Sir — In a long overdue move, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a National Air Quality Index, which will monitor the quality of air in major urban centres across the country on a real-time basis. People should welcome the release of the much-awaited AQI, which can be used to inform people about the air quality daily and to provide advisories on health consequences. It can probably tell how clean or polluted the air is, and what the associated health effects might be. In fact, the Centre for Science and Environment had been demanding such an index for a long time.
This can surely help build public awareness as well as public support for hard decisions that are needed to get cleaner air. The global standard shows air quality on a six-colour scale, dark green being the cleanest and maroon the most polluted. Decisions will have to be taken, starting with shifting gears on the car culture in favour of public transport. Upgrading the institutional capacity to assess pollution sources, bigger fines for violators of set emission quotas and a stronger legal framework for air quality management, cannot be avoided.