Economic Survey 2024-25: What does it say about air pollution?

Economic Survey 2024-25 recognises air pollution as a major concern for north India, especially for people in the Delhi NCR region where unhealthy air has almost become a staple in the winter months.

Focusing on climate adaptation as a key goal, the government in the 2024-25 Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Friday (January 31, 2025) said that India will need to continue “efforts to maximise the efficiency of its existing fossil fuel resources in the medium term”. The Survey pointed to developed countries prematurely shutting down thermal power plants without viable alternatives, and said that widespread adoption of renewable energy remains challenging.

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The Economic Survey recognises air pollution as a major concern for north India, especially for people in the Delhi NCR region where unhealthy air has almost become a staple in the winter months. In 2024 (until December 27, 2024), Delhi saw 155 days of ‘poor’, ‘very poor’, or ‘severe’ air quality, with an air quality index (AQI) of 200 or more. For the first time in six years, the city did not witness even one day of ‘good’ air quality days (AQI lesser than 50) in 2024.

Even on the day the Economic Survey was tabled in Parliament, the air quality was recorded in the “very poor” category at 9 a.m., with an AQI of 349 — and this was two days after stage 3 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) was invoked in NCR on January 29, 2025 as the air quality deteriorated.

Quoting the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Economic Survey says that 99% of the world breathes air that exceeds WHO guideline limits and contains high levels of pollutants, but people in low and middle-income countries suffer the most. The document recognises the role of human activities like vehicular traffic, agricultural practices, and use of coal and wood for cooking, it also puts the blame on geography and wind direction.

The Survey focuses on government programmes like the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) and actions like GRAP that have been designed to tackle the problem of air pollution. “The NCAP emphasises the implementation of City Action Plans (CAPs) through the convergence of resources from various central government schemes such as Swachh Bharat Mission (Urban), AMRUT, Smart City Mission, SATAT, and Nagar Van Yojana, as well as through resources from state governments/UT administration and agencies like municipal corporations and urban development authorities,” the Survey states. However, a report published in The Hindu on April 28, 2024 analyses how implementation of Clean Air Action Plans under NCAP has been inconsistent.

GRAP is a series of restrictions imposed in response to air pollution levels, but in December 2024, when Delhi NCR was going through yet another bout of air pollution, Supreme Court compared the plan to “medicine given to an already critical patient”, raising doubts on its efficacy.