While addressing the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh said WHO guidelines are only meant to help nations frame their own standards, factoring in geography, environmental conditions and local circumstances.
As air pollution remains a persistent national challenge, the Centre told Parliament that the country sets its own air norms and global air quality rankings released by various organisations carry no official sanction. It also added that the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) air quality guidelines are advisory in nature and do not constitute mandatory standards for India.
The Centre’s response on Thursday was to a question in the Rajya Sabha about India’s standing in global indices such as IQAir’s World Air Quality Ranking, the WHO Global Air Quality Database, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) metrics.
Minister of State for Environment Kirti Vardhan Singh said WHO guidelines are only meant to help nations frame their own standards, factoring in geography, environmental conditions and local circumstances.
“India has already notified its National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for 12 key pollutants to safeguard public health and environmental quality,” he added.
He added that while no global authority conducts official rankings, the government evaluates air quality within the country through its annual Swachh Vayu Survekshan, which ranks 130 cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) based on improvement efforts.
The Centre’s response to the air pollution crisis comes months after data compiled by IQAir, a Swiss air quality monitoring firm, revealed that India failed to meet the WHO’s stringent air quality standards for 2024.
