(March 17, 2025) The latest World Air Quality Report by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company, reveals a grim reality—13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in India. With rapid economic expansion and millions navigating the choking smog of congested megacities, clean air is becoming a luxury. In a nation where pollution is an invisible predator, silently cutting lives short, Dr. Srikanth Sola’s mission has never been more urgent.
When Dr. Srikanth Sola left behind a successful career in the United States and returned to India in 2008, it wasn’t just a professional decision, it was a calling. As a cardiologist trained at Stanford and partly at Harvard, and a former staff member at the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, he had dedicated his life to treating heart disease. But in India, he saw something deeply troubling.
“In my first week, I was astounded by the number of patients I saw with heart disease,” he recalls. Young people, in their 20s and 30s, were coming to him with severe heart ailments. The culprit of all this was air pollution.
Dr Sola realized that it wasn’t just about medical treatment anymore, it was about preventing illness at its source. “I can keep doing angioplasty the whole day, but this will not solve much. So, I decided to build something that will make air quality better in larger spaces,” says Dr. Sola, who launched Devic Earth in 2018 to take on one of India’s most pressing public health crises.
Dr Shrikanth Sola
His solution, Pure Skies, is an AI-powered air purification system that is now used across industries to improve air quality, delivering large-scale impact.
A Journey from India to the U.S. and back
Born in 1971 in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Sola’s journey has been one of personal and professional transformation. When he was five, his family relocated to the United States, settling in Kentucky, where he spent his formative years. Though he adapted to life in the U.S., his spiritual inclinations emerged early, even as he pursued a rigorous academic and medical career.
A promising medical career in the U.S.
Dr. Sola’s academic path led him to Stanford University for his undergraduate studies. He then completed his medical residency and internship at Duke University Medical Center, followed by a cardiology fellowship at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
“At about age 18 or so, I realized that something was missing…I wasn’t sure what it was,” he remarked in an interview.
His expertise in cardiology earned him a place at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic, where he served as a staff cardiologist. His contributions to the field were widely recognized—he was named one of America’s top cardiologists by the Consumer Research Council of America in 2006 and 2007. His name also appeared in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering (2005–2008) and Who’s Who in America (2004–2008).
Despite these accolades, Dr. Sola felt a deep void. He had achieved professional success, but an inner calling urged him to seek something beyond medicine, and he decided to relocate to India with his wife.
Dr Shrikanth Sola
A spiritual awakening
Much before that, at the age of 19, while working at a summer camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Dr. Sola had profound experiences that deepened his sense of connection with the universe. Overwhelmed by a sense of peace, love, and interconnectedness, he realized that divinity was present in everything around him.
That same year, during a trip to India to visit relatives, a chance encounter on a flight introduced him to Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Seated next to a Western devotee who was traveling to see Sathya Sai Baba, Dr. Sola was shown a book about the spiritual leader. To his surprise, he recognized Sathya Sai Baba’s image instantly, feeling an immediate connection.
“When I first heard, I knew that was the case. Someone says the sky is blue, you would say yes, it is. Someone says to me, ‘Sai Baba is God,’ I say yes, that’s the truth.”
This realization set him on a path that would later redefine his life’s purpose.
Returning to India to serve
Despite his thriving career in the United States, Dr. Sola and his wife, Shivani, made the life-changing decision to return to India in 2008. The move was not driven by professional ambition but by a calling to serve. Settling in Bengaluru, he dedicated himself to working in healthcare with a sense of spiritual service, aligning his medical expertise with a deeper purpose. He joined the Sri Sathya Sai Institute for Higher Medical Sciences, a charitable institution to serve as a cardiologist.
The birth of Devic Earth: An idea inspired by nature and science
In the first week itself, he was shocked to see young patients in their 20s and 30s suffering from heart disease caused by air pollution. Treating them wasn’t enough, he needed to tackle the root cause to prevent more lives from being cut short.
Dr. Sola’s background in biomedical engineering allowed him to think beyond traditional medicine. Drawing from his expertise in MRI technology, which uses pulsed radio waves to create images of the body, he saw a potential breakthrough “What if similar waves could be used to clean the air?” he wondered.
Inspired by how nature clears pollutants by allowing particles to combine and settle to the ground, he worked on a device that could accelerate this process using pulsed radio waves.
“We had a 10-year head start,” he explained. “I started the process in 2008, and in 2018, Devic Earth and our technology, Pure Skies, was made available to the world.”
How Pure Skies works
Unlike traditional air purifiers that filter air in small indoor spaces, Pure Skies can improve air quality across vast outdoor and indoor areas using AI-driven pulsed radio waves.
“Dust particles have positive and negative charges, just like magnets. They collide, attracted by those magnetic forces, become larger in size, and because they’re heavier, they fall to the ground. Pure Skies speeds up this process,” explains Dr. Sola, and the results are impressive.
“Our customers see air pollution reduce by more than half across their sites, and because their employees are breathing cleaner air, sick leaves reduce, and productivity goes up. That makes great business sense,” adds the cardiologist turned environment tech entrepreneur.
Climate solutions
With Devic Earth making a tangible impact, the company has expanded beyond air pollution with Pure Water, a product targeting water purification.
“We’re also researching how to affect carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas responsible for climate change,” he shared in an interview.
The company has targeted global expansion, including the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the United States. “Because I grew up in the United States, and it is the biggest market for us,” the entrepreneur remarked.
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Reinventing the world, one breath at a time
Despite the challenges of introducing a new technology, Dr. Sola remains steadfast in his mission.
“If you want to reinvent the world, you have to start by reinventing yourself,” says the spiritual tech entrepreneur.
With Devic Earth, he is doing just that—transforming how industries, businesses, and communities think about clean air. More than just an entrepreneur, he is a climate crusader, proving that innovation, science, and a desire to make a difference can change lives.
“Whether in a factory, an office, or even a Swamiji’s satsang in the Himalayas, wherever people breathe, there is a need for clean air,” says Dr. Sola, who has made it his mission to provide it.
His journey from an Indian child growing up in the U.S. to an acclaimed cardiologist and ultimately, a man of service in India reflects a blend of scientific excellence, spiritual fulfillment, and environmental innovation. For Dr. Sola, the pursuit of knowledge and healing has always been accompanied by a profound awareness of the divine in every aspect of life.
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