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Let’s take a look at the following gruesome facts about the indoor air quality in India: According to a report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the ill-effects of indoor air pollution result in about 2 Mn premature deaths per year in India. Of this, 44% are due to pneumonia, 54% from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and 2% from lung cancer. In 2012, indoor air pollution was linked to 4.3 Mn deaths globally, compared with 3.7 Mn for outdoor air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, over 10-50% of indoor environments in India, North America, Europe, Australia and Japan are estimated to be affected by indoor dampness. This figure suggests that mold could be a highly prevalent issue in locations spread across the world. Therefore, with India rapidly gaining momentum in creating smart cities, there is also an equivalent emphasis to improve air quality using technology in Indian homes. As much as the Indian government is working to improve the indoor air quality through initiatives such as the National Biomass Cookstove Programme (NBCP), efforts need to be paved towards improving the indoor air quality, so that the future homes in India can have clean air to breathe. Towards this, Ceraheat Oy, a Finnish tech startup with its innovative indoor glass heating solutions is looking to offer tangible solutions to improve indoor air quality in Indian homes. In an interview with GOIntenational, Anita Saariaho, founder of Ceraheat Oy revealed how the Finnish tech is crucial to prevent bad indoor air quality for India’s Smart City vision. Ceraheat: The Progeny Of Design And Finnish Tech Ceraheat Oy combines aesthetic design with high-end Finnish tech to create safe and healthy heating solutions. It is specialised in developing, manufacturing of high-quality heating glass products based heating glass and radiant heater technology. Through its glass heating technology, it can create healthy and high designed heaters for people to get better air quality inside the house. Through its efficient heating solutions that prevent moisture collection in the room and doesn’t need additional fuels, the Finnish tech company is also creating healthcare applications due to its positive impact on air quality. Anita says, “Ceraheat Oy is the first Finnish corporation member of the World Design Organisation. Our company’s agenda is set to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals based on our high quality and highly designed products with energy saving and health benefits.” Ceraheat’s USP lies in its design which has personalisation features. The heaters which make use of glass tubes are easily installed on the walls and ceilings. The heaters emit only pure heating without needing any other forms of fuels. This prevents the environment of the room from dampening and thereby aids in preventing moisture and mold from setting in which in turn improves the air quality for improved breathing. Considering the myriad problems in indoor air quality across the world caused by damping and mold, Ceraheat poses as a probable solution to improve the indoor air quality of urban India. Anita says, “Based on latest international studies, if our heating glass products were to be used all over the world, they would create a healthy living environment for all. So, we felt that we needed a good and strong partner to spread our products’ healthy message globally; hence the membership with WDO was seen as a natural fit.” What’s Going To Be On The Ceraheat Platter? Ceraheat is already exporting products to Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia among other countries. But as mentioned by Anita, India is vital for its expansion. Anita reasons why, “After conducting a limited market research in India, we realised that we have a product which will directly help to address this problem.” To mitigate the issues of poor indoor air quality, Anita is keen to set up a pilot project in India to explore how the heating solution cannot only provide clean heat but improve air quality within buildings too. She elaborates, “It can create a better quality of life! The World Design Organisation is backing us and we are keen to publish the pilot project’s findings with a view to spreading Ceraheat’s health message all over the world.” The high-end Finnish company is optimistic about how its products will be received in an emerging economy like India. In view of the widespread recognition relating to the challenges in maintaining healthy indoor air quality, there is a need to develop world-class solutions to improve the indoor air quality in different countries so that the larger issue of the health menace emanating from the poor quality of indoor air may be effectively addressed. Anita offers the answer to this pertinent problem through the Finnish glass heating technology that requires no additional fuel. She says, “Ceraheat Oy’s focus is on contributing to the creation of smart high-performance homes and buildings; with greater energy efficiency, lower life-cycle cost, better indoor air quality and higher levels of wellbeing. Ceraheat-heaters can prevent even lung diseases and create lower social costs of lung diseases.” As part of her plans to bring Ceraheat Oy technology to India, Anita is in search of local partners, investors, and distributors in India. Ceraheat Oy And Its Keenness To Work In India In the recent years, Finland has been increasingly showing its interest to partner with India in India’s developmental projects. Just last year, GoInternational Finland’s Bizhack winner Cityfier announced it will launch the ‘Smart City Planning Tool’ in India. On a similar line, Startup and Growth Finland Unit at Nordea has also shown interest to work on a bilateral project to boost the Indian startup ecosystem. Finnish companies have been reaching out to find partners in India and t increasingly looking at having deeper collaborations among startups in both the countries. With all these on the platter and India’s Smart City Project playing out, Ceraheat Oy’s keenness to work in India is also a testimony of India’s growing bilateral relationship with Finland. With more and more Finnish companies entering the Indian market, Cereheat Oy is out on the search of an Indian partner who will determinedly take the strides along with Ceraheat to grow on a global scale as a leading innovator and producer of healthy heating solutions. Lastly, Anita Saariaho concludes by saying, “We hope to find more partners, who are as equally passionate about sustainable development goals as the Ceraheat Oy team is.”

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