What Does it Take to Clean up India’s Air?

Two years ago, I co-published an article outlining the deep-seated causes behind the climate catastrophe with the most protracted effects on mortality across South Asia.^[1] [2] In short, the causes are a combination of bureaucratic inertia at the state and local government level along with entrenched industry practices like the systematic burning of agricultural waste that has garnered the most attention. This is compounded by a lack of cross-jurisdictional coordination—as particulate matter does not discriminate across boundaries—and of political will to combat this problem.

Two years later, all the issues we outlined are as pressing as ever. After a brief overview of air quality trends over the past five years, I will pull from the framework we developed to re-assess what actions bureaucrats, industries, and civil society should take to collectively mitigate this persistent climate catastrophe. In particular, I will argue that:

• • Adaptive, low-cost, incentive-driven industrial reforms have shown dramatic success but remain underutilized compared to reactive, stop-gap policies.

• • Bureaucratic inertia remains a sticky problem whereby state and municipal authorities lack capacity to act on pollution mitigation due to fundamental governance design flaws like administrative silos, political-bureaucratic tensions, and manpower constraints.

• • Sustained citizen pressure is at the cornerstone of any viable solution, capable of transforming air quality into a topmost political priority and forcing systemic reform.

The State of India’s Air

October usually marks the start of the pollution season in the capital region, when AQI readings start to climb into the “poor” (AQI-US: 100–150) and “unhealthy” (AQI-US: 150–200) range. 2025 has been no exception. In fact, after a Supreme Court approval of “green” firecrackers with restrictions on bursting hours,^[3] pollution hit a 5 year record peak on October 21, 2025, at the height of Diwali festivities. This marks one of the most polluted festive seasons on record.^[4] The atmospheric concentration of PM_2.5, the most toxic type of particulate matter, post-Diwali stood at 488 µg/m³, compared to 156.6 µg/m³ before the festival. For reference, India’s national ambient PM_2.5 standard is at 40 µg/m³, and the WHO’s guideline stands at 15 µg/m³ in a 24 hour average exposure.

 Figure 1. Air Quality Index in October, 2025, New Delhi. 
Source: October Air Quality Analysis, AQI.in, accessed October 29, 2025,
https://www.aqi.in/dashboard/india/delhi/new-delhi/historical-analysis.

Experts attribute this record spike to unfavourable meteorological conditions including an unusually poor atmospheric distribution of smoke, colder temperatures, and a lack of quality checks on the newly distributed firecrackers.^[5] The experimental measure of introducing eco-friendly firecrackers—that reportedly are only 70 percent as polluting as regular firecrackers—clearly failed at improving air quality. Although these green firecrackers have been developed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in India’s National Environmental Engineering Research Institute,^[6] there is limited evidence on the extent to which they are safer or less polluting.^[7] 

According to the 2025 Air Quality Life Index report published by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), pollution has declined by 10.7 percent between 2017 and 2023 in non-attainment cities—cities designated by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for failing to meet national air quality standards. In practice, this translates to six additional months of life expectancy for 445.5 million residents.^[8]

Any downward trend in air pollution is indeed good news. However, it is sobering to compare what has effectively amounted to an annual 5.8 µg/m³ reduction to the 21.9 µg/m³ yearly reduction required to meet the National Clean Air Program’s (NCAP) stated goal of cutting pollution by 40 percent by 2026. Furthermore, the gains in air quality have been mixed with India’s more industrialized and populated cities trudging slower than tier 2 and tier 3 cities—and in some cases faring worse.^[9] Navi Mumbai has in fact experienced a 47 percent increase in PM_2.5 pollution in this time frame.

Who or What is Responsible?

Blame dominates media discussions along with public and political discourse—whether it be blaming farmers for burning stubble or families for celebrating Diwali—even as air pollution continues to breach metrics for unhealthy and even hazardous levels well after the festive season and before the agricultural harvesting season. 

The main sources or drivers of pollution vary widely by region, season, and the degree of urbanization. According to a 2021 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), residential biofuel comprises the largest source of PM_2.5 pollution (e.g. burning wood or biomass for cooking or heating) particularly in rural areas.^[10] In larger cities or industrialized regions, local sources of pollution are largely attributed to dust (although this contributes a greater share of PM₁₀ than PM_2.5 pollution) and industrial emissions  from construction, manufacturing, and coal-based power generation.^[11] But even these estimates come with sizable margins of error, with CEEW’s reporting relative standard deviations of pollutants as high as 37 percent.

