• Director General Office

IHC Samanvay 2026 Returns with THIS BLESSED LAND | YEH DHARTI APNI

Keynote Address by Sunita Narain The 2026 edition will feature a keynote address by Sunita Narain, whose work has consistently foregrounded the relationship between ecology, policy, and social justice. Her address is expected to frame the larger conversations around environmental responsibility and cultural continuity. A Celebration of India’s Sacred Landscapes IHC Samanvay returns in 2026 with THIS BLESSED LAND | YEH DHARTI APNI, a multi-day cultural and intellectual gathering that celebrates the deep, shared continuum between people and place. The programme reflects on India’s sacred landscapes—its mountains, forests, deserts, rivers, and coastlines—and the living cultures and communities they continue to sustain. Journeying Through Land, Memory, and Culture Scheduled between February 6 and 8, IHC Samanvay 2026 unfolds as a journey through diverse ecological and cultural terrains. Through films, conversations, music, and moments of collective reflection, the programme explores how landscapes shape memory, identity, and ways of life across the subcontinent. Keynote Address by Sunita Narain The 2026 edition will feature a keynote address by Sunita Narain, whose work has consistently foregrounded the relationship between ecology, policy, and social justice. Her address is expected to frame the larger conversations around environmental responsibility and cultural continuity. Voices from Across Disciplines IHC Samanvay 2026 brings together an eminent group of speakers and thinkers from literature, conservation, public policy, and cultural studies. The speakers include Mike Pandey, Vivek Menon, Namita Gokhale, Navtej Sarna, Stephen Alter, William Dalrymple, Mamang Dai, Ilse Köhler-Rollefson, Milan Moudgil, Abhishek Srivastava, Dr. Sunita Reddy, Neha Sinha, among others. Conversations Rooted in Ecology and Belonging Through dialogue and artistic engagement, the programme foregrounds the idea of land not merely as geography, but as a living archive of stories, livelihoods, and belief systems. IHC Samanvay positions ecology and culture as inseparable—encouraging audiences to reflect on belonging, stewardship, and shared futures. Hosted at India Habitat Centre The event is hosted at the India Habitat Centre, a long-standing platform for interdisciplinary cultural and intellectual exchange. IHC Samanvay continues the centre’s legacy of fostering dialogue on issues that intersect environment, society, and the arts.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Borderline Crisis: 55% Of Green Fund Unused

New Delhi: More than half of the funds received by Delhi govt to fight against polluting activities remain unused, shows govt data. Out of Rs 1,753.2 crore of Environment Compensation Charge (ECC) collected till Dec 4 last year, govt has spent only Rs 781.4 crore while the remaining Rs 971.8 crore — 55.4% — is lying unused. ECC is collected on the orders of Supreme Court at Delhi's border points to discourage the entry of commercial vehicles not destined for the city to reduce vehicular pollution. Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) recently recommended to Supreme Court that ECC and MCD toll charges should be revised as some commercial vehicles prefer passing through Delhi because it is cheaper and more convenient than using the eastern or western peripheral expressways. While the toll charge of Municipal Corporation of Delhi has not been revised for a long time, CAQM said in its affidavit that ECC had also not been modified since 2015. "Given the tendency of commercial vehicles to pass through Delhi to travel shorter distances and avoid higher tolls on the eastern and western peripheral expressways, a review and rationalisation of toll and ECC rates is suggested to restore their deterrent effect," stated CAQM. For example, if an empty two-axel truck enters the city, it will pay Rs 700, including MCD toll and ECC, but it will pay Rs 1,005 for Eastern Peripheral Expressway or Rs 945 for Western Peripheral Expressway. This truck will also save fuel as it will cover a shorter distance within the city. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said, "Rates should be revised regularly to ensure that passing through Delhi is more expensive than using the peripheral expressways. Authorities should also strengthen surveillance at all entry points, make real-time data on incoming vehicles publicly available and revise collection rates so that commercial vehicles pay higher charges for entering Delhi." Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at thinktank Envirocatalysts, said, "Such vehicles add to the pollution load, especially during the winter season when Delhi's AQI is mostly above 300. ECC and MCD toll charges should be revised to discourage them from entering the capital." CAQM also emphasised that the imposition of ECC must continue uninterrupted. Regarding the proposal to suspend ECC along with the toll collection until the multi-lane free flow system is installed and operationalised, CAQM told the apex court that it might encourage diversion of non-destined commercial traffic through Delhi, aggravating congestion and pollution. It recommended that MCD should ensure the installation and full operationalisation of the barrier-free multi-lane system, integrated with RFID and automatic number plate recognition, at all 126 toll points by Oct 2026 to avoid vehicular stoppage and reduce congestion at the border entry points. Govt data shows that in Dec 2025, 37.6 lakh vehicles paid toll at the MCD toll plazas, out of which 36.9 lakh vehicles paid through RFID and 70,602 in cash. Besides, 69,465 vehicles had mont-hly passes issued by MCD. In the same month, 1.2 lakh vehicles paid ECC at 126 toll plazas. On average, 1.2 lakh vehicles pay toll at the MCD toll plazas while 3,864 pay ECC daily. MCD earns around Rs 865 crore annually through the toll. Referring to the unutilised ECC funds, CAQM said, "This under-utilisation dilutes the effectiveness of ECC as an environment protection measure."

• Urban Lab

Smog threatens sites that survived centuries of onslaught

The city of Delhi, capital of India, promises to be a place that lives simultaneously in the present and past. Delhi contains seven cities within it, layered one over the other through centuries of rule, conquest and reinvention. But its future depends on whether its people and government can stave off a new invader: the dust and particulate matter caused by pollution. Delhi in the present is a story of traffic-clogged roads, glass-and-steel high-rises and a cosmopolitan population of nearly 22 million people. The past lingers in stone and marble, in monuments such as the Red Fort, Jama Masjid and Humayun’s Tomb. In Purani Dilli, or Old Delhi — the last great Mughal capital of Shah Jahan, known as Shahjahanabad — some of the world’s finest heritage structures sit amid dense markets, homes and roads. Yet the people who live in this city of so much history struggle to breathe and the buildings and monuments that have withstood hundreds of years of turmoil are now being attacked by the dust particles in the pollution generated from industrial plants and cars. From October to February, Delhi’s average Air Quality Index (AQI) routinely crosses 400 — well into the “severe” category. At some monitoring stations, it has spiked above 1,000, levels considered hazardous even for short exposure. Smoke on sandstone The reasons behind this pollution are complex and cumulative. An analysis by the Centre of Science and Environment, a public research organization in Delhi, has repeatedly found that vehicular emissions contribute from 20 to 40% of the pollution over the last decade. Before 2020, PM2.5 — fine particulate matter that is a major pollutant — had been decreasing but since then has increased. In addition, the seasonal stubble burning in neighbouring states releases massive quantities of smoke and fly ash, which creates wind funnels into the city. Construction dust, coal-based power generation and the widespread use of solid fuels add further layers to an already toxic mix. This pollution does not stop at human lungs. It settles on stone, reacts chemically with moisture and slowly eats away at Delhi’s monuments. Sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air combine with rain and humidity to form acidic compounds. These interact with building materials — particularly sandstone and limestone — causing surface erosion, salt crystallisation and structural weakening. A June 2025 scientific study, an Indo-Italian collaboration, documented one of the clearest signs of this damage: the formation of a thick black crust on parts of the Red Fort. This is the same monument from which the Indian Prime Minister addresses the nation every year on Independence Day in August. The monument is of both cultural and political significance and modern pollutants are challenging its heritage. Restoring the Red Fort The crust on the Red Fort is largely composed of gypsum (calcium sulphate), formed when sulphur compounds from pollution react with calcium-based components on stone surfaces. The study found that these crusts trap moisture and pollutants, eventually flaking off and pulling original stone material with them. Eleonora Balliana, a conservation scientist trained in stone restoration and chemistry, was part of the research collaboration that examined these processes. “In comparison to European levels, the area of New Delhi has high levels of pollution based on the recorded environmental data available by the local air quality monitoring stations,” she said during her field visits to Delhi. “The levels of sulphur next to particulate [PM2.5, PM10, etc.] compounds were extremely high. It is not surprising that black crusts form so quickly here.” Balliana notes that Delhi’s monuments are particularly vulnerable because many are built with sedimentary stones like red sandstone. “These stones are layered, almost like an onion,” she explained. “Water and pollutants penetrate easily between layers, salts crystallise underneath and eventually the stone begins to peel and fall.” Protecting the Taj Mahal Rob Inkpen, an independent consultant who specializes in conservation of historical sites, said that the dangers of deterioration of the Red Fort was established back in 2007 when it was first deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the time, the International Council on Monuments and Sites, a non-governmental organisation working to conserve and protect cultural heritage sites around the world, highlighted the need for a comprehensive conservation management plan for it. India’s most famous monument offers a cautionary parallel. The Taj Mahal, built by Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, began turning visibly yellow in the early 2000s. Pollution from nearby industries, traffic and the polluted Yamuna River was identified as the culprit. To protect the Taj, the government created the Taj Trapezium Zone, a restricted area around the monument where polluting industries are banned and vehicle movement is regulated. Has it worked? Partially. More needs to be done, several experts say. Globally, heritage sites are also showing signs of stress, though in different ways. In Europe, climate-driven moisture, heatwaves and freeze–thaw cycles have degraded stone and wood structures. Germany and Denmark, for instance, have experimented with traffic restrictions, buffer zones and continuous maintenance regimes. However, as Balliana points out, solutions that work in Europe cannot simply be copied in India. “The scale, the climate and the pollution load are completely different,” she said. Climate change makes conservation a challenge. Climate change compounds these challenges. A major 2025 global study found that nearly 80% of UNESCO World Heritage sites already experience damaging climate stress from heat and moisture extremes. In Asia, including India, a significant share of sites face dual stress from stone and wood materials, driven by intense rainfall events, rising temperatures and swings in humidity. Experts, including Inkpen and Balliana, agree that regular maintenance, scientific monitoring, reducing traffic around heritage zones, expanding green buffers and implementing broader air-quality reforms are all necessary. “The science is solid, the monitoring exists, but the real issue is whether the surrounding environment is being made any less hostile to the monument,” Inkpen said. Balliana is clear about priorities. “Climate change is worrying, but in Delhi, pollution is more severe right now,” she said. Heavy rains and heat accelerate decay, but it is air pollution that drives the rapid formation of black crusts and chemical corrosion. Delhi’s monuments have survived empires, invasions and centuries of change. For Inkpen, whether these monuments can survive the modern combination of pollution and climate stress may depend on the city’s ability to clean its air. “Dividing a complex problem into manageable ‘chunks’ that you can answer with specific methods is not unusual,” Inkpen said. “And often, overarching answers are achieved once they are integrated.”

• Industrial Pollution

Four more industries face emissions reduction targets

Critics have also pointed out the exclusion of the power sector in the carbon trading scheme – India’s biggest emitter, responsible for 39% of emissions. “Excluding the power sector, significantly reduces the covered emissions and the possible reductions from them would be marginal,” the Centre for Science and Environment had said. The Indian government has set emissions reductions targets for four more high-emitting industries as part of its upcoming compliance-based carbon market. These are the secondary aluminium, petroleum refinery, petrochemical and textile industries. Secondary aluminium refers to aluminium produced from recycled scrap. The additions were made as an amendment to the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules on January 16, which were officially notified in October 2025. The additions take the total number of industries covered by the scheme to eight, three months after it initially covered the aluminium, cement, chor-alkali, and paper and pulp industries. The targets make it legally binding for industries listed to reduce their emissions. If industries perform better than their targets, they can generate carbon credits for trade on the compliance carbon market. However, failing to meet the target results will result in the payment of environmental compensation equal to twice the amount of the average carbon credit in the evaluation year. Industries are obligated to meet targets over two compliance years, 2025-2026 and 2026-2027. According to an analysis by the CEEW, delays in operationalising the carbon market have led to less stringent targets and a missed opportunity in reducing an additional 2.8 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide or its equivalent (CO2e) by 2027. The government also planned to include the iron and fertiliser industries in the carbon market, but has failed to set targets for them so far. “Lower stringency could reduce the overall mitigation achieved under the scheme and lead to a potential oversupply of carbon credits, especially since the targets look achievable for sectors such as aluminium, iron and steel, and cement,” the analysis says. The carbon market has the potential to reduce 47.84 metric tonnes of CO2e by 2027 if it covers all the sectors planned, as per the CEEW’s calculations. The targets have been calculated as emissions reductions per unit of output, to correspond with India’s goal of reducing its emissions intensity by 45% by 2030, compared to 2005 levels. The industries covered by the scheme are responsible for approximately 20% of India’s total emissions. The cement, iron, and steel sectors account for the largest shares. Critics have also pointed out the exclusion of the power sector in the carbon trading scheme – India’s biggest emitter, responsible for 39% of emissions. “Excluding the power sector, significantly reduces the covered emissions and the possible reductions from them would be marginal,” the Centre for Science and Environment had said.

• Sustainable Habitat

Why India Needs To Improve Reuse of Construction & Demolition Waste

India’s first C&D waste processing plant was set up in Burari, Delhi, in 2009. Ahmedabad followed suit in 2014. By 2024, India had 34 such plants across 28 cities, according to a review by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “Now it’s likely to be more than 40,” says Sugeet Grover, programme manager for sustainable buildings and habitat at CSE and one of the authors of the report. Chennai: In a large yard in southern Chennai, within earshot of honking vehicles on the busy highway nearby, a worker in safety gear deftly sorts the construction rubble on a moving conveyor belt—separating pieces of plastic, wood and other waste. This is one of Chennai’s two plants that process construction and demolition (C&D) waste. C&D waste is generated during construction, demolition, renovation and maintenance, and comprises items such as soil, sand, bricks, concrete and wood. About 35 kg of waste is generated per square metre of construction, while demolition can result in 10 times that. India generates an estimated 150 million tonnes of C&D waste every year. Up to 90% can be repurposed, for landscaping, earthworks and civil engineering projects, but only 1% is recycled, government data show. Material such as metal rods, pipes and wooden fixtures are salvaged by the informal sector, leaving behind the bulky rubble. Of the remaining, between 10–30% is repurposed for landfilling, but the rest ends up on the roadside and in waterbodies. Illegal dumping is a rampant problem, polluting soil, air and water. The construction sector's environmental footprint makes recycling urgent. The buildings sector in India already emits close to 500 million metric tonnes (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually through embodied carbon. Globally, nearly 50% of global resource extraction is directed towards housing, construction and infrastructure development. With India's rapid urbanisation and infrastructure push, this resource demand will only intensify. Recycling C&D waste is no longer optional—it's essential to reduce both emissions and resource depletion. India’s first C&D waste processing plant was set up in Burari, Delhi, in 2009. Ahmedabad followed suit in 2014. By 2024, India had 34 such plants across 28 cities, according to a review by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “Now it’s likely to be more than 40,” says Sugeet Grover, programme manager for sustainable buildings and habitat at CSE and one of the authors of the report. The case for processing In Chennai, the material that Westart Sustainable Systems generates through processing is bought by a range of users including individuals and large builders. “Large aggregates are used for consolidation and backfilling in foundations, fine aggregates for flooring base and levelling—basically any non-structural use,” says J. Sundaramurthy, project head at Westart Sustainable Systems which operates the processing plants in Chennai, each of 800 tonnes-per-day (TPD) capacity. Prosperiti Homes, a realtor in Hyderabad, saves up to 40% on raw material cost. “Recycled materials are reintegrated into our projects, significantly reducing landfill dependency and minimising environmental impact,” says V. Venkata Ramana, business development manager at Prosperiti. The price of recycled C&D aggregates is 15–45% less depending on the aggregate; hence, products made with these aggregates are cheaper. “There is a proposal to reduce GST [goods and services tax] on products made with recycled materials, which will bring additional cost benefit to end users,” says Manoj Saxena, director of Rise Eleven that operates processing plants in Lucknow and Bakkarwala in Delhi and also manufactures pavers, kerbstones, blocks, planters, etc. from recycled aggregates. “Almost 95% of it is recycled. The silt is used in making pavers and bricks,” says Manish Bhartia, promoter and managing director of CFlo, a company that manufactures and installs plants across India. “Virgin sand is scarce. We’re using a lot more sand than what can be naturally replenished. Recycling gets us sustainable sand and aggregate,” says Bhartia. Estimates suggest that India consumes more than 700 million tonnes of sand per year. Most of this is used in construction. Indiscriminate mining of river sand leads to severe degradation, including soil erosion—loss of fertile soil along Brahmaputra being one example—increase in turbidity that impacts aqua-biodiversity, and even drinking water problems as seen in Kerala. While the government takes up replenishmen studies and other initiatives for sustainable sand mining, it also advocates the use of recycled aggregates, which reduce carbon dioxide emission by 40%, estimates show. ”Recycling also solves a huge waste problem. Land lying buried under the waste gets unlocked. Leachate from dumps pollutes the soil and water, and recycling prevents that,” says Bhartia. Processing C&D waste C&D waste management involves collection and transportation to the plant, and then processing it. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) uses an online portal or helpline for reporting waste dumps. “When we get information, we initiate primary collection; our team collects the C&D waste and brings it to the secondary collection centre, which is like a transit point,” says Sundaramurthy of Westart. Premier Precision, an affiliate of Westart, collects the waste. “From the secondary collection centre, it is taken to the processing plant, employing necessary dust mitigation measures,” Sundaramurthy explains. In the plant, when the rubble moves in a conveyor, workers manually remove waste like plastic and metal. “The rubble goes through a feeder and then a jaw crusher. The crushed material gets automatically sorted size-wise and comes in different channels,” he adds.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

CAQM report to SC: Long-term solutions recycled after years of pollution inaction

We all know what has to be done but how it has to be done is what has to be planned out, so the gaps in implementation can be identified and solved one by one,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment. Roychowdhury was closely associated with EPCA. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) submitted its comprehensive long-term strategy to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, ostensibly to resolve the capital’s perennial air pollution crisis. However, a close reading suggests it is less a bold strategy and more a bureaucratic resurrection: The plan recycles recommendations from its predecessor, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA), from eight years ago, dressing them up with newer technology labels while stripping away specific targets and deadlines. The Supreme Court has now directed the Delhi government, municipal bodies and NCR state agencies to submit action plans within four weeks detailing how they will execute CAQM’s recommendations. The commission has been under fire for what experts have said is short-sighted and premature approach to Graded Response Action (Grap) restrictions — the mainstay of immediate pollution mitigation steps, which are often applied too late and lifted too quickly. CAQM organises its “long-term solutions” under six broad measures with roughly 41 specific actions, while the EPCA detailed 37 in its 2018 Comprehensive Action Plan. A point-by-point analysis suggests at least two-thirds of the new suggestions tackle the same problems with similar solutions, while making no mention of why past plans failed or were never implemented. Consider the most basic measure: expanding Delhi’s bus fleet. The Supreme Court first ordered 10,000 buses in July 1998. The EPCA report stated the Delhi government “must ensure total compliance with order of 1998 and 2016 by December 2018”. CAQM’s 2026 submission now recommends: “Augmentation of city public bus service through E-buses/CNG as per model yardsticks and service level benchmark of MoHUA based on population”—without a fleet target or timeline. As per latest estimates, Delhi has fewer than 6,000 buses. EPCA called for “implementation of multi-modal integration plan”; CAQM’s solutions propose “Development of Multi Modal Transport hub”. Eight years apart, both plans called for “integrated traffic systems”. Similar repackaging appears in the vehicle tailpipe pollution monitoring system, the pollution under control (PUC) framework. EPCA called for “tighten PUC norms for post-2000 vehicles, upgrade in-use emissions testing”. CAQM recommends “strengthening of PUC 2.0 and monitoring of on-road vehicles with remote sensing devices”. Experts concurred. “Many of these are simple replicas of old plans and there is little difference. The plan now needs a base emission inventory followed by emission reduction targets and caps along with mandatory timelines. A lot of action plan seems repetitive barring a few exceptions like no new coal plants in the 300 km region,” said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at Envirocatalysts. Where EPCA assigned dates—”May 2018”, “December 2018”, “mid-2018”—CAQM deploys elastic phrases: “in a phased manner”, “expeditious expansion”, “time-bound phasing out”. “While long-term measures are great and give us a direction in which we should be moving, until there are tangible timelines and expectations set, we will never see results. This is because each measure has to be broken down into achievable milestones. We all know what has to be done but how it has to be done is what has to be planned out, so the gaps in implementation can be identified and solved one by one,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment. Roychowdhury was closely associated with EPCA. EPCA was disbanded after the CAQM was set up through legislation, with quasi-judicial powers. Then there are strategies that appear to have made little difference. EPCA’s 2018 plan called for radio frequency-based identification (RFID) systems at Delhi’s 13 major border entry points to regulate truck traffic, a mechanism that has been in place since 2019. CAQM’s 2026 recommendation includes “installation of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras and automated RFID ensuring Multi Lane Free Flow (MLFF) enabled Toll/Cess collection at all Border Entry Points of Delhi” — admission that the entry surveillance through RFIDs did not help. Some evolution does appear. CAQM’s emphasis on electric vehicles and charging infrastructure reflects policy progression from EPCA’s focus on BS-VI emission standards, though this also reflects the EV industry’s progress with vehicles becoming more affordable. Similarly, CAQM proposes “technology-driven Integrated Command and Control Centres” for pollution monitoring—a centralised enforcement mechanism not detailed in EPCA’s plan. But centralised monitoring only matters if decentralised enforcement actually happens. The 2018 plan identified several of these problems; their reappearance in the new document amounts to admission that none has been solved. The expert report accompanying CAQM’s submission provides evidence of stagnation. Based on a meta-analysis of studies from 2015 to 2025, transport contributes 23% (winter) and 19% (summer) to PM2.5 concentrations. Dust from roads, soil and construction accounts for 15% (winter) and 27% (summer). Biomass burning contributes 20% (winter). These are the same sectors—transport, dust, biomass—that dominated EPCA’s 2018 action plan. CAQM has now recommended strengthening waste collection to prevent open burning, complete processing of waste, integration of informal waste pickers and intensive IEC campaigns for citizens. These generic measures are already part of the Solid Waste Management Bye-Laws for Delhi notified on January 15, 2018. Bharati Chaturvedi, founder and director of the waste management NGO Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, said some of these measures have been on rule books for years but never implemented. “Recommendations and integration cannot be random. They need defined parameters and well defined plan with measurable outcomes. Contracts given to concessionaire need to be completely rewritten,” she added. “We need new contracts and start from scratch to tackle the waste and consequent air pollution crisis.” CAQM’s status report notes it has issued “95 Directions and 17 Advisories, besides various orders, guidelines and official communications from time to time”. But directions and advisories are outputs, not outcomes. The number of directives issued says nothing about whether anyone followed them. The commission acknowledges that “several policy interventions require adequate funding arrangements” and that implementation “primarily depends upon action plans formulated by the respective Government(s)/concerned agencies, along with the provision of requisite and adequate funding arrangements”. CAQM’s submission arrived following sharp judicial criticism. On January 6, the Supreme Court observed that the commission was “failing in its duty” and showed a lack of “seriousness”, appearing to be “in no hurry to either identify the causes of the worsening AQI in Delhi-NCR or long-term solutions”. On December 17, the court described the pollution crisis as an “annual feature” and called for “pragmatic and practical solutions”. The roadmap for implementation will now go to the same agencies that were meant to execute EPCA’s 2018 action plan—which contained many of the same recommendations with 2018 deadlines that are now being recommended again in 2026. “The gap which has been showing up again and again when we talk about mitigation of air pollution sources, that is of implementation and governance. We already know what the major sources are as per the last emission inventory, but ever since CAQM has started functioning, there has been no proper prioritisation of sources,” said Mukesh Khare, an IIT Delhi professor and air pollution expert. Bhavreen Kandhari, an environmental activist who is part of the group Warrior Moms, said measures listed by CAQM are not new, they largely recycle the 2018 EPCA recommendations that have remained on paper for years. “What Delhi now needs is a shift from advisory driven pollution control to outcome based strict governance; annual emission reduction targets, legally enforceable deadlines, transparent data on compliance. And this must include penalties for institutional non compliance and appropriate strict legal action in cases where corruption or deliberate interference compromises implementation. Without this, recycling old recommendations will only prolong the crisis rather than resolve it,” said Kandhari.

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Why Firecrackers Ban Violated’? SC Seeks Immediate Answers From Delhi Govt, Police

The top court also sought responses from Punjab and Haryana to explain how farm fires during Diwali increased, as per a report by Centre for Science and Environment. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the Delhi government and police, seeking answers as to why the ban on firecrackers during Diwali was not followed, amid severe air pollution persisting in the national capital. Noting that reports in newspapers stated that the ban on firecrackers was openly flouted, the top court said: “This is responsible for sudden deterioration in air quality. What is the purpose of our order?” referring to the court’s order to ban use of firecrackers in Delhi-NCR. “Pollution is higher than 2022, 2023… Apparently, people were bringing crackers from other states,” the court added. The Supreme Court bench issued a notice to Delhi Police Commissioner and the Aam Aadmi Party government asking what steps they took to implement the firecracker ban order. “We will issue notice to Delhi police commissioner, will ask if SC order was implemented. We need immediate answers… this should not happen next year,” the court said. The court observed that a chaotic situation is created by crackers if not controlled. “Some strict action, such as sealing of premises, is needed against those violating firecrackers ban in Delhi. We need to do something so that court orders on firecrackers ban are not violated during Diwali next year.” The top court also sought responses from Punjab and Haryana to explain how farm fires during Diwali increased, as per a report by Centre for Science and Environment. The Supreme Court directed all responses to be filed in a week. The matter on air pollution will be next heard on November 14.

• Sustainable Habitat

Why India Needs To Improve Reuse Of Construction & Demolition Waste

India’s first C&D waste processing plant was set up in Burari, Delhi, in 2009. Ahmedabad followed suit in 2014. By 2024, India had 34 such plants across 28 cities, according to a review by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “Now it’s likely to be more than 40,” says Sugeet Grover, programme manager for sustainable buildings and habitat at CSE and one of the authors of the report. Chennai: In a large yard in southern Chennai, within earshot of honking vehicles on the busy highway nearby, a worker in safety gear deftly sorts the construction rubble on a moving conveyor belt—separating pieces of plastic, wood and other waste. This is one of Chennai’s two plants that process construction and demolition (C&D) waste. C&D waste is generated during construction, demolition, renovation and maintenance, and comprises items such as soil, sand, bricks, concrete and wood. About 35 kg of waste is generated per square metre of construction, while demolition can result in 10 times that. India generates an estimated 150 million tonnes of C&D waste every year. Up to 90% can be repurposed, for landscaping, earthworks and civil engineering projects, but only 1% is recycled, government data show. Material such as metal rods, pipes and wooden fixtures are salvaged by the informal sector, leaving behind the bulky rubble. Of the remaining, between 10–30% is repurposed for landfilling, but the rest ends up on the roadside and in waterbodies. Illegal dumping is a rampant problem, polluting soil, air and water. The construction sector's environmental footprint makes recycling urgent. The buildings sector in India already emits close to 500 million metric tonnes (MMT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually through embodied carbon. Globally, nearly 50% of global resource extraction is directed towards housing, construction and infrastructure development. With India's rapid urbanisation and infrastructure push, this resource demand will only intensify. Recycling C&D waste is no longer optional—it's essential to reduce both emissions and resource depletion. India’s first C&D waste processing plant was set up in Burari, Delhi, in 2009. Ahmedabad followed suit in 2014. By 2024, India had 34 such plants across 28 cities, according to a review by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). “Now it’s likely to be more than 40,” says Sugeet Grover, programme manager for sustainable buildings and habitat at CSE and one of the authors of the report. The case for processing In Chennai, the material that Westart Sustainable Systems generates through processing is bought by a range of users including individuals and large builders. “Large aggregates are used for consolidation and backfilling in foundations, fine aggregates for flooring base and levelling—basically any non-structural use,” says J. Sundaramurthy, project head at Westart Sustainable Systems which operates the processing plants in Chennai, each of 800 tonnes-per-day (TPD) capacity. Prosperiti Homes, a realtor in Hyderabad, saves up to 40% on raw material cost. “Recycled materials are reintegrated into our projects, significantly reducing landfill dependency and minimising environmental impact,” says V. Venkata Ramana, business development manager at Prosperiti. The price of recycled C&D aggregates is 15–45% less depending on the aggregate; hence, products made with these aggregates are cheaper. “There is a proposal to reduce GST [goods and services tax] on products made with recycled materials, which will bring additional cost benefit to end users,” says Manoj Saxena, director of Rise Eleven that operates processing plants in Lucknow and Bakkarwala in Delhi and also manufactures pavers, kerbstones, blocks, planters, etc. from recycled aggregates. “Almost 95% of it is recycled. The silt is used in making pavers and bricks,” says Manish Bhartia, promoter and managing director of CFlo, a company that manufactures and installs plants across India. “Virgin sand is scarce. We’re using a lot more sand than what can be naturally replenished. Recycling gets us sustainable sand and aggregate,” says Bhartia. Estimates suggest that India consumes more than 700 million tonnes of sand per year. Most of this is used in construction. Indiscriminate mining of river sand leads to severe degradation, including soil erosion—loss of fertile soil along Brahmaputra being one example—increase in turbidity that impacts aqua-biodiversity, and even drinking water problems as seen in Kerala. While the government takes up replenishment studies and other initiatives for sustainable sand mining, it also advocates the use of recycled aggregates, which reduce carbon dioxide emission by 40%, estimates show. ”Recycling also solves a huge waste problem. Land lying buried under the waste gets unlocked. Leachate from dumps pollutes the soil and water, and recycling prevents that,” says Bhartia. Processing C&D waste C&D waste management involves collection and transportation to the plant, and then processing it. The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) uses an online portal or helpline for reporting waste dumps. “When we get information, we initiate primary collection; our team collects the C&D waste and brings it to the secondary collection centre, which is like a transit point,” says Sundaramurthy of Westart. Premier Precision, an affiliate of Westart, collects the waste. “From the secondary collection centre, it is taken to the processing plant, employing necessary dust mitigation measures,” Sundaramurthy explains. In the plant, when the rubble moves in a conveyor, workers manually remove waste like plastic and metal. “The rubble goes through a feeder and then a jaw crusher. The crushed material gets automatically sorted size-wise and comes in different channels,” he adds. In Chennai’s private-public partnership (PPP) model, GCC has provided land for the plants and 15 secondary collection centres; and pays a tipping fee for the collection of waste. “PPP is the most widespread model,” says Grover. The first plant at Delhi was also established under this model. Cities such as Chandigarh run the plant themselves under an EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) model where contractors design and build plants that municipalities then operate. Smaller models also exist, such as the initiative by Prosperiti Homes. “As part of our commitment to sustainable development, we have invested in our own C&D waste recycling machine,” says Venkata Ramana. The post-processing products vary in size—40 mm to 10 mm aggregates and fine sand, each finding a different buyer for different use, mostly within the construction industry. In the case of the Delhi plant, these products are converted to ready mix concrete, cement bricks, hollow bricks, pavement blocks, kerbstones, concrete bricks, and manufactured sand, thereby reducing the consumption of virgin construction raw material and minimising the environmental hazard due to C&D wastes. CSE assessed cities based on six criteria including segregation of C&D waste, collection and transportation, and recycling capacity. “In terms of volume, Delhi recycles the most. Some cities perform better in other aspects—Chandigarh holds fairs and exhibits products made from C&D waste, creating awareness among the public," says Grover. “Hyderabad has decentralised its plants. This reduces the distance the waste has to travel—a major cost in the ecosystem.” “Third-party monitoring curbs illegal dumping in Pimpri-Chinchwad. Noida's plant is good at dust mitigation,” he adds. Towards better utilisation In 2012, the Ministry of Urban Development (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs since 2017) directed states to set up C&D waste processing plants in cities with more than 1 million population—which was 52 as per 2011 Census and 75 in 2025. Industry experts point out the lag in implementation. “The potential is huge. We process only 1% of our C&D waste, whereas developed countries process 80–90%,” says Bhartia. Germany has one of the highest C&D waste recycling rates, improving from 17% recovery rate in 1994 to 93% in 2019. In effect, less than 10% is landfilled. The country achieved this through strict regulations about waste avoidance and recycling. Many European countries including Germany implement a landfill tax and bans to encourage recycling. Countries such as the Netherlands and Belgium recycle nearly 100% of their C&D waste. In the Netherlands, recycled aggregates meet 35% of the aggregate demand. A study finds landfill tax and ban to be the most effective in increasing C&D waste recycling. As for India, weak market for recycled materials, low public and developer awareness, weak C&D waste collection system, are the major reasons for the slow uptake of C&D waste processing and use of recycled products, according to Grover of CSE. “Delhi has mandated the use of recycled products in government contracts. Municipalities also use it for roads’ base layer,” says Grover. He suggests similar mandates and also incentivising segregation at source as unsegregated waste—given the manual removal of impurities—may result in low quality aggregates. The processed waste should be used in all construction activities with more than 20,000 m2 built-up area, as per Central Pollution Control Board’s Waste Management Rules that come into effect from April 1, 2026. IndiaSpend reached out to the Central Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs for comment on how recycling and reuse of C&D waste is being improved across the country. We will update this story when we receive a response. Experts point out that a change in public mindset is also needed. “There’s a perception that the products are of inferior quality,” says Saxena. “In pavers, for instance, with 5–10% more cement we get the same strength—suitable even for heavy applications such as apartment driveways and petrol bunks.” To increase the scope of recycled aggregates, Westart is working with IIT Madras to prepare a plastering material. While Saxena points out that there is no Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) code for products made from recycled waste, Grover suggests an upgrade for codes such as IS 383: 2016 for coarse and fine aggregates for concrete. As the Chennai plant ends its shift, Sundaramurthy points out that both their plants run to full capacity and they find takers for all their products, indicating the potential. Experts say that tapping this potential of C&D waste would bring the construction industry closer to circularity.

• Director General Office

छोटे शहरों की बड़ी समस्या बना प्रदूषण

कई शहरों में लोगों को यह पता ही नहीं कि प्रदूषण का स्तर बढ़ने पर उन्हें क्या-क्या सावधानियां बरतनी चाहिए और स्थानीय प्रशासन को क्या कदम उठाने चाहिए? यह धारणा अब बदलनी चाहिए कि वायु प्रदूषण सिर्फ 'महानगरों और बड़े शहरों की समस्या' है। केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के आंकड़े तस्दीक करते हैं कि हमारे छोटे शहर भी अब दूषित हवा में सांस ले रहे हैं। कुछ मामलों में तो स्थिति कहीं अधिक गंभीर है।देशव्यापी प्रदूषण पर पिछले साल हमारी एक सहयोगी ने अध्ययन किया था, जिसमें चौंकाने वाले नतीजे सामने आए थे। वह रिपोर्ट बताती है कि वायु प्रदूषण के नए हॉटस्पॉट बर्नीहाट जैसे छोटे शहर बनने लगे हैं। यह पूर्वोत्तर में असम-मेघालय सीमा पर स्थित है। पीएम 2.5 के सालाना स्तर के मामले में इसने दिल्ली को पीछे छोड़ दिया था। इसी तरह, गुरुग्राम, श्रीगंगानगर, फरीदाबाद, ग्रेटर नोएडा, मुजफ्फरनगर भी उन शहरों में शामिल दिखे, जहां वायु प्रदूषण का स्तर खतरे के पार बना रहता है।

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

After Court Rebuke, Government Releases Unified Report Identifying Sources of Delhi Pollution

The panel included experts from government institutions as well as independent research organisations, including the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Urban Emission, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) India’s Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has identified the main sources of Delhi’s severe air pollution and admitted that there are critical gaps in current control measures, in response to a deadline set by the Supreme Court. The report, completed in a fortnight, synthesises findings from multiple research institutions to create the first unified assessment of what is polluting the capital. The Supreme Court-mandated report reveals that the city’s main air pollution sources are transport (23%), secondary particulates (27%), and dust (15-27%). Winter PM2.5 levels are 35 times World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, despite decade-long efforts. The report comes after the Supreme Court criticised CAQM on 2 January, for delays in identifying causes and finding long-term solutions to Delhi’s “worsening” air quality. What sets this report apart from earlier studies is that it synthesises previous assessments to arrive at one unified set of numbers. The agency achieved this by bringing together researchers from government agencies, Indian Institutes of Technology, research institutes, NGOs and think-tanks. The Chief Justice of India criticised the CAQM earlier this year, saying that it “appears to be in no hurry either to identify the causes or to find long-term solutions” to Delhi’s pollution. The court added that the CAQM is obligated to bring domain experts together to arrive at a uniform and unanimous opinion on the causes of the “worsening” air quality. Government concedes major gaps The CAQM’s report is also significant because it concedes several critical gaps in Delhi’s pollution control efforts. These range from conceding that PM2.5, or fine particulate matter pollution, is the “worst” pollutant to accepting that the pollution-under-control (PUC) certificates don’t check all key pollutants emitted by vehicles. The panel included experts from government institutions as well as independent research organisations, including the Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Urban Emission, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). The report has released two important data sets. The first shows that there has been a decline since 2016 in the annual average level of PM2.5. But the trendline (in blue in the chart below) has been almost flat since 2019, the year that the Indian government launched the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Delhi’s PM2.5 air pollution has hovered around 100 micrograms per cubic metre for the last seven years, which is 2.5 times India’s safe standard but 20 times the WHO’s safe guidelines. Source: Based on data from CAQM Main sources of Delhi’s air pollution Delhi’s air pollution in winter and summer is starkly different, with winter pollution being more than twice as severe. The largest contributor to Delhi’s winter PM2.5 pollution is secondary particulate matter (27%), tiny particles formed in the air from gaseous emissions from vehicles, industries, and biomass burning. Among primary sources, transport vehicles contribute 23% while biomass burning, including burning solid fuels for cooking and warmth and crop residue burning, adds 20%. Dust from roads, construction, and demolition accounts for 15%, and industrial emissions contribute 9%. In summer, dust becomes the dominant source, causing 27% of PM2.5 levels, driven by dry conditions and construction activity. Transport contributes 19%, secondary particulate matter causes 17%, and industrial emissions rise to 14%. Biomass burning drops to 12% during this period. Source: CAQM, Delhi Delhi’s average winter PM2.5 concentration is 178 micrograms/m³, which is more than 35 times the WHO safe guideline of 5, and over four times India’s national standard of 40. Summer levels average 73, which is still nearly 15 times the WHO guideline and almost double the Indian standard. Data is based on 2021-2025 measurements. However, CAQM says that the number of days where pollution was below the daily national standard of 60 micrograms has increased from 97 days in 2018 to 156 in 2025. Why is transport so high? The report points out that transport “repeatedly emerges as the most prominent pollution source within Delhi”. The transport source category includes off and on-road vehicles; petrol, diesel and CNG-powered vehicles. There are several sources and reasons for vehicular pollution being so high: Older fuel standards: Bharat Stage (BS) 4, 3, 2, 1 and pre-BS vehicles are more polluting than the latest, BS 6 standard. Older vehicles: Particularly those operating beyond their regulatory lifespan of 10 or 15 years – for petrol and diesel respectively – are more polluting due to engine deterioration and compromised emission control performance. Fuel type: Diesel vehicles are a major source of particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, whereas CNG vehicles predominantly emit oxides of nitrogen. Traffic congestion: Pollution is determined not just by technology but also by driving conditions. Congested and slow-moving traffic leads to inefficient combustion, resulting in higher emissions per vehicle, whereas operation at optimal speeds enables more efficient combustion and lower emission rates. Government admits critical gaps Significantly, the report concedes several gaps in controlling pollution. Presenting these gaps in a report for the Supreme Court is important because these have rarely been acknowledged at such a high level. First, the report admits the current pollution checks or PUC certificates are “not a true representative of emissions” as they don’t measure particulate matter pollution – although this has been cited repeatedly by the Delhi local government as a measure that controls pollution. Second, it accepts that PM2.5 is the most prominent pollutant that determines Delhi’s air quality index (AQI). This is in sharp contrast to the NCAP, which prioritises the reduction of PM10, not the more lethal PM2.5. Delhi government also has a push to reduce PM10, primarily dust, through the use of hundreds of expensive water sprinklers. Third, the report says that data on the sources of pollution in Delhi’s larger neighbourhood (NCR) is sparse, so the report’s meta-analysis is taken as indicative. Fourth, the supply of grid electricity across Delhi’s neighbourhood is “unreliable” which is why the use of diesel generators (DG) has increased substantially. It calls older or poorly maintained DGs “super-emitters” and warns that they result in direct, ground-level exposure to emissions. Around 6 to 11% of Delhi’s air pollution is caused by “other” sources. These include cremations where wood is used, hotels and restaurants which use solid fuels like wood and coal, aircraft emissions during taxiing, landing and take-off, and brick kilns in and around Delhi. Depending on the season, they are equally dangerous because they create local hotspots close to residential areas. These are a significant challenge because the CAQM says these are highly sensitive to enforcement. What’s the plan to cut Delhi’s pollution? The CAQM has asked four institutes, three of them government-backed, to develop a new emission inventory – a database of how much pollution is being pumped into the air and from which sources. This study will be led by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), which may raise some questions about a conflict of interest. While the association is under the government’s administrative control, many ARAI officials and members are from major vehicle manufacturers. Given that vehicles are a significant source of pollution, this could compromise ARAI’s ability to assess vehicular pollution. The other three institutes are IIT-Delhi, the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM, Pune), and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Air pollution beyond Delhi This new push by the Supreme Court to improve Delhi’s air quality could have lessons for the wider area of north India or the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), which the CAQM calls an emissions hotspot. This is 18% of India’s landmass, home to 40% of the country’s 1.4 billion population, and accounts for 35% of the emissions. A still wider picture comes from the World Bank’s new report, A Breath of Change: Solutions for Cleaner Air in the Indo-Gangetic Plains and Himalayan Foothills. Almost a billion people across five countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan – live in this area, and around one million people die prematurely every year from polluted air. The World Bank calls for regional cooperation, which is easier said than done in one of the world’s most geopolitically sensitive neighbourhoods. India’s capital is roughly in the centre of this region. Fixing Delhi’s air can provide a template and impetus to go big.

• Climate Change and Green Economy

India-EU trade talks may adopt middle ground on carbon tax

In addition to measures such as ensuring funds from the carbon tax stay within borders and the need for the EU to provide additional decarbonisation-climate finance, a package of additional steps can be considered, a Centre for Science and Environment analysis said. These include recycling of CBAM revenues to developing country partners, support for monitoring and reporting of emissions, and exemptions for least developed countries. The analysis said CBAM could impose substantial cost pressures on steel and aluminium exports to the EU. The study estimated that affected exports could face a price burden of around 25%-- making Indian goods non-competitive. India and the European Union will adopt a middle-path to resolve the carbon tax issue and conclude their ongoing free trade negotiations before their leaders meet next week with Brussels likely to recognise India’s efforts in reducing carbon footprints that could be leveraged to offset Indian exporters’ liabilities under the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), people aware of the development said. The two teams are converging on a mutually-beneficial middle-path by abandoning their respective hard stands on CBAM -- India considers it a non-tariff barrier (NTB) that would nullify gains of tariff reductions for most of its key exports such as steel, cement, aluminium, fertilizer, electricity and hydrogen, they said requesting anonymity. For the EU, it is part of its domestic Emissions Trading System (ETS), hence cannot be waived off completely, they added. ETS requires polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions. One of the solutions is to align the EU and the Indian methodologies of measuring emissions, as India already has the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS) for energy-intensive sectors such as steel and cement and programmes such as the National Green Hydrogen Mission. This could offset significant costs incurred by India from its CBAM liabilities as per Article IX of the EU CBAM Regulation, they said. Article IX allows an offset for carbon price paid in a country of origin. The other solution rests in a time and sector-specific moratorium so that the industry has time to invest in clean technology, they said. “It is also possible that after a broad consensus on CBAM before January 27, its operational details could be worked-out later,” one of the people said, adding that a complete waiver from CBAM is unlikely. It is expected that the proposed pact may have a rebalancing mechanism that would allow India to proportionately reduce FTA benefits (in terms of tariff reduction) to the EU’s exporters if CBAM is used as a non-tariff barrier, they explained. Such measures are necessary to protect Indian industries, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), they said. The recently-signed India-UK FTA has a rebalancing mechanism that allows India to proportionately withdraw benefits under the pact if Britain’s proposed CBAM in 2027 adversely impacts Indian exports. In the case of the EU, however, CBAM is in force from January 1, 2026. Email queries on this matter sent to the European Commission and India’s ministries of commerce and external affairs did not elicit any response. The people mentioned above said the proposed middle-path could be close to India’s stated position of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), the kernel of the country’s argument at climate talks. In addition to measures such as ensuring funds from the carbon tax stay within borders and the need for the EU to provide additional decarbonisation-climate finance, a package of additional steps can be considered, a Centre for Science and Environment analysis said. These include recycling of CBAM revenues to developing country partners, support for monitoring and reporting of emissions, and exemptions for least developed countries. The analysis said CBAM could impose substantial cost pressures on steel and aluminium exports to the EU. The study estimated that affected exports could face a price burden of around 25%-- making Indian goods non-competitive.

• Director General Office

Public Health Transformation Summit 2026 reframes how India thinks about health

Dr. Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment and Editor of Down To Earth magazine, brought an unsparing climate reality into the room. Her presence, a climate scientist, not a health bureaucrat, was itself a statement. “Nobody is safe till everybody is safe.” Recognised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, as the Official Pre-Summit of the AI Impact Summit 2026, the Public Health Transformation Summit 2026 convened India’s public health leadership at a decisive moment. On a crisp January morning at the C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium, India International Centre, the country’s public health establishment, gathered not to celebrate what has been, but to dismantle what no longer works. The Summit crystallized a truth that has been building for years: public health in India can no longer remain a cautious, marginalized function. It must be revolutionary. More than 250 delegates, policy makers, researchers, practitioners, young public health professionals, and changemakers came together around a singular conviction: that India stands at a defining moment where the way we define, deliver, and measure public health will change forever. By day’s end, they had walked away not just with insights, but with concrete blueprints: a Public Health Monitor for India, a Draft Planetary Health Policy Framework, and a reimagined digital public health curriculum designed to create a new generation of leaders fluent in both epidemiology and technology. Contributing to professional development, participating nursing professionals earned 5 CNE hours (1 CNE credit). The Summit also saw the participation of senior diplomats and representatives from multiple foreign missions, reflecting the growing international engagement with India’s public health discourse. Official representations were present from the France, Indonesia, Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Republic of Iraq, Republic of Chad, Republic of Lithuania, Republic of Guinea, Republic of Togo, People’s Republic of China, Republic of Benin, and the Jamaican High Commission, underscoring the Summit’s role as a platform for cross-regional dialogue on public health priorities and cooperation. The summit’s opening framing was deliberate and provocative, urging participants to look beyond the last 400 years, to remember that long before John Snow and the Broad Street cholera pump, ancient India was building sophisticated drainage systems in Mohenjo-Daro and the Charak Samhita was teaching about “Janapadodhwansa,” the devastation of towns. The idea was to underscore how much of our own deep history of thinking about collective health has been forgotten, and to signal that this is a moment not only to remember that legacy, but to reimagine public health through it. Opening the debate: “We cannot afford another century of incremental change” Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Founding President of the Public Health Foundation of India, set the intellectual temperature in the opening session, “Public Health: From Evolution to Revolution.” His message didn’t traffic in comforting narratives. Instead, Prof. Reddy articulated a systemic diagnosis: that India’s public health infrastructure, despite pockets of excellence, remains fundamentally misaligned with 21st-century challenges. “If Clinical medicine delivers health in retail, then Public Health delivers health in wholesale,” he declared. Building on this framing, Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Founder and Chairman of Health Parliament and Summit Co-Chair, widened the lens to the broader ecosystem that shapes public health outcomes. “ Public Health needs to integrate digital, if it has to scale and we need to create a pipeline of future leaders who will lead this revolution & that remains the biggest challenge for public health”. This wasn’t academic theorizing. The morning’s panel on “State of Public Health in India” brought five voices who collectively painted a portrait of a field at an inflection point, with both critical gaps and untapped potential. Dr. Narendra Kumar Arora, Executive Director of The INCLEN Trust International and India’s leading public health researcher, brought epidemiological rigour to the conversation. “We need to move forward in a way that is evidence-based and not on assumptions,” Arora noted. Mathew Cherian, Chairperson of CARE India and former CEO of HelpAge India, addressed the need to improve geriatric healthcare. “If we provide age-friendly healthcare, then all of us in this room can live to be 100 years,” Cherian reflected. Dr. Harish Iyer, Director of Health R&D, Digital Innovations & AI at the Gates Foundation, brought the voice of those trying to bridge innovation and implementation. “Technology can be deeply enabling. How do you make this enabling in the public health system is the challenge, and figuring out how to make it interoperable.” Perhaps most striking was Dr. Girish N. Rao, Principal Investigator of the National Mental Health Survey and Professor of Epidemiology at NIMHANS, who brought an uncomfortable spotlight to public health’s blind spots. “We are conveniently forgetting that there is no health without mental health, and this is not just an average or a mere slogan. Mental health is everybody’s business. The stress and the distress in the different disorders are now more evident than ever.” His presence in the panel signalled that reimagined public health cannot afford siloed thinking. Mental health is not a niche. It is foundational. Mevish P. Vaishnav, President of Health Parliament, wove these disparate threads into a challenging synthesis. “Public Health is not just about hospitals and diseases. It is the condition in which people live—the air, water, food, mental well-being, ageing, and the systems that protect us or fail to protect us.” National leadership signals a rights-driven, digitally enabled public health future In a powerful keynote, Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, framed public health as the backbone of India’s journey to Viksit Bharat by 2047, not a side agenda to be funded after everything else. Drawing on his experience steering national health reforms, he underlined that, “We collect a lot of data, but one of the major problems today is too many portals. Data is lying out there and is not being used in a serious manner. Data is only useful when you use it; when you store it, it has no value. Unless data is connected, interoperable, and actually used for planning, programming, and action, it does not serve its purpose.” Bringing a rights-based lens to the summit, Bharat Lal, Secretary General, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), reminded the audience that health is not a service to be delivered at convenience, but a fundamental right that must be protected with urgency. Echoing his long-standing advocacy, he stressed, “We have to understand that in a country like ours, with 1.46 billion people, it is not possible to manage healthcare only through treatment by creating infrastructure and human resources. So preventive healthcare through this approach is very important.” Delivering a forward-looking address, Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO, National Health Authority (NHA), situated digital public health at the centre of India’s transformation, while warning against technology divorced from ethics and evidence. Reflecting on the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, he noted, “If we really want to build Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need to be a healthy Bharat, and a healthy Bharat will exist if we really promote integrated healthcare with many more technological solutions to better prepare the population for preventive and promotive healthcare.” Adding a critical gender and equity perspective to the national dialogue, the Chief Guest, Vijaya K. Rahatkar, Chairperson, National Commission for Women (NCW), underscored that public health transformation cannot be achieved without centering women’s rights, safety, and access across the life course. She highlighted how health systems often overlook the intersecting vulnerabilities faced by women and girls. Emphasizing the role of institutions and policy in correcting these gaps, she observed that, “भारत केवल बीमारियों से नहीं लड़ रहा है, भारत स्वास्थ्य की एक नई व्यवस्था बना रहा है, और इस परिवर्तन के केंद्र में भारत की नारी शक्ति खड़ी है।”. The public health monitor: From invisibility to accountability Mid-morning brought the session that many participants would later call the summit’s most concrete deliverable, “Building a Public Health Monitor for India.” This was not a theoretical exercise. Led by Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta (Founder & Chairman of Health Parliament), and Dr. K. Madan Gopal (Advisor & Head, Public Health Administration, National Health Systems Resource Centre), this discussion introduced a systematic, transparent, real-time measurement framework designed to track not just health outcomes across India’s states and union territories, but the public health system’s actual capacity to deliver. Dr. K. Madan Gopal, whose work inspired the ASHA program one of India’s most successful grassroots public health interventions—brought lived experience of how measurement shapes strategy. “One of the important challenges is understanding the data—what to collect and what is the importance of the data; that part of capacity is currently missing.” Prof. K. Srinath Reddy reflected on why a public health monitor must go beyond conventional metrics, emphasizing the risk of reducing health systems to what is easiest to quantify rather than what is most consequential. “What is not easy to measure does not get measured, even if it is important. And therefore, what gets measured gets repetitively incorporated; that gets into policy, that gets into programs.” The session crystallized a principle that would be invoked repeatedly: You cannot manage what you do not measure. And you cannot transform what remains invisible. Planetary health and one health: Expanding the circle of care By noon, the summit’s frame had expanded radically. The session “From One Health to Planetary Health” unveiled India’s Draft Planetary Health Policy Framework, a document that signals a fundamental reorientation of what “public health” actually means in an era of climate crisis, zoonotic disease spillover, and ecological collapse. Rajit Punhani, IAS, Chief Executive Officer of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, brought the regulatory-systems lens. “Eat Right India has three components—safe food, healthy food, and sustainable food. What is grown depends on consumer demand. What we see today is that unhealthy food is cheaper and healthy food has become expensive. We need to change this paradigm.”. Punhani’s framing suggested a radical integration that we cannot talk about planetary health unless we are willing to transform our food systems. That requires coordination between health, agriculture, environment, and trade, conversations that almost never happen at the same table. Dr. Sunita Narain, Director General of the Centre for Science and Environment and Editor of Down To Earth magazine, brought an unsparing climate reality into the room. Her presence, a climate scientist, not a health bureaucrat, was itself a statement. “Nobody is safe till everybody is safe.” Brigadier Jyothikumar S. Dharamadheeran, Country Director and CEO of Brooke India, highlighted animal health as an important yet often overlooked component of the broader health discourse. “One Health is a concept that has been recognised at the highest levels of leadership in this country. Public health is what actually implements this concept on the ground.” He emphasised on animal welfare as a public health lever, and preventing disease at source. Dr. Rajiv Kumar Jain, Chair of the Scientific Committee on Education and Training in Occupational Health (SCETOH), brought to light the need of the hour. “We must create evidence first — only then can leadership and policy follow. Public health transformation cannot happen without evidence generation.” Digital public health: From innovation hype to equity reality The post-lunch session on “Transitioning to Digital Public Health” was the summit’s most forward-looking moment. Dr. Krishnan Ganapathy, Past President of the Telemedicine Society of India and Emeritus Professor at the National Academy of Medical Sciences, brought two decades of experience deploying telemedicine across rural India. “Unlearning and relearning, in my opinion, is far more important than learning. Doctors today are not pre-AI or post-AI—we are living in the AI era.” Dr. Indu Bhushan, Ex-CEO of the National Health Authority and former director of the Asian Development Bank, spoke to the capital and systems infrastructure required to scale digital health. “Anything that needs to be done at scale for large populations, digital is unavoidable.” Gopi Gopalakrishnan, Founder & President of World Health Partners, brought the practitioner’s voice. “Any system that does not have a self-correcting mechanism is doomed to failure.” Career, purpose, and power: Who gets to shape public health? The afternoon’s “Building a Rewarding Career in Public Health” session tackled an uncomfortable truth: that public health in India has become a second-choice profession, attracting idealists while haemorrhaging talented professionals to clinical medicine and private sector opportunities. Dr. R.K. Srivastava, Former Chairman of the Medical Council of India and Former Director General of Health Services, mentioned that “Solutions from public health experts are only possible when young boys and girls are involved.” Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh, Senior Paediatrician and Social Activist, brought a different kind of power. Her story, standing up to fake ORS products, protecting children, working with systems that often fought her rather than supported her, was not about career progression. It was about choosing to act regardless of credentials or permission. “There are many regulatory loopholes, and these loopholes can be exploited by people with vested interests. So you, and only you, can remind the systems of what they are built for.” Her presence reframed the conversation from “How do I build a career in public health?” to “What am I willing to risk for public health?” Big pharma in public health: Moving beyond defensiveness to accountability Perhaps the summit’s most provocative session, “Big Pharma in Public Health,” brought together an unusual alliance of industry veterans, mental health leaders, regulators, and investigative journalists, all circling the question: How can pharmaceutical innovation serve public health without colonizing it? Annaswamy Vaidheesh, Former Executive Chairperson of Suven Pharmaceuticals and Former Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pharmaceuticals, brought a candid insider perspective. “The question is not whether pharma is doing good. The question is whether it is also seen to be doing good, and whether that is backed by outcome-based public health data.” Representing the perspective of a global innovator operating within India’s evolving public health landscape, Praveen Akkinepally, Country President and Managing Director, AstraZeneca India, addressed the responsibility that accompanies scale, science, and market leadership. He spoke to the need for pharmaceutical companies to move beyond transactional engagement with health systems and invest in long-term outcomes. He reflected that, “Public health is a constant process. You never reach perfection, and that is just the way it works.” Prof. (Dr.) Nimesh G. Desai, Former Director of the Institute of Human Behaviour & Allied Sciences (IHBAS), brought the mental health lens, arguably where pharma’s contradictions are most visible. “The real question is whether the human race, caught between public health and commerce, will be able to strike that golden balance between pharma science and public welfare.” Ravi Uday Bhaskar, Director-General of the All India Drugs Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC), brought the regulatory voice, one often caught between industry pressure and public protection. “The average spending of Indian pharma on research and innovation is only 4–7%, while globally it is around 15%. Pharmaceutical companies must look beyond profits and place public interest above everything else.” Bhaskar’s call for empowered, fairly-resourced regulation reflected a broader summit insight that institutional strength matters as much as individual heroism. Viveka Roychowdhury, Editor, Express Pharma, Express Healthcare, and Express Nutra at The Indian Express, brought an accountability-driven journalism perspective. “Pharma is arguably one of the biggest influencers in health ecosystems, given their financial clout. But do they build this influence with responsibility and accountability? Accountability cannot exist without participation, and leadership requires the willingness to engage with difficult questions.” The open mic: Unscripted voices from the frontlines The final hour’s “Open Mic” session proved to be one of the most powerful moments. Young public health researchers, state health administrators, community health workers, and NGO leaders brought unfiltered voices about real constraints, innovations, and frustrations. The insights ranged from supply chain procurement bottlenecks that delay vaccine delivery, to the critical role of female frontline workers in disease surveillance, to calls for genuine co-design of public health interventions with the communities they serve. This democratic moment underscored what the Health Parliament had signalled before the summit that Public health transformation cannot be top-down. It requires the voices, insights, and lived experience of those executing public health every day, not just policymakers in the nation. What this summit means: A turning point As Mevish P. Vaishnav, President of Health Parliament, delivered the vote of thanks, she positioned the summit not as a culmination but as a launching pad. The Public Health Transformation Summit arrived at a moment when India’s public health establishment is grappling with a fundamental identity crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed critical vulnerabilities in disease surveillance and emergency preparedness. The epidemiological transition, with non-communicable diseases now driving disease burden, has made clear that yesterday’s public health architecture cannot address today’s challenges. And a new generation of leaders is demanding that public health be reframed as essential infrastructure, not a charitable afterthought. The summit also touched something deeper, returning to India’s own intellectual heritage on public and collective health. As framed by Health Parliament, by looking beyond the last 400 years to ancient India’s sophisticated understanding of water, sanitation, and the social determinants of health, contemporary leaders can reclaim a lineage of thinking about collective welfare that predates biomedicine by millennia. This was not nostalgia. It offered intellectual space to reimagine public health as a central pillar of societal resilience and long-term well-being. What comes next: From vision to execution As delegates left the C. D. Deshmukh Auditorium on January 16th evening, they carried with them not just insights, but commitments. Partnerships forged in informal conversations will likely reshape how states approach health planning. For India’s public health ecosystem, January 16, 2026, will likely be remembered as the day the conversation shifted fundamentally. It was the day when India’s most influential health leaders gathered not to celebrate what public health has been, but to collectively architect what it must become. The real test, however, will come in the months and years ahead. Will governments allocate budgets commensurate with the vision outlined? Will academic institutions genuinely integrate digital thinking into public health education? Will pharma move beyond corporate responsibility rhetoric to structural change? Will regulatory frameworks be strengthened? Will young people see careers in public health as pathways to impact rather than consolation prizes? The summit’s true measure will be in the policies that change, the investments that flow, the careers that are built, and ultimately, in the health outcomes of communities across India who benefit from a public health system finally positioned as the urgent, technology-enabled, equity-focused discipline the 21st century demands. As Dr. Gupta told delegates at the close: “Today, at the Public Health Transformation Summit 2026, leaders came from diverse fields for a frank discourse on public health. Now the real work begins, together, we must turn this conversation into action and transform public health.”

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Public Health Transformation Summit 2026 outlines India’s shift to rights-driven, digital public health

Dr. Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE, noted, “Nobody is safe till everybody is safe.” Over 250 public health leaders, researchers, and practitioners convened at the India International Centre for the Public Health Transformation Summit 2026 to discuss the future of India’s public health system. Recognised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as the Official Pre-Summit of the AI Impact Summit 2026, the event focused on shifting India’s public health from a reactive model to a rights-driven, technology-enabled discipline. The Summit delivered concrete outcomes, including the announcement of India’s first Public Health Monitor, a Draft Planetary Health Policy Framework, and a reimagined digital public health curriculum designed to prepare a new generation of leaders fluent in epidemiology and technology. Nursing professionals participating in the Summit earned five CNE hours. Senior diplomats and representatives from France, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Chad, Lithuania, Guinea, Togo, China, Benin, and Jamaica attended the Summit, highlighting India’s growing international engagement in public health dialogue. Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Founding President of the Public Health Foundation of India, opened the Summit, stating, “If Clinical medicine delivers health in retail, then Public Health delivers health in wholesale.” Co-chair Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta added, “Public Health needs to integrate digital, if it has to scale and we need to create a pipeline of future leaders who will lead this revolution & that remains the biggest challenge for public health.” The morning panel addressed the state of public health in India. Dr. Narendra Kumar Arora, Executive Director of The INCLEN Trust International, said, “We need to move forward in a way that is evidence-based and not on assumptions.” Mathew Cherian, Chairperson of CARE India, commented on geriatric healthcare, stating, “If we provide age-friendly healthcare, then all of us in this room can live to be 100 years.” Dr. Harish Iyer, Director of Health R&D, Digital Innovations & AI at the Gates Foundation, added, “Technology can be deeply enabling. How do you make this enabling in the public health system is the challenge, and figuring out how to make it interoperable.” Dr. Girish N. Rao, Principal Investigator of the National Mental Health Survey, emphasised, “We are conveniently forgetting that there is no health without mental health, and this is not just an average or a mere slogan. Mental health is everybody’s business. The stress and the distress in the different disorders are now more evident than ever.” Mevish P. Vaishnav, President of Health Parliament, concluded, “Public Health is not just about hospitals and diseases. It is the condition in which people live—the air, water, food, mental well-being, ageing, and the systems that protect us or fail to protect us.” Keynote addresses framed public health as central to India’s development. Dr. Vinod K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, stated, “Data is only useful when you use it; when you store it, it has no value. Unless data is connected, interoperable, and actually used for planning, programming, and action, it does not serve its purpose.” Shri Bharat Lal, Secretary General, NHRC, emphasised, “Preventive healthcare through this approach is very important.” Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, CEO, National Health Authority, highlighted digital public health, saying, “If we really want to build Viksit Bharat by 2047, we need to be a healthy Bharat, and a healthy Bharat will exist if we really promote integrated healthcare with many more technological solutions.” Smt. Vijaya K. Rahatkar, Chairperson, NCW, stated, “भारत केवल बीमारियों से नहीं लड़ रहा है, भारत स्वास्थ्य की एक नई व्यवस्था बना रहा है, और इस परिवर्तन के केंद्र में भारत की नारी शक्ति खड़ी है।” The Public Health Monitor session, led by Prof. K. Srinath Reddy, Dr. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, and Dr. K. Madan Gopal, introduced a transparent, real-time framework for measuring public health outcomes and system capacity. Dr. Gopal noted, “One of the important challenges is understanding the data—what to collect and what is the importance of the data; that part of capacity is currently missing.” Prof. Reddy added, “What is not easy to measure does not get measured, even if it is important. And therefore, what gets measured gets repetitively incorporated; that gets into policy, that gets into programs.” Sessions on Planetary Health and One Health highlighted environmental and animal health as core public health considerations. Shri Rajit Punhani, CEO, FSSAI, said, “We need to change this paradigm” of unhealthy food being cheaper than healthy food. Dr. Sunita Narain, Director General, CSE, noted, “Nobody is safe till everybody is safe.” Brigadier Jyothikumar S. Dharamadheeran, CEO, Brooke India, added, “Public health is what actually implements this concept on the ground.” Dr Rajiv Kumar Jain, Chair, SCETOH, stated, “We must create evidence first — only then can leadership and policy follow.” The Digital Public Health session addressed technology-enabled solutions. Dr. Krishnan Ganapathy said, “Unlearning and relearning, in my opinion, is far more important than learning. Doctors today are not pre-AI or post-AI—we are living in the AI era.” Dr. Indu Bhushan highlighted system requirements, stating, “Anything that needs to be done at scale for large populations, digital is unavoidable.” Gopi Gopalakrishnan added, “Any system that does not have a self-correcting mechanism is doomed to failure.” Panels on careers, industry engagement, and accountability included Dr. R.K. Srivastava, “Solutions from public health experts are only possible when young boys and girls are involved.” Dr. Sivaranjani Santosh added, “There are many regulatory loopholes, and these loopholes can be exploited by people with vested interests. So you, and only you, can remind the systems of what they are built for.” Annaswamy Vaidheesh, Former Executive Chairperson, Suven Pharmaceuticals, questioned, “The question is not whether pharma is doing good. The question is whether it is also seen to be doing good, and whether that is backed by outcome-based public health data.” Praveen Akkinepally, Country President, AstraZeneca India, reflected on long-term outcomes, “Public health is a constant process. You never reach perfection, and that is just the way it works.” The summit concluded with an Open Mic session, where frontline workers and researchers shared challenges and innovations, reinforcing that transformation requires participation from all levels. Ms. Mevish P. Vaishnav, President of Health Parliament, noted that the Summit is “not as a culmination but as a launching pad.” Dr. Gupta closed the Summit, stating, “Today, at the Public Health Transformation Summit 2026, leaders came from diverse fields for a frank discourse on public health. Now the real work begins, together, we must turn this conversation into action and transform public health.”

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छोटे शहरों की बड़ी समस्या बना प्रदूषण

सुनीता नारायण,पर्यावरणविद और महानिदेशक, सीएसई यह धारणा अब बदलनी चाहिए कि वायु प्रदूषण सिर्फ ‘महानगरों और बड़े शहरों की समस्या’ है। केंद्रीय प्रदूषण नियंत्रण बोर्ड के आंकड़े तस्दीक करते हैं कि हमारे छोटे शहर भी अब दूषित हवा में सांस ले रहे हैं। कुछ मामलों में तो स्थिति कहीं अधिक गंभीर है। देशव्यापी प्रदूषण पर पिछले साल हमारी एक सहयोगी ने अध्ययन किया था, जिसमें चौंकाने वाले नतीजे सामने आए थे। वह रिपोर्ट बताती है कि वायु प्रदूषण के नए हॉटस्पॉट बर्नीहाट जैसे छोटे शहर बनने लगे हैं। यह पूर्वोत्तर में असम-मेघालय सीमा पर स्थित है। पीएम 2.5 के सालाना स्तर के मामले में इसने दिल्ली को पीछे छोड़ दिया था। इसी तरह, गुरुग्राम, श्रीगंगानगर, फरीदाबाद, ग्रेटर नोएडा, मुजफ्फरनगर भी उन शहरों में शामिल दिखे, जहां वायु प्रदूषण का स्तर खतरे के पार बना रहता है। यह भारत में वायु प्रदूषण में एक बड़े बदलाव का संकेत है, जिसका अर्थ है कि छोटे शहरों में भी सुधार के लिए तत्काल कदम उठाने की दरकार है। जाहिर है, हमें नियामक ढांचा मजबूत बनाना होगा, निगरानी व्यवस्था दुरुस्त करनी होगी और रोकथाम के सख्त उपाय अपनाने होंगे। हालांकि, ये तमाम प्रयास तभी सफल होंगे, जब नागरिकों को पता होगा कि हमारी हवा कितनी खराब है? दिक्कत वास्तव में यही है। दरअसल, देश के ज्यादातर हिस्सों में लोगों को पता ही नहीं चलता कि उनके यहां हवा कितनी दूषित है? अपने यहां वायु प्रदूषण से निपटने का सबसे आसान तरीका यही अपनाया जाता है कि लोगों को असलियत न बताओ। ऐसा इसलिए होता है, क्योंकि हम जिस हवा में सांस लेते हैं, उसे ‘मॉनिटर’ करने की पर्याप्त व्यवस्था देश के अधिकतर हिस्सों में नहीं है। नतीजतन, लोग न सिर्फ वायु प्रदूषण की जानकारी से अनभिज्ञ रह जाते हैं, बल्कि उन्हें यह भी पता नहीं होता कि प्रदूषण का स्तर बढ़ने पर उनको क्या-क्या करना चाहिए, ताकि सेहत को कम-से-कम नुकसान पहुंचे। दुनिया भर में वायु प्रदूषण को मापने के लिए वायु गुणवत्ता सूचकांक (एक्यूआई) का इस्तेमाल होता है। वहां इस आंकड़े का इस्तेमाल जानकारी देने और फिर कार्रवाई करने के लिए किया जाता है। लोगों को पता होता है कि उन्हें क्या सावधानियां बरतनी चाहिए और स्थानीय प्रशासन को प्रदूषण से लड़ने के लिए क्या कदम उठाने चाहिए? इसीलिए, बीजिंग में ‘रेड अलर्ट’ के दिनों में स्कूल बंद हो जाते हैं, तो पेरिस ‘स्मॉग’ केे दिनों में शहर में डीजल कारों को आने नहीं देता। भारत ऐसा नहीं कर पाता। कुछ अपवादों को छोड़ दें, तो हमारे पास स्टेशनों का ऐसा नेटवर्क नहीं है, जो हमें रियल टाइम में खतरों के बारे में बता सके। हमारे पास 966 मैन्युअल स्टेशन हैं, जो सैंपल इकट्ठा करते हैं और उन्हें प्रयोगशाला में विश्लेषण के लिए भेजते हैं। ये स्टेशन करीब 24 घंटे के बाद रोजाना का औसत आंकड़ा दे सकते हैं, वह भी तब, जब कोई व्यक्ति उस जानकारी को इकट्ठा करे, उसका विश्लेषण करे और लोगों से साझा करे। नियमित तौर पर ऐसा कर पाना कठिन होता है, इसलिए ज्यादातर आंकड़े पुराने मिलते हैं। अधिकतर मैन्युअल स्टेशन एक साल में 104 दिन निगरानी की न्यूनतम जरूरत भी पूरी करते नहीं दिखते। तात्कालिक समय पर निगरानी करने वाले स्टेशनों की बात करें, तो देश के 296 शहरों में 567 रियल टाइम स्टेशन काम कर रहे हैं। यह स्थिति तब है, जब देश में 4,000 से अधिक शहर और नगर हैं। बेशक, 2010 की तुलना में मैन्युअल स्टेशनों की संख्या दोगुनी से अधिक हो गई है और रियल टाइम स्टेशनों में भी 20 गुना की वृद्धि हुई है, लेकिन 40 फीसदी से अधिक आबादी अब भी वायु प्रदूषण की निगरानी व्यवस्था से बाहर है और करीब 60 फीसदी लोगों को अपने इलाके के वायु गुणवत्ता सूचकांक की जानकारी नहीं होती। ऐसे शहरों की संख्या तो 200 से भी कम है, जो सभी छह मुख्य प्रदूषकों की निगरानी करते हैं। कोई चाहे, तो इन स्टेशनों (मैन्युअल और रियल टाइम, दोनों) की लागत को मुद्दा बना सकता है, जो गलत भी नहीं है। एक रियल टाइम स्टेशन बनाने में करीब एक करोड़ रुपये की जरूरत होती है, जिसके सालाना रखरखाव पर 18 से 20 लाख रुपये का खर्च आता है। इसी तरह, मैन्युअल स्टेशन बनाने में आठ से दस लाख रुपये की लागत आती है। ऐसे में, हमें हवा की निगरानी के लिए नवाचार को बढ़ावा देना चाहिए। हमारे नौजवान जब ‘स्टार्ट अप’ के मामले में दुनिया भर में अपनी योग्यता का लोहा मनवा सकते हैं, तो क्या उनकी मेधा का इस्तेमाल इस काम में नहीं किया जा सकता? इसी तरह, निवारक उपायों को लेकर भी रणनीतियों में सुधार होना चाहिए। निर्माण-कार्य छोटे शहरों की मजबूरियां हैं, लेकिन पर्यावरण-हितैषी निर्माण-कार्यों को बढ़ावा देकर हम वहां की हवा को काफी हद तक बचा सकते हैं। अब ऐसी निर्माण-सामग्रियों को बढ़ावा देने की जरूरत है, जिनका पर्यावरण पर नकारात्मक प्रभाव कम-से-कम पड़े। नवीकरणीय सामग्रियों के उपयोग के साथ-साथ ऊर्जा-कुशल डिजाइन तैयार करने को लेकर भी लोगों को प्रेरित किया जाना चाहिए, ताकि कार्बन फुटप्रिंट कम हों। इसी तरह, गाड़ियों के इस्तेमाल को लेकर भी जागरूकता बननी चाहिए। किसी भी शहर का आंकड़ा ले लीजिए, गाड़ियों की संख्या में वृद्धि इंसानी आबादी में बढ़ोतरी से कहीं ज्यादा दिखेगी। यह कोई इत्तफाक नहीं है। असल में, सार्वजनिक परिवहन की कमी के कारण लोगों के पास निजी गाड़ियों की तरफ जाने के अलावा कोई चारा नहीं बचता। जैसे-जैसे सार्वजनिक परिवहन कम हुए हैं, लोग दोपहिया या कारों की तरफ बढ़े हैं। कई साल पहले मैंने पढ़ा था कि अमेरिका में किस तरह ऑटोमोबाइल उद्योग ने जान-बूझकर रेलवे और ट्राॅम-वे खरीद लिया था, ताकि वे उनको खत्म कर सकें। भारत में यह कहानी ज्यादा आसान रही। सार्वजनिक परिवहन को बर्बाद करने के लिए निजी कंपनियों को ‘निवेश’ नहीं करना पड़ा। यह काम सरकारों द्वारा खुद किया गया। ज्यादातर शहरों में, बसें ट्रांसपोर्ट कंपनी की तरह नहीं, बल्कि रोजगार देने वाली सेवा के रूप में चलती हैं। फिर, सरकारों ने सार्वजनिक परिवहन को बेहतर बनाने के लिए जरूरी निवेश भी नहीं किया। जाहिर है, छोटे शहरों पर अब ज्यादा ध्यान देने की जरूरत है। दुनिया की पांच बड़ी आर्थिक ताकतों में शुमार भारत इसे अब नजरंदाज नहीं कर सकता। वह भी तब, जब वायु प्रदूषण से देश में हर साल 15 से 17 लाख लोगों की जान जाती हो। (ये लेखिका के अपने विचार हैं)

• Clean Air & Sustainable Mobility

Delhi pollution: Highest AQI for Jan in 2 years; city breathes joint worst air on record for 2nd half of first month

The capital's air quality remained severe on Sunday, a day after Commission for Air Quality Management invoked Stage-IV measures under Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). The 4pm air quality index, considered the day's standard reading, stood at 440, a shade higher than 428 at 8pm on Saturday — both in the severe range. This was the highest Jan reading since the index had touched 447 on Jan 14, 2024, and the joint-worst on record for the second half of the month — 440 was also the reading on Jan 17, 2019 — according to Central Pollution Control Board data. Highest AQI for Jan in 2 yrs, city breathes joint worst air on record for 2nd half of first month All previous peak readings in Jan, including the all-time high of 460 recorded on Jan 15, 2021, were from the first half of the month. The city did not record a single severe air day in Jan last year. Sunday also marked Delhi's first severe air quality day of the year and the first since Dec 29, 2025, when the reading was 401. It was also the second-worst this winter, after a peak of 461 on Dec 14. Calm winds linked to a western disturbance, along with dense fog, led to the air quality plunging. The highest contribution of Delhi's air pollutants was from its own transport sector (12.5%), followed by emissions from Gautam Budh Nagar at 12%, Ghaziabad (9.4%) and Bulandshahr at 8.34%, according to the Centre's Decision Support System, which estimates the contribution of sources impacting the capital's air quality. The air is likely to improve to ‘very poor' on Monday and remain within the range on Tuesday, according to the Centre's Air Quality Early Warning System.While meteorological conditions played a key role, emissions from both local and neighbouring districts remained high, experts said. Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at think tank Envirocatalysts, said low wind speed, stable atmospheric conditions, stagnation of local emissions and a higher contribution from neighbouring districts on the city's east and south-west resulted in a spike in pollutants. "An urgent intervention for reduction of emission load at major sources, along with other GRAP measures in Delhi-NCR, may help reduce the severity of the episode. However, long-term relief will follow reduction of systematic emission load at the sources across a larger airshed," he said. Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director (research and advocacy) of Centre for Science and Environment, said, "This is the time of the year when adverse atmospheric conditions intensify and trap the already high levels of pollutants in the region. This has also been a long dry spell. The only way to mitigate this air emergency is to reduce round-the-year pollution." Dense fog shrouded Delhi, with visibility dipping to zero in many places. At Safdarjung, the city's base station, it remained low between 2.30 am and 8.30 am. At Palam, visibility dropped to 100 metres at 7.30 am, according to India Meteorological Department (IMD). The department issued a yellow alert for moderate to dense fog during the morning hours of Monday. While no flights had to be cancelled or diverted at Indira Gandhi International Airport, several departures and arrivals were delayed. Data from flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 showed that over 500 flights were delayed, with an average delay of about 34 minutes, at the airport. The minimum temperature was 5.3 degrees Celsius on Sunday, two notches below normal, and 0.9°C higher than Saturday's minimum. As cold wave conditions eased across the region, the minimum is predicted to rise to around 9°C to 11°C by Jan 23. The maximum temperature was recorded at 22.7°C, three notches above normal. It is likely to stay between 24°C and 26°C on Monday. The city may receive very light rain on Jan 23 under the influence of a fresh western disturbance, said a Met official.

• DTE - Web

Over 5,500 People Fell Sick, And 34 Died From Contaminated Tap Water Across India In The Last Year

Between February 2025 and January 2026, India experienced a severe urban water quality crisis. During this period, at least 5,500 individuals became ill, and 34 lost their lives due to contaminated tap water across India. The problem was found in 26 cities across 22 states, and both big cities and smaller towns were impacted. The most common illness reported was diarrhea; other illnesses included typhoid, hepatitis, and persistent fevers. These were all traced back to the intake of unsafe water. What’s Causing Unsafe Tap Water in India? Outdated Infrastructure The main reason for contaminated tap water across India is its old water pipes. Cities continue to depend on water systems set up over 40 years ago. As an example, about 18% of Delhi’s water pipes are over 30 years old, which results in leaks and raises the chance of pollution. These old pipes are often too close to sewer pipes. Because of this, any crack or leak can cause untreated sewage to mix into the tap water, mostly in places where sewer and water systems are not well separated. Contamination All Year Round, Not Just Monsoon Water contamination was initially thought to be mainly a problem during the monsoon season. Heavy rains and floods would break into the water systems. Recent problems, like the one in Indore in late 2025, prove that contaminated tap water across India happens throughout the year. Governance and Systemic Gaps Even with water quality rules and programs like the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) 2.0, problems persist. Very few cities in India, less than 10% in studies, say they provide completely good water, according to national surveys. Monitoring, checking, and keeping watch on public health are often slow, inconsistent, and only start after many people get sick. Tap Water Issues 2025-26