Poll vault
Next month polls will open in what is set to be the largest democratic exercise in human history, with more than 900 million eligible voters for India’s 2024 election. Most likely to take victory is incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has served as India’s head of state for the last decade, and seems odds-on to secure a rare third consecutive term — in part due to his tight grip on the country’s institutions and crackdown on opposition, but also because of the country’s booming economy.
Few leaders can claim that 75%+ of their electorate approve of the job they’re doing — Modi is one of them. Indeed, with its ever-expanding labor force, revitalized stock market, and booming export industry, India is all but assured to be a global superpower for decades to come. However, Modi’s Amrit Kaal (golden age) is not without its shadows: Modi’s rule has become more authoritarian, divisions remain between rural and urban populations, and environmental concerns have only become more fraught.
Smoke signals
One of India’s most pressing environmental issues is air quality. A global report from air monitoring firm IQAir, published last week, found that a stunning 83 of the 100 worst polluted cities in the world are in India, with Delhi named as the most polluted capital city having averaged a PM2.5 of 102.1 µg/m3 in 2023.
While Bangladesh and Pakistan were named as the most and second-most polluted nations overall, India was third, with an annualized average concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) measuring 54.4 µg/m3 last year — more than 10x the WHO guideline of 5 µg/m3.
Smogscreen
Like so many other countries that develop quickly, much of India’s air problem comes from vehicular exhausts, burning fossil fuels, construction dust, and industrial emissions.
In Delhi, a sprawling metropolitan city of tens of millions of people, an annual ritual now occurs between November and February as the city’s air quality reaches dangerously hazardous levels. Schools are shut, construction is halted and government officials go into crisis mode to protect its citizens from the “invisible killer”. However, despite the restrictions, long bouts of severe smog still have a drastic human toll: an estimated 80 people in Delhi die every day from pollution-related complications.
