This marks a substantial leap from August 2019, when only 3.23 crore rural households (just 16.7 per cent) had access to tap water, the minister of state for jal shakti, V Somanna said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Thursday.
The failure of the monsoon to bring safe air to the majority of cities in July 2026 is a reminder that clean air remains a distant goal for most urban Indians.