India’s Clean Air Blind Spot

India ranks fifth-highest in air pollution levels in the world. 2.1 million people die because of air pollution in India every year. This also significantly impacts India’s economy.

The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is an initiative by the Indian Government that aimed to reduce particulate matter pollution by 30 per cent by 2024, which was later revised to 40 per cent by 2026. This programme has led to the development of the National Air Quality Framework in the country. Another important step taken was the performance-linked funding strategy for air quality management. Furthermore, Swachh Vayu Survekshan (SVS) was launched, parallelly, which aimed to rank cities based on measures taken by them for reducing air pollution. Thus, NCAP has laid the foundation of national air quality management.

Identified Gaps and Limitations

As of 2024, 1524 air quality monitoring stations were operational across 550 cities in 28 states and 7 Union Territories. This is significant progress compared to previous years. However, the target was to reach 1500 manual stations by 2024, which is still far from being achieved, with a shortfall of 534 stations. Still, nearly 47 per cent of the country’s population remains outside the maximum radius of the air quality monitoring grid, while 62 per cent is outside that of the real-time monitoring network.

Furthermore, currently, the air quality improvement benchmarking under NCAP primarily relies on the trends in PM 10 levels. Most of the funds have gone to dust control, while other major sources of air pollution, like transport, industrial pollution, and waste management, have not received enough attention.

Adding to this issue further, sectors backed by National Missions like Swachh Bharat Mission 2.0 or FAME–II for electric vehicles tend to present faster progress as they have clear budgets, timelines and reporting structures. But PM 2.5 sources, such as small industries, household energy use, mobility planning, and industrial emissions, depend on routine budgets or mandates that are ill-defined.

City-level plans and evaluations also track actions rather than outcomes, rewarding tasks like road sweeping, water sprinkling and construction site checks. The Delhi Air Pollution Mitigation Plan 2025 showcases this imbalance by prioritising dust control measures, while just outlining actions across transport, waste and diesel generator sets. The NCAP framework thus needs to be strengthened to address these gaps.

The Way Forward

Cities should be judged primarily on PM2.5 reduction, and their funding should be linked to such outcomes. Future resources should be concentrated on source sectors such as industry, transport, and cooking fuels, while air-quality monitoring should be scaled up, particularly in smaller cities and hotspots. States need clear goals, stronger action plans, and better institutions, such as dedicated air-pollution cells. Coordination at the state level, along with universal data collection, is also imperative to track actual impact. India has only just managed to lay a strong foundation for cleaner air, and focusing on PM2.5, better data, regional cooperation, and stronger institutions can lead to sustained and measurable pollution reduction.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is a Gold Medalist in MSW with a background in Law and experience in CSR program implementation