Stop the Seasonal Panic: FICCI-EY Demand Explicit PM2.5 Targets to Save Millions
A joint FICCI-EY paper warns that air pollution caused 2 million deaths in India in 2023, calling for year-round health-led strategies over seasonal panic.
India can no longer afford to treat air pollution as a seasonal crisis that only demands attention during the winter smog. According to a groundbreaking joint knowledge paper titled “Clean air, healthy India” released by FICCI and EY, the nation must immediately pivot from reactive, short-term measures to a sustained, health-led strategy. The report argues that the only way to achieve this is by embedding explicit reduction targets for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) directly into the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).
The urgency of this shift is underscored by a staggering statistic: air pollution was linked to more than two million deaths in India in 2023 alone. The report highlights that PM2.5 is particularly dangerous because these tiny particles penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, triggering a cascade of severe health issues including chronic respiratory illnesses, heart disease, strokes, and cognitive impairment, while simultaneously driving up national healthcare spending.
Beyond Environmentalism: A Healthcare Emergency
The core philosophy of the FICCI-EY paper is that clean air should be viewed as a central pillar of India’s healthcare agenda rather than just an environmental goal. The experts call for a structural pivot where success is measured by actual health outcomes and the reduction of human exposure, rather than simply counting the number of interventions implemented.
"Clean air must be central to India’s healthcare agenda, not treated solely as an environmental objective. Healthcare institutions have an important role to play in strengthening public awareness, tracking pollution-related illness and improving preparedness," stated Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, Chair of the FICCI Health Services Committee and MD & CEO of Fortis Healthcare.
Adding to this, Dr Arun Agarwal, Chair of the FICCI Working Group on Air Pollution and Medical Advisor at Apollo Hospitals Group, emphasized the need for year-round priority, linking air-quality monitoring directly with health surveillance to tailor interventions to local pollution sources.
10 Practical Solutions for a Breathable India
To combat toxic air across agricultural, industrial, and urban landscapes, the report outlines ten actionable solutions:
- Dust Control: Implementing closed-loop dust management at large construction and demolition sites to stop localized PM2.5 and PM10 leaks.
- Hyper-Local Monitoring: Deploying intra-city networks to identify specific hotspots caused by waste burning, traffic, and industrial clusters.
- Smart Traffic: Installing intelligent traffic signals to reduce vehicular idling and the "stop-and-go" congestion in cities.
- Emission Markets: Creating industrial pollution markets based on live stack-emissions data and monitoring diesel soot.
- Energy Transition: Replacing heavy diesel backup generators with battery-hybrid systems and upgrading traditional brick kilns to zig-zag firing technology.
- Agri-Waste Innovation: Scaling technologies that turn crop residue into industrial products and marketable fuels.
- Circular Economy: Repurposing industrial residue, construction debris, and recovered plastics into building materials for public infrastructure.
- Financial Bundling: Grouping small-scale green projects together to attract larger private and institutional investment.
- Strict Standards: Establishing stable compliance tracking and government standards to encourage industry efficiency.
- Preventive Health: Strengthening school safety plans, public advisories, and hospital surveillance before seasonal spikes hit.
Breaking the Boundary Barrier
One of the most critical revelations in the report is that pollution does not respect administrative borders. Using Delhi as an example, the study notes that internal sources account for only 36% of PM2.5 during winter and a mere 26% during summer, meaning the majority of the city's pollution drifts in from outside.
Amit Goyal, Partner at EY India, noted that the NCAP needs to evolve. He suggested that the program currently relies too heavily on coarse PM10 metrics and suffers from fragmented enforcement and uneven monitoring in smaller towns. To fix this, the paper advocates for cross-state airshed management, expanded PM2.5 tracking, and funding mechanisms that are linked to actual outcomes.