Delhi air quality improves from 'severe', but AQI still 'very poor'

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was at 347 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to SAFAR

Delhi air was toxic on Tuesday morning as it improved from the severe category. 

The Air Quality Index (AQI) in the national capital was at 347 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to the Ministry of Earth Sciences' air quality forecast agency SAFAR. Readings below 50 are considered safe, while anything above 300 is considered hazardous or 'severe'.

This came after Delhi's AQI levels were in the 'severe' category for a few days as all activities, including construction, demolition, resumed in the national capital. 

Delhi's air quality in November was the worst in seven years, data showed. The air became worse after Diwali on November 4 as people violated a ban on bursting firecrackers while the pollution compounded due to an increase in stubble burning by farmers in areas adjoining the national capital.

Delhi this morning was the world's third most polluted city with an AQI of 188, said IQAir, a website that tracks air quality worldwide. Kolkata and Mumbai were the only other Indian cities on the list at the fifth and seventh spot with an AQI of 174, 166 respectively.

Preliminary data from a month-long experiment has shown that indoor air pollution levels were nearly half of the outdoor levels in Delhi-NCR during November-December so far.

Air pollution costs Indian businesses $95 billion or roughly 3 per cent of its GDP every year, according to U.K.-based non-profit Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry, Bloomberg has reported.