Abhilasha Purwar - Blue Sky Analytics

Abhilasha Purwar is currently the Head of Air Pollution Control at Blue Sky Analytics, which is building a stack of environmental data in India using geospatial and IoT data sets. Blue Sky aims to provide dynamic, high-resolution, large-scale quantification of key environmental indicators that start with air pollution. The current Blue Sky app, BreeZo is now available. Before joining Blue Sky Analytics, Abhilasha worked in corporate business development at WeWork India and as an associate at GoldenSet Capital Partners in Connecticut.

Abhilasha graduated with a Master's in Environmental Management from Yale University in 2017. She is interested in financing energy and infrastructure (especially in emerging economies). Previously, she worked in the United States, India, Ireland, and Ghana in solar business development, economic and political consulting, oil and gas research, and nanotechnology. She has a B.Tech in Applied Chemistry from IIT-BHU. She is an aspiring yoga teacher and likes hiking, biking, and hiking.

Having lived in different cities, Abhilasha Purwar, founder of Blue Sky Analytics, developed an empathy apple from scratch. By changing six schools in five regions, she lived in different contexts while growing up, experiencing life in different socioeconomic categories.

After graduating from IIT (BHU) Varanasi with a Master of Applied Chemistry in 2012, Abhilasha began her stay with Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) on a consulting project, in monitoring Device Based Air Pollution IoT for the Ministry of Environment of the Union.

“I remember that I had two job offers that brought me a lot of money. Imagine you are a 22 year old boy and you are offered 18 lakh per year. But I didn't take any of those jobs and went for J-PAL. I wanted to do something that addresses problems beyond myself. In general, this experience was a turning point in my life, "he adds.

While working with J-PAL, he was in the field most of the time. It was then that she fell into a river in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, which had turned orange, and terrible environmental conditions hit her. In 2013, she began pursuing a Master's in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forest and Environmental Studies, determined to put effort into environmental action.

Its launch, Blue Sky Analytics, harnesses the power of artificial intelligence and satellites to deliver high-resolution environmental data in real time. Its geospatial data refinery converts raw data into usable environmental information, allowing you to take informed and rapid action in response to climate change. The Blue Sky app, BreeZo, claims to be "the Bloomberg of environmental data." The app maps the country into 1 km squares to control pollution levels.

Blue Sky Analytics is founded by sibling duo Abhilasha (CEO) and Kshitij Purwar (CTO). In 2018, Abhilasha was considering a PhD on "Climate Change Induced Financial Crisis" but instead decided to build Blue Sky Analytics on this thesis. Later in 2019, Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, warned that the climate crisis could pose a $ 20 trillion risk to the global economy.

“The Covid crisis has shown how vulnerable our investment portfolios and our economic structures are. But that's just the trailer, and the real crisis of the decade is climate change. At Blue Sky, our goal is to create exemplary data products that can help global clients quantify climate risk and make sustainable investment decisions, "said Abhilasha Purwar.

“In the past two years, there has been an increasing emphasis on geospatial technology. There is great potential in this segment and we see great opportunities for innovation, especially in a post-COVID era where we need to support sustainable solutions. We would like to see Blue Sky data sets become the benchmark for climate-based decision making in all industries ”- Teruhide Sato, Founder and Managing Partner, BEENEXT.