Delhi has been ranked as the world’s most polluted capital in a new report that placed India as having the third worst air quality out of 106 countries in 2020. World Air Quality report by Swiss technology company IQAir, released on March 16, mentions that 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities globally are in India. Data for the ranking was derived from ground-based government and private monitoring stations and only PM 2.5 pollutant levels were evaluated. Annual exposure limit of PM2.5 set by WHO is 10 µg/m3, lower than 40 µg/m3 set under the Indian National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Within South Asia, Indian cities of Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Bisrakh Jalalpur, Bhiwadi & Noida were cited as the top five most polluted regional cities, all of which are part of the National Capital Region.