Solutions

The causes of air pollution are multiple and overlapping, thereby calling for feasible solutions that are equally systemic and responsive to bad air all 365 days a year and not just when conditions are at their worst. Solving this crisis requires moving beyond reactive measures which respond to pollution only after it spikes and focus on short-term symptom control rather than long-term source reduction. Measures likefirecracker bans, cloud seeding experiments,^[12] and blanket bans on stubble burning all fall into this category.^[13] They are politically convenient, but costly to enforce, and ultimately ineffective in changing the entrenched behaviors that drive high emissions. Such measures keep the public placated—until they don’t, especially as each has either failed outright or, at best, proved too costly for the marginal benefits they provided.

The good news is that South Asia already has several success stories utilizing adaptive measures to reduce carbon emissions. The gradual transformation of brick kilns is one of them—whereby relatively simple tweaks to design and operations (such as switching to zig-zag brick-stacking and better airflow) have turned highly polluting units into substantially cleaner ones without requiring prohibitively expensive foreign technologies. Punjab, which manufactures around 8 percent of India’s bricks, has transitioned the majority of its kilns to “induced-draft”/zig-zag designs, achieving emission cuts of around 70 percent.^[14] Similar progress has been reported in Rajasthan and Bihar in recent years.^[15] [16]

Figure 2. Zig-Zag Brick Stacking.
Photo by Greentech Knowledge Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (GKSPL)
Source: WRI India, “Breaking the Mold: Transforming Bihar’s Brick Kilns,” accessed December 20, 2025,

https://wri-india.org/perspectives/breaking-mold-transforming-bihars-brick-kilns

In one of the most rigorous analyses of industrial carbon emissions in South Asia, researchers from Boston, Stanford, Dhaka, Washington D.C, and New Delhi found that simple operational adjustments—fuel-feeding patterns, brick-stacking, and insulation—in brick kilns in Bangladesh  reduced energy use by 23 percent, CO₂ emissions by 20 percent, and PM_2.5 emissions by 20 percent.^[17] Empirical evidence also shows that such low-cost, minimal-manpower interventions can have outsized effects, yielding benefits up to 65 times greater than their costs. Perhaps most strikingly, uptake of these adjustments was both rapid and sustained, even spilling over to kilns that did not receive any such formal intervention.

A key factor behind this success was the deep involvement of kiln operators through training, capacity-building, and a clear demonstration of the increased cost savings and improved brick quality resulting from these adjustments. By contrast, India’s traditional reliance on punitive regulation—applied for decades—has shown little consistent impact on ground-level emissions.^[18] 

Appropriately incentivizing cleaner practices goes a much longer way in a manufacturing and production ecosystem that is still largely informal than punitive measures ever could. Such design tweaks—coupled with buy-in from the very industry actors that pollute due to knowledge and capacity gaps (real or perceived)—are exactly what is needed to address the sticky problem of industrial emissions. Given that informal industries often fall off regulatory radars, a strategy built on bridging knowledge and cost barriers is inherently more scalable than punitive measures requiring abundant state capacity. Similar approaches should be explored and applied to other polluting industries like cement, steel, and chemicals.

Bureaucratic Inertia

As with most development challenges plaguing the subcontinent, a core obstacle lies in weak regulatory enforcement capacity. This may take the form of chronic staffing shortages, a knowledge or ability gap, a lack of cross-jurisdictional or cross-departmental coordination, or an unwillingness to act.

India’s central and state pollution control boards (CPCB and SPCBs) are mandated to monitor and enforce air, water, and noise pollution standards. Despite a supreme court order to fill impending vacancies at SPCBs,^[19] nearly half of sanctioned posts remain vacant even amongst the states most impacted by pollution.^[20] Reasons cited for these vacancies include pending government approvals, reliance on contractual staff, or simply an absence of eligible candidates. (It is important to note here that Indian government positions, including state government positions, are filled through a centrally-administered cadre system.)

This undermines more complex tasks like coordination across jurisdictions to address pollution at the airshed level or with local governments tasked with implementing the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Urban local bodies (ULBs) mirror these structural flaws  with their  severe staff shortages and overreliance on contract workers. Furthermore, there are overlapping mandates between elected ward councillors and state-appointed bureaucratic officials. The administrative heads of ULBs (e.g. the Municipal Commissioner) are often appointed from the central bureaucratic cadre. While ward councillors are politically accountable and in theory can act as watchdogs for air quality and environmental management, real administrative power often rests with state-controlled bureaucracies, rendering ULBs largely toothless.

