakri Chap’ is creating a brand for farmers in Himalayan villages by providing them with a source of livelihood, ‘The Goat Villages’ is a chain of farm retreats and homestays promoting sustainable living practices among visitors.

In less than three years, from 1,200 trekkers/visitors per year, Green People has managed to get more than 54,000 visitors, resulting in the activation of many community-run homestays and getting free insurance and vaccination to 5,000 goats.

Here’s how this entrepreneur and social activist is helping curb child labour and human trafficking

Vineet J Mehra, the Founder of DOT, a green mobility solution provider, could not sit back and passively take in the alarming statistics of bonded slavery. He is now helping victims of child labour and human trafficking.

Taking advantage of facial recognition technology, Vineet is credited with the successful mission of saving and reuniting 3,000 missing children with their families. The technology was earlier used by airline security to identify passengers and help reduce queues at the airports.

Vineet realised that the same technology could be used in real-time to identify missing, abducted, and enslaved children on the crowded streets of Delhi, and reunite them with their families.

Being a Global Sustainability Network (GSN) member, Vineet spoke to another GSN supporter and Nobel Peace prize winner Kailash Satyarthi and took his idea further to track abused children in the capital city. After gathering the support of the Delhi police and the government, the trial began in 2017 with six cameras placed across the city.

Indian-American among NASA's new astronauts; all set to conquer Moon, Mars

Raja Jon Vurputoor Chari, an Indian-American US Air Force Colonel, is among the 11 new NASA graduates who have successfully completed over two years' of basic astronaut training. They are all set to be a part of the space agency's ambitious future missions to the International Space Station, Moon, and Mars.

The successful astronauts were selected among 18,000 applicants in 2017 after NASA announced its Artemis programme. Chari, 41, was selected by NASA to join the 2017 Astronaut Candidate Class. He reported for duty in August 2017, and having completed the initial astronaut candidate training, he is now eligible for a missioned assignment.

At a ceremony on Friday, each new astronaut received a silver pin, a tradition dating back to the Mercury 7 astronauts, who were selected in 1959.

This Mumbai startup is making breathing easier with its air quality monitoring device

Mumbai-based startup Respirer Living Sciences has been working on providing clean air. Founded by Ronak Sutaria in 2017, the enterprise has built a real-time IoT-based air quality monitoring device called Atmos. Built with a GPRS or GSM module, the device is capable of measuring particulate matter of various sizes, as well as temperature, humidity, and presence of other hazardous gases like ozone and carbon monoxide in the air.

In just two years, the startup has sold and deployed 400 devices across 20 cities in the country.

Since Atmos has an in-built GPRS or GSM module, it does not require any WiFi network. Once installed, real-time data about particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, and PM10), temperature, humidity, and quantity of gases like ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide can be obtained by the user.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

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