Indian student wins Diana Award for low cost air purifier filter

Krish Aggarwal, a student at Sanskriti School in New Delhi, won the 2026 Diana Award for creating an affordable air filtration system.

Aggarwal co-founded Project Vayu with fellow student Samarth Meattle to help schools combat indoor air pollution. The initiative provides a low-cost alternative to expensive commercial air purifiers by attaching a specialized filter to standard classroom fans. The filter uses electrostatically charged fibres to trap fine particulate matter like PM2.5.

When a fan turns on, the filter expands into a balloon-like shape to increase its surface area. The team distributes these filters to underprivileged schools in Delhi for free. Project Vayu says the system reduced PM2.5 concentrations by more than 90 percent in a closed room test within one hour, dropping the levels from 158 micrograms per cubic metre to 11 micrograms per cubic metre. The project has already reached more than 10,000 students in Delhi.

The team initially covered 295 classrooms and produced 602 filters during the first phase. Aggarwal and Meattle now plan to expand their work to 45 additional schools across New Delhi. The Diana Award recognizes young people for social action and humanitarian work in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales.