Only four months ago, I wrote two pieces on air pollution—both ambient and indoor—mercilessly killing Bharatiyas in hordes. These articles were published in the 31 October 2024 and 12 November 2024 editions of News18.

Why am I so obsessed with this subject, about which no one in the country seems to care, that I am writing a third piece—and that too so soon? The reasons are both temporal and existential.

The immediate reason for this piece is the recent release of the report AQI – Worldwide Air Quality Report 2024 by the Swiss agency IQAir. This report analysed global air quality trends in 2024, highlighting the continents, countries, and cities with the highest AQI levels.

The optimist in me was hoping for at least some incremental good news for Bharat. However, to tell you the truth, dear readers, I am both dismayed and flabbergasted.

The World Air Quality Report 2024 by IQAir aims to highlight global air quality trends to support progress on environmental action worldwide. To assess this progress, the report focuses on the most harmful PM2.5 concentrations and the Air Quality Index (AQI) across countries and cities.

To offer a comprehensive view of air pollution, the report relies on both real-time and historical data from AQI. As the most detailed report on the subject, it analyses AQI and PM2.5 levels across 5,750 cities in 140 countries and regions. The data for this report was collected from more than 15,432 air quality monitoring stations operated by governmental bodies, research institutions, universities, and other organisations.

This leads to the existential question- “When it comes to the most polluted countries in the world, where does Bharat—the most populous country, soon to be the third-largest economy by GDP, and aspiring to be a developed nation by 2027—stand?

It must be noted that Bharat’s annual ranking among the most polluted countries has been dismal for many years. However, with all the talk of combating air pollution in recent years, citizens had a legitimate hope for at least some improvement this year.

But that was not to be!

The sombre findings of the report reveal that among the world’s leading nations, Bharat remains the most polluted. But where does it stand in comparison to the........

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