As per the report of The State of Global Air 2020

• India recorded the highest annual average PM 2.5 concentration exposure in the world in 2019
• The country has had the worst levels of PM 2.5 levels in the world for the last decade.
• This runaway pollution is leading to a deleterious impact on the health of the people. In 2019, over 116,000 infants in India died within a month after birth due to exposure to severe air pollution, the report said.
• India was followed by Nepal, Niger, Qatar and Nigeria in high PM 2.5 exposures. This means people in India are exposed to the highest PM 2.5 concentrations globally.
• India is also among the top ten countries with highest ozone (O3) exposure in 2019. Qatar recorded the highest O3 exposure followed by Nepal and India.
• On the  bright side  India though  has managed to reduce the number of people exposed to household air pollution; India reduced its percentage from 73% to 61% over the decade.
• The report also suggested that long-term exposure to outdoor and household air pollution contributed to over 1.67 million annual deaths from stroke, heart attack, diabetes, lung cancer, chronic lung diseases, and neonatal diseases in India in 2019.

National Clean Air Programme (NCAP)

It  is a  time bound national level strategy for pan India implementation to tackle the increasing air pollution problem across the country in a comprehensive manner .

• It is a five-year action plan to tackle pollution across the country.
• Collaborative and participatory approach involving relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, local bodies and other Stakeholders with focus on all sources of pollution forms the crux of the Programme.
• Overall objective of the NCAP is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity building activities.
• The tentative national level target of 20%–30% reduction of PM2.5 and PM10 concentration by 2024 is proposed under the NCAP taking 2017 as the base year for the comparison of concentration.
• Other features of NCAP include, increasing number of monitoring stations in the country including rural monitoring stations, technology support, emphasis on awareness and capacity building initiatives, setting up of certification agencies for monitoring equipment, source apportionment studies, emphasis on enforcement, specific sectoral interventions etc.

                                                    LEARNING WITH TIMES

PM2.5 means particulate matter in the air – caused by motor exhaust or anything combustible – that is less than 2.5 micrometers.

WHO’s air quality guidelines state that by reducing particulate matter (PM10) from 70 to 20 micrograms per cubic metre, air pollution-related deaths could be reduced by roughly 15 per cent. WHO safe limits for annual mean of PM 2.5 and PM 10 levels are 10 and 20 micrograms per cubic meter.

            Airborne particles are sometimes referred to as ‘particulate matter’ or ‘PM’. They include dust, dirt, soot, smoke, and liquid droplets. Some particles are emitted directly into the air from a variety of sources that are either natural or related to human activity. Natural sources include bushfires, dust storms, pollens and sea spray.

          Those related to human activity include motor vehicle emissions, industrial processes (eg electricity generation, incinerators and stone crushing), unpaved roads and woodheaters.

                Particles can be classified on the basis of their size, referred to as their ‘aerodynamic diameter’. ‘Coarse particles’ are those between 10 and 2.5micrometres (µm) in diameter; ‘fine particles’ are smaller than 2.5 µm;and ‘ultrafine particles’ are smaller than 0.1 µm. Studies have linked exposure to particle pollution to a number of health problems including respiratory illnesses (such as asthma and bronchitis) and cardiovascular disease.

                              INDIA’S STANDARD FOR LEVEL OF POLLUTION

India has set standards for what it thinks are appropriate warnings for a particular level of pollutant. AQI help in comparing pollution levels at a glance with a colour code and a numerical value. In India, AQIs are determined based on the concentrations of seven pollutants, including PM2.5 (fine, respirable particles), sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO).There are six AQI categories, namely: Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very poor and Severe.

                   India has also  introduction of BS-VI emission standards.