Delhi air inches closer to 'good' category; expected to deteriorate

The city's Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 53 at 8 am, according to SAFAR

Delhi's air quality was in the 'satisfactory' category Monday morning, as rains and thunderstorms the past few days eased the pollution.

The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 53 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'.

However, SAFAR has predicted that low wind speed is expected to deteriorate Delhi's overall air quality. “AQI is likely to be ‘Satisfactory’ tomorrow and then degrade to ‘Moderate’ on January 11 and January 12 due to low wind speeds,” SAFAR said on Sunday.

Delhi's AQI on Sunday morning was 90, in the 'satisfactory' category. This came after Delhi recorded its highest rainfall in a day for January in 22 years on Saturday, yielding the city's best air quality in over two months. The last time Delhi's air was in this category was on October 25 last year.

Delhi was the world's tenth most polluted city in the world with an AQI of 168 on Monday. Meanwhile, Kolkata stood at the first spot in IQair's list of the world's top ten most polluted cities with an AQI of 185. 

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.