While ward councillors are tasked with registering complaints about pollution (e.g. open waste burning or construction dust), they often lack authority or budgetary control, making it difficult to enforce penalties or implement mitigation measures.^[21] These functions typically rest with state-level departments or centrally appointed municipal commissioners, leading to severely delayed action at best. A report by the Praja Foundation found that despite increasing citizen complaints in the National Capital Region (NCR), the number of issues raised in Ward Committees decreased nearly 5 fold between the last two ward terms.^[22] 

As discussed above, adaptive industrial mitigation—like the successful transformation of brick kilns—shows that private and non-governmental actors can be deployed for training and technical know-how, and that there’s a proven spillover effect. Otherwise, without a fundamental redesign of local governance to break down silos and clarify the respective roles of political and bureaucratic authorities, hindrances to solving India’s air pollution crisis will remain.

The Key Ingredient: Political Will

In our previous article, my co-author and I argued that a lack of popular demand for cleaner air was a root cause of the subcontinent’s most pressing climatic and health emergency. This also undergirds bureaucratic inertia. Air pollution has not till date been a political priority, with proactive mitigation strategies largely being absent from any Indian political party’s manifesto.^[23] To build political will requires a public that firstly, is aware of the problem and its impact on their daily lives, and secondly, cares about it enough to push for change.

There are clear and compelling signals that the status quo of civic apathy has ruptured. The surge in air-purifier sales (especially in the luxury segment) is only one indicator.^[24] On November 9, 2025, hundreds of New Delhi residents gathered to protest government ineptitude in confronting this crisis in a rare mobilization spearheaded by doctors, students, and parents, amongst others.^[25] The anger is even more palpable on social media, not just over air pollution, but also over broader topics around environmental degradation like street littering, flooding, and public urination, especially in light of the Swachh Bharat campaign’s sweeping promises.^[26]

In response, the Delhi government invoked Stage III of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP)—the most stringent tier—from November 11–27, 2025,  triggering school closures, construction halts, and other reactive measures.^[27] But will this be enough to quell the inevitable outrage when the next pollution season hits? And more importantly, could these early protests snowball into broader, more ambitious demands for reform  catalyzing a nationwide overhaul of air, water, and land quality similar to the transformations seen in the United States and China?

In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States was not in a dissimilar environmental predicament. A string of environmental disasters—from major oil spills to exposés on toxic pesticides to mounting premature deaths from air pollution in Los Angeles, then among the world’s most polluted cities—catalyzed one of the most formative environmental revolutions in modern history.^[28] The first Earth Day, which mobilized roughly 10 percent of the U.S. population, directly led to revolutionary advancements like the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, as well as sweeping regulatory and legislative reforms to clean America’s air and water and protect its wildlife.

India’s current anti-pollution demonstrations share echoes of that early period in the U.S. Their initial mobilization attempts also fizzled out because environmental protection was not yet a politicized issue. It took a series of decentralized, community-driven actions—sit-ins, organized clean-ups, youth-led marches—amplified by sustained national media coverage, to ignite the broad-based Earth Day movement. A similar pattern is emerging in India. Civic initiatives are proliferating across cities, from Bengaluru to Gurugram, resulting in clean-up drives and influencer discourse—often heated and passionate.^[29] [30] Social media may well serve as the connective tissue unifying these disparate efforts—which otherwise risk fragmenting along regional, rural-urban, and class lines—into a movement that defies partisan capture in unprecedentedly polarized times. The Earth Day movement in the U.S. benefited from a national media that broadcast and legitimized its demands. But in India, much of the recent national and international headline coverage of the protests has focused on the detainment and arrest of protestors—risking deeper civic apathy, or worse, extinguishing nascent public hope for change.^[31] This does an active disservice to a movement that shows immense promise to transform into a unified national civic mobilization against environmental degradation.

The good news is that perfect democratic conditions are not a prerequisite for environmental transformation. China offers a powerful precedent catalyzed by the release of an independent journalist’s documentary in 2015 titled “Under the Dome”, which served as a searing exposé on the country’s pollution and health crisis. This sparked outrage amongst China’s urban middle class in ways strikingly similar to India’s present moment. At the time, China’s smog was even worse than India’s today with several cities reaching AQI levels 40–50 times the WHO limit. Though the film was swiftly censored, it had already gone viral across Chinese social media triggering national outrage. Within months, the government enacted sweeping reforms: revisions to the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law (2015), the shutdown of thousands of coal-fired boilers, strengthened vehicle-emissions inspections, new penalties for local officials who falsified data, and most notably, the crackdown on state-owned enterprise polluters that were long considered untouchable.

