New Delhi: India’s annual-average concentrations of fine particulate matter – a major air pollutant that affects human health – in 2023 stood at 41 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³), slightly higher than in 2022, per the latest report on air quality released by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago on Thursday (August 28).Per the report, residents in Delhi could stand to lose 8.2 years of their lives to the impacts of this pollution, if India does not meet the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s annual PM2.5 concentration standard of 5 µg/m³.Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, is one of the world’s major air pollutants. These inhalable particles are less than 2.5 micrometres (µm) wide, and are emitted during the burning of fossil fuels. Thus emissions from vehicles, factories and thermal power plants can contribute to the levels of this pollutant in the air.According to the WHO, chronic exposure to fine particulate matter contributes to the risk of developing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and lung cancer.India too has been grappling with fine particulate matter pollution. Currently, the Central Pollution Control Board, the apex statutory body in India for pollution control under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), prescribes an annual average of 40 μg/m3 as the permissible upper limit for PM2.5 in the lower atmosphere.The international WHO standard, however, is more stringent: it prescribes safe limits of this pollutant as no more than 5 μg/m3.Using both satellite-derived and ground data on PM2.5 levels, the Energy Policy Institute’s Air Quality Life Index (AQLI) analyses data on air quality, specifically levels of fine particulate matter, and translates this to people’s life expectancy by factoring in the populations of these regions too.Its reports, released every year, compare countries and regions across the world based on this parameter.Its latest report – based on data for the year 2023 – found that the levels of PM2.5 across the world have risen slightly, and air pollution is still the world’s greatest “external risk to human health”.South Asia is the most polluted region in the world. Though PM2.5 levels dipped in 2022 compared to 2021, particulate pollution in South Asia increased by 2.8% in 2023.“The analysis shows that improving life expectancy in South Asia will require policies that bring air quality in line with current standards and, over time, move toward stricter limits. Evidence from other regions demonstrates that targeted, sustained action can rapidly reduce PM2.5 and deliver measurable gains in longevity,” AQLI director Tanushree Ganguly said in a press statement.Per the report, particulate matter pollution in India in 2023 increased slightly when compared to levels in 2022. India’s annual-average PM2.5 concentrations in 2023 stood at 41 µg/m³.The Northern Plains – regions of the Indo-Gangetic plains that include many parts of north India – was the most polluted region of the country.Per the report, 544.4 million residents or 38.9% of India’s population could gain five years of life expectancy on average relative to the WHO guideline and 1.6 years relative to the national standard, if current pollution levels are reduced to meet the WHO guideline.In terms of states, Delhi set the record – again. The annual average concentration of PM2.5 here in 2023 was a staggering 88.4 μg/m3. Per the report, these levels eat into 8.2 years of the life expectancy of Delhi’s residents. And if India cannot decrease these levels even at the less-stringent national standards (40 μg/m3), the capital city’s people stand to lose 4.74 years of their lives.After Delhi and the Northern Plains, the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra face the highest health burden of particulate pollution, the report noted.“Reducing particulate pollution to meet the WHO guideline could add 3.3, 3.1 and 2.8 years respectively to the average life expectancy in these states,” it added.In 2022, the AQLI report by the Energy Policy Institute found that India had recorded a significant 19.3% drop in particulate pollution when compared to 2021. This – the second-highest reduction in the world after Bangladesh – added an average of 51 days to the life expectancy of every citizen in the country, the institute’s report for 2022 published in 2024 had found.The report for 2022 had also said that Indians are likely to lose 3.6 years of life expectancy if India did not meet the WHO’s annual PM2.5 concentration standard of 5 µg/m³.Per the latest report, particulate pollution levels of 2023 reveal that reducing levels to meet the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m³ could add 3.5 years onto the life expectancy of an average Indian.“All of India’s 1.4 billion people live in areas where the annual-average particulate pollution level exceeds the WHO guideline. This means that even people living in the cleanest regions of India could live 9.4 months longer if particulate concentrations in these regions were reduced to meet the WHO guideline,” the latest report noted.The National Clean Air Programme launched in 2019 by the MoEFCC aimed to reduce PM2.5 pollution by at least 20% by 2024, as compared to 2017, in 132 cities across the country.In 2022, the Indian government revamped this target, setting it to a 40% reduction relative to 2017 levels by 2026 for 131 non-attainment cities.“If the ambition of the revised target is met, these cities’ overall annual average PM2.5 exposure would be 21.9 µg/m³ lower than 2017 levels, adding 2.1 years onto the life of the average Indian living in these cities, and 7.9 months to the national average life expectancy,” the latest AQLI report noted.