India's Air Quality Standards Poised for Major Overhaul After 17 Years
New Delhi: A significant revision of India's National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) is on the horizon, following the submission of a final technical report by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in December 2025. This update comes nearly 17 years after the last standards were established in 2009, marking a critical step in addressing the country's persistent air pollution challenges.
Delayed Report and Project Timeline
According to an official response under the Right to Information Act, dated February 6, 2026, environmental activist Amit Gupta revealed that the National Air Quality Standards Project was commissioned by the CPCB and ran from December 21, 2021, to November 30, 2024. IIT Kanpur was tasked with preparing a detailed technical assessment to support a potential update of India's air quality framework. The first draft was submitted on October 6, 2023, but the final report was delivered on December 16, 2025, almost a year after the project contract expired. The CPCB funded the work with Rs 19.5 lakh, all of which was utilized, as confirmed by the RTI response.
Current Standards vs. WHO Guidelines
The 2009 NAAQS set limits for key pollutants that are significantly higher than contemporary public health benchmarks. For instance, the 24-hour average limit for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is set at 60 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³), with an annual standard of 40 µg/m³. In contrast, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limits of 15 µg/m³ for 24 hours and 5 µg/m³ annually. Similarly, for PM10, the national standards are 60 µg/m³ annually and 100 µg/m³ for 24 hours, compared to WHO's 15 µg/m³ annually and 45 µg/m³ for 24 hours. For nitrogen dioxide, India's standards are 40 µg/m³ annually and 80 µg/m³ for 24 hours, against WHO's annual limit of 10 and 24-hour limit of 25. The national standards are slightly stricter for sensitive areas in terms of the annual average.
Expert Insights and Public Health Implications
Manoj Kumar from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air emphasized the urgency of updating the standards, stating, "Scientific evidence shows that there is no safe threshold for PM2.5 exposure as health risks persist even at very low concentrations. Therefore, progressively strengthening India's NAAQS in alignment with the WHO interim targets can deliver substantial public health benefits." He added that although the revision of NAAQS was identified as a key action under the National Clean Air Programme, it remains pending even after the second extended timeline of the programme.
Activist Concerns and Delays
Amit Gupta highlighted the slow progress, noting, "One of our key demands is to update national air quality standards... even the Parliament committee talked about the same... But even after four years, there was slow progress, and IIT Kanpur itself delayed the final report by a year." Neither the CPCB nor IIT Kanpur provided a reply on the updated standards. Earlier reports indicated that studies to review air quality norms were sanctioned as early as the mid-2020s, representing the first formal effort to revisit the standards since their inception.
This long-awaited revision aims to bring India's air quality standards in line with global health guidelines, potentially leading to improved environmental policies and better protection for public health across the nation.