India is primed for a similar environmental transformation that the U.S. and China—its counterparts in population and global economic presence—already experienced. This is not merely an optimistic statement, but one of possibility that recognizes clean air’s deep intersectionality and potential to defy capture and fragmentation across partisan lines. Success hinges on a three-fold path involving institutional clarity, industrial transformation through adaptation over punitive or reactive measures, and—most importantly—a deep dose of political will. 

Ultimately, the future of India’s air—and the lifespans of its citizens—will be decided not by court orders or momentary outrage, but by whether citizens choose to demand better air year-round, and not just when the air chokes. 

 

Notes

1. Angelica Zocchi and Kartik Saboo, “India’s National Clean Air Programme hasn’t curbed pollution. It needs Swachh Bharat-like push,” The Print, February 10, 2024.

   https://theprint.in/opinion/indias-national-clean-air-programme-hasnt-curbed-pollution-it-needs-swachh-bharat-like-push/1961694/.

2. Energy and Policy Institute at The University of Chicago (EPIC), “India,” Air Quality Life Index (AQLI), accessed December 20, 2025

   https://aqli.epic.uchicago.edu/countryPage/india .

3. Namratha Banerjee, “Delhi Pollution Crisis | SC allows limited sale and use of green firecrackers in NCR from 18–21 Oct,” Supreme Court Observer, October 15, 2025

   https://www.scobserver.in/journal/delhi-pollution-crisis-sc-allows-limited-sale-and-use-of-green-firecrackers-in-ncr-from-18-21-oct/ .

4. “Firecrackers Caused Pollution to Spike Three-fold this Diwali: Report,” Carbon Copy, October 28, 2025.

   https://carboncopy.info/firecrackers-caused-pollution-to-spike-three-fold-this-diwali-report/ .

5. Ibid.
6. CSIR- National Environmental Research Institute, “Green Crackers,” accessed December 20, 2025.

   https://www.neeri.res.in/contents/details/green-crackers .

7. Shailendra Kumar Yadav, Rajeev Kumar Mishra, Bhola Ram Gurjar, “Ultrafine particle number concentration and its size distribution during Diwali festival in megacity Delhi, India: Are ‘green crackers’ safe?,” Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 317, September 1, 2022.

   https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301479722010325 .

8. Michael Greenstone et al., “Annual Update,” Air Quality Index, 2025.

   https://epic.uchicago.in/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Report-English-India-View.pdf .

9. Jayanta Basu, “National Clean Air Programme missed 2024 target to push back pollution, study shows,” Down To Earth, January 12, 2024.

   https://www.downtoearth.org.in/pollution/national-clean-air-programme-missed-2024-target-to-push-back-pollution-study-shows-93848 .

10. Tanushree Ganguly, Adeel Khan, Kartik Ganesan,”What is Polluting India’s Air?,” Clean Air Fund, October 2021.

    https://www.ceew.in/sites/default/files/ceew-study-on-causes-of-air-pollution-in-India-and-need-for-national-emissions-database.pdf .

11. Sarath K. Guttikunda, Rahul Goel, Pallavi Pant, “Nature of air pollution, emission sources, and management in the Indian cities,” Atmospheric Environment, Volume 95, October, 2014.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1352231014005275?via%3Dihub .

12. Mohana Basu, “Why India’s controversial ‘cloud seeding’ trial failed to make it rain,” Nature, 31 October, 2025.

    https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03555-x .

13. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, “India’s crop burning ban initially reduced illegal fires by 30%, research finds,” August 6, 2025, Press release.

    https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/news/indias-crop-burning-ban-initially-reduced-illegal-fires-by-30-research-finds/ .

14. Kanchan Vasdev, “New technology at brick kilns help Punjab’s fight against pollution: 70% cut in emissions,” The Indian Express, October 20, 2019.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/india/new-technology-at-brick-kilns-helps-punjabs-fight-against-pollution-70-cut-in-emissions-6078236/ .

15. Shreya Verma, “Green signal: 90% brick kilns in Alwar adopted clean tech,” Down To Earth, March 5, 2024.

    https://www.downtoearth.org.in/pollution/green-signal-90-brick-kilns-in-alwar-adopted-clean-tech-94818 .

