Air

A landmark study and a sweeping legal move have thrust India’s air-quality crisis into the spotlight, urging policymakers and courts alike to treat polluted air not just as an environmental issue but a full-blown public health emergency.

In a decision that has reignited debate over the balance between tradition and public health, the Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed the use of green firecrackers during the upcoming Diwali season in the Delhi-NCR region, under tightly controlled conditions.

Yadav assessed the compliance status of various Central ministries, municipal authorities, and government bodies in relation to decisions taken earlier – particularly those from a September 16 review.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta told reporters she was confident the state was “fully geared to fight pollution,” referencing the Centre’s approval of the cloud seeding plan.

For Delhi’s nearly 30 million residents, the coming weeks will test whether the city’s multi-pronged strategies can meaningfully reduce the haze that has become synonymous with its winters.

The study, published this month in Nature Communications, Earth and Environment, says East Asian efforts to reduce atmospheric aerosols was likely to have accelerated global surface warming since around 2010.

Bhutan stands at a crossroads between survival and sacrifice, tradition and transformation. Its model is not perfect—but it offers the world something rare: a vision of development that does not cost the Earth.

Factors that affect ozone generation include solar radiation, humidity, precipitation and the presence of precursors – substances that lead to the formation of a pollutant through a chemical reaction – such as methane, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds.