The Indian government has finally acknowledged that air quality is an issue. But no one was waiting for governmental acknowledgement to realize that India has a huge problem. The issue of air pollution is affecting the people everyday through sickness, and higher mortality rates. The sky is always gray in Indian cities, and you can look directly at the sun during sunrise without having to worry about being blinded. The government released a draft of the National Clean Air Program (NCAP), outlining how they plan to tackle this problem.
This is essentially the first action being taken on the issue, so you would think that it would be a comprehensive one. But, it has no targets for cities, or region wide milestones. Further, there don't seem to be any disincentives for state governments to ignore the asks of the plan. The main actions of the plan are to increase the number of air quality monitoring stations. The current number is 691, and the plan increases that to 1000, with a focus on rural areas. While this is a good start, adding more monitoring stations will not solve the problem. More PM2.5 measurements will only help reduce error bars, not change what the overall data says.
This is a toothless plan that will have no real affect on the air quality in India. Even more so than the U.S., states are very independent in India. Without any clear punishments or sanctions, the states will not adhere to the plans. While it is true that in a growing economy, there should be a looser leash on air quality. But the level in India is well past that stage, and change needs to be made now
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