Fire Without Smoke: How Neha Juneja Is Changing the Lives of Millions of Rural Women

In millions of rural kitchens across India, a silent killer has lingered for generations—smoke from traditional cooking stoves that seeps into lungs with every meal prepared. But Neha Juneja, a Delhi-based engineer and entrepreneur, chose not to look away. Instead, she reimagined the hearth itself, creating a revolution that's transforming lives one kitchen at a time.

Neha Juneja's awakening came during a research trip while studying at the Indian School of Business. Sitting beside a woman cooking in a smoke-filled kitchen, eyes watering and coughing uncontrollably, she asked herself: "How do millions of women endure this every single day?" That moment of empathy sparked what would become Greenway Appliances—a social enterprise focused on clean cooking solutions.

What makes Neha Juneja's approach revolutionary isn't just the technology—it's the empathy-led design process. Instead of creating solutions from boardrooms, she and her team lived in villages, observing how women cook and understanding their real needs. The result? The Greenway Smart Stove reduces smoke emissions by 70%, consumes 65% less fuel, and respects existing cooking habits without demanding radical lifestyle changes.

Today, Greenway has reached over 1.5 million households across India and Africa. Each stove installation means fewer trees cut, fewer hours spent collecting firewood, fewer respiratory health issues, and safer lives for rural women.

Perhaps the most brilliant aspect of Neha Juneja's model is how it creates economic opportunities alongside health benefits. Greenway stoves are sold through local women entrepreneurs, generating income while building trust within communities. This approach transforms customers into stakeholders, creating sustainable change that goes far beyond the product itself.

For young entrepreneurs watching this space, Neha's journey offers a powerful lesson: the most impactful innovations often address the most basic human needs. While the startup world chases AI and smart cities, she focused on humanity's oldest technology—fire—and found a way to make it cleaner, safer, and more accessible.

Her work proves that real disruption doesn't always require complex technology; sometimes it requires deep listening, genuine empathy, and the courage to solve problems that others have accepted as unchangeable.