16. Niyati Gupta, Steffi Olickal, Faiza Solanki, Isha Verma, “Breaking the Mold: Transforming Bihar’s Brick Kilns,” WRI India, December 23, 2024.

    https://wri-india.org/perspectives/breaking-mold-transforming-bihars-brick-kilns .

17. Nina Brooks et al, “Reducing emissions and air pollution from informal brick kilns: Evidence from Bangladesh,” Science, Volume 388, Issue 6747, May 8, 2025.

    https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adr7394 .

18. Ashwini Sankar, Jay S. Coggins, Andrew Goodkind, “Effectiveness of air pollution standards in reducing mortality in India,” Resource and Energy Economics, Volume 62, November, 2020.

    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S092876551930452X .

19. Office Report, In Re: Filling of Vacant Posts in the State Pollution Control Boards and Pollution Control Committees, Suo Motu Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 1 of 2025, (SC 2025).

    https://api.sci.gov.in/officereport/2025/27641/27641_2025_2025-05-19.pdf. .

20. Nikhil Ganekar, “46% posts in pollution control boards vacant, states and UTs miss NGT deadline to fill these”, The Indian Express, May 25, 2025.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/india/posts-pollution-boards-vacant-states-uts-miss-ngt-deadline-10026368/ .

21. Damini Nath, “Audit covering 2015 to 2020: Urban bodies lack in power, resources, finds CAG,” The Indian Express, August 14, 2024.

    https://indianexpress.com/article/india/audit-urban-bodies-power-resources-cag-9513192/ .

22. Praja Foundation, “Report on The Status of Civic Issues in Delhi,” June, 2023.

    https://www.praja.org/praja_docs/praja_downloads/Report%20on%20The%20Status%20of%20Civic%20Issues%20in%20Delhi%202023.pdf .

23. Aruna Chandrashekar, “India election 2024: What the manifestos say on energy and climate change,” April 18, 2024.

    https://www.carbonbrief.org/india-election-2024-what-the-manifestos-say-on-energy-and-climate-change/ .

24. “Air purifier sales up as NCR reels under severe air pollution,” The Economic Times, October 29, 2025.

    https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/durables/air-purifier-sales-up-as-ncr-reels-under-severe-air-pollution/articleshow/124https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/cons-products/durables/air-purifier-sales-up-as-ncr-reels-under-severe-air-pollution/articleshow/124898600.cms .

25. Esha Mitra, Aishwarya S Iyer, “Lethal smog is back in the world’s most polluted capital. Residents have had enough,” CNN, November 24, 2025.

    https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/23/india/india-delhi-smog-protests-challenges-intl-hnk-dst .

26. “’We often blame…’: Nithin Kamath’s viral civic sense video ignites debate on India’s behaviour crisis,” Business Today, July 27, 2025.

    https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/trends/story/we-often-blame-nithin-kamaths-viral-civic-sense-video-ignites-debate-on-indias-behaviour-crisis-486505-2025-07-27 .

27. “GRAP Stage III curbs lifted as Delhi air quality shows slight improvement,” The Hindu, November 27, 2025.

    https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/grapstageiiicurbs-lifted-as-delhi-air-quality-showsslight-improvement/article70327238.ece .

28. Chloe Williment, “The History of Earth Day: Driving Environmental Change,” Sustainability Magazine, April 17, 2025.

    https://sustainabilitymag.com/articles/the-history-of-earth-day-driving-environmental-change .

29. “Bengaluru official’s video with Canadian vlogger after road cleanup sparks outrage,” India Today, September 15, 2025.

    https://www.indiatoday.in/trending-news/story/bengaluru-official-pr-video-canadian-vlogger-caleb-friesen-road-cleanup-sparks-outrage-bbmp-majestic-footpath-2787435-2025-09-15 .

30. “‘One Day One Street’: Serbian man takes up challenge ahead of independence day; sweeps Gurugram roads,” The Times of India, August 14, 2025.

    https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/one-day-one-street-serbian-man-takes-up-challenge-ahead-of-independence-day-sweeps-gurugram-roads/articleshow/123299920.cms .

31. “New Delhi police detain dozens in anti-pollution protests,” Reuters, November 10 2025.

    https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/new-delhi-police-detain-dozens-anti-pollution-protests-2025-11-10/ .

Angelica P. Zocchi is a public policy and international development professional whose work focuses on environmental governance, urban development, Indian politics and macroeconomics, and state capacity in emerging markets. She has previously worked as a geopolitical risk consultant and as a policy advisor for national and sub-national governments across the United States, India, and West Africa. She holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, where she served as a Fellow at the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflict.