Does India value how its people breathe?

Air pollution is no longer a seasonal problem in this country. University of Chicago‘s 2023 Air Quality Life Index report released this week reveals the disturbing fact that fine-particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is estimated to shorten an average Indian’s life expectancy by 5.3 years. In Delhi, it’s by a staggering 11.9 years. If this is meant to shock us into action, that’s good. Air pollution isn’t a ‘third world problem’ any more to be taken into stride by we’re-used-to-this fatalists. As the report adds, air pollution reduces the lifespan of Western Europeans by 5.3 months. It’s just a question of which kind of society gets more agitated to action. Indeed, it is a measure of how a country values the lives of their own people by placing air pollution mitigation at the top of its agenda.

Then there’s the issue that makes the ‘right people’ sit up: money. Inferior air quality is a significant hurdle to India becoming a developed economy by 2047. A 2019 Lancet study put the lost output from premature death and morbidity at $36.8 billion. A 2021 analysis by Dalberg Advisors found that pollution-related absenteeism, productivity loss, and reduced consumer and tourist spending cost Indian businesses $95 billion annually, roughly 3% of its GDP. The cost equals 50% of all annual taxes, or 150% of India’s healthcare budget. Airborne pollutants result in 5-12% estimated losses in agricultural yield. India’s RE gains could also be imperilled, with pollution affecting solar productivity.

Since 2013, 59.1% of the world’s spike in pollution has come from India, with the main drivers being increased industrial activity, material resource use, energy consumption, expansion in vehicular traffic and an exponential increase in construction activities. Strong regulation and use of alternatives can ensure that air pollution is not an inevitable development cost. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) needs to be turbocharged to reduce particulate pollution by 40% by 2026. For a first-world wannabe, the equation is as simple as that.