Delhi air quality 'very poor' as morning rainfall fails to ease pollution

The city's Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 380 --'very poor'-- at 8 am, according to SAFAR

Delhi's air remained toxic on Thursday despite rains lashing parts of the national capital on Wednesday and bringing no relief from the pollution.

The city’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was at 380 --'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'.

The IMD has said that rains will continue till January 9 but no cold wave conditions are likely over north India, including Delhi, during next 6-7 days.

Delhi this morning was the world's most polluted city with an AQI of 241, said IQAir, a website that tracks air quality worldwide. Mumbai and Kolkata were the only other Indian cities on the list at the sixth and seventh spot with an AQI of 168, 165.

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.