Heavily polluted India launches national air quality index

India has launched a new air quality index to help citizens understand complex pollution data and its implications for their health, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said.

A World Health Organization (WHO) study of 1,600 cities released in May found New Delhi had the world's dirtiest air with an annual average of 153 micrograms of small particulates, known as PM2.5, per cubic metre.

Thirteen of the dirtiest 20 cities worldwide were in India, the WHO said. India rejected the report.

The new index, launched as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Clean India Mission', will provide one consolidated number after tracking eight pollutants and will use colour coding to describe associated health impacts.

"I congratulate all the scientists under Dr. Agarwal who have worked hard to create our own and very comparable, comprehensive index which will provide the common citizens one number, one colour and one description so that he can understand what is the level of air pollution and air quality which he is breathing," Javadekar said.

Currently, India's air quality status is reported through "voluminous data", the government said. This makes it difficult for people to understand particle names such as PM2.5 or PM10.

"We want to make clean air also a people's campaign. We want our water to be clean. We want air to be clean. We want our solid waste management to give us real clean India - the dream of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi," Javadekar added.

The environment minister said the government would also start action-oriented programmes in collaboration with the states to improve air quality, but he gave no details.

Air pollution killed about seven million people in 2012, making it the world's single biggest environmental health risk, the WHO, a United Nations agency, said in March.