National Clean Air Programme

Also called: NCAP · Topic: Geographical Issues: Pollution, Urban Waste, Slums and Land Degradation · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) is India's first national, time-bound plan to cut air pollution. The MoEFCC (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) launched it in January 2019 for 131 non-attainment cities. Its present goal is to cut PM10 by up to 40% by 2025-26, compared with 2017-18 levels.

It matters because it moves India from only setting air standards to setting targets for each city, with deadlines and money linked to results. Most of the cities it covers are in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where geography traps polluted air.

Explanation

Why it was needed: non-attainment cities

• NAAQS (National Ambient Air Quality Standards): the legal limits for pollutants in outdoor air. The CPCB notified them in 2009 and they cover 12 pollutants.
• Non-attainment city: a city that failed the NAAQS for PM10 or NO₂ for five years in a row (2011–2015).
• PM10 (particulate matter): tiny bits of dust, smoke or liquid in the air, smaller than 10 micrometres.

• The NCAP list also added million-plus cities that do not meet the standards. These are the cities that get air-quality grants from the 15th Finance Commission.

• Cause → problem → response:

• Many cities kept breaking the standards year after year.
• Standards alone set no deadline, so nobody was clearly responsible.
• NCAP gave each city a target, a plan and a way to measure progress.

How it works

• City action plans: each non-attainment city makes its own plan. The plans target five main sources [2]:
• road dust
• burning of waste in the open
• vehicles
• construction and demolition waste

• industry

• Targets:

• Original goal: cut PM10 and PM2.5 by 20–30% by 2024, with 2017 as the base year.

• Revised goal: cut PM10 by up to 40% by 2025-26, with 2017-18 as the base year.

• Performance-linked funding:

• A city gets money according to how much its air actually improves.
• About ₹13,237 crore in performance-linked grants has been given to 130 cities as gap funding (money that fills what the city cannot pay for itself) [2][3].

Tracking and ranking

• PRANA portal (Portal for Regulation of Air-pollution in Non-Attainment cities): an online dashboard. Cities upload their progress here, and this data is used to rank them [4].
• Swachh Vayu Survekshan (the clean-air survey): an annual ranking of NCAP cities in three population groups [4].
• Results so far (official data):
• 103 of 130 cities showed lower PM10 levels.

• 64 cities cut PM10 by more than 20% [2][3].

• Swachh Vayu Diwas is observed on 7 September. This is also the UN International Day of Clean Air for blue skies [6].

Where it falls short

• It tracks PM10 more than PM2.5.
• PM10 includes a lot of natural dust.

• PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 micrometres) goes deeper into the lungs and blood, so health experts say it matters more.

• Each city plans alone.

• A large share of a city's PM2.5 comes from outside its borders, such as stubble smoke, power plants and brick kilns in nearby districts.
• A city cannot control these sources. So plans made city by city can only do so much.

• An airshed approach would plan for the whole area that shares the same air. In winter, the whole IGP acts as one airshed.

• Data gaps. Monitoring stations are crowded into big cities. Small towns and rural areas have very few.

• Loose base standard. India's NAAQS has not changed since 2009. India's annual PM2.5 limit is 40 µg/m³, while the WHO 2021 guideline is 5 µg/m³ [1].

Where it occurs

• Runs across India: in 131 non-attainment cities. Recent official counts give 130 cities for the performance grants [2][3].
• Run by: MoEFCC, since January 2019.
• Where most cities are: the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP), which covers Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Pollution builds up here for these reasons:
• Landlocked basin: the plain lies between the Himalaya to the north and the Vindhya–peninsular uplands to the south. Polluted air is trapped and cannot easily reach the sea.
• Winter temperature inversion (a warm layer of air sitting above cold air near the ground, the opposite of normal):
  • On long, clear winter nights, the ground loses heat fast.
  • The warm layer above acts like a lid, so smoke cannot rise.
  • The mixing height (how high pollution can spread upward) falls, and smog forms.
• Calm winds after the monsoon withdraws. The north-westerlies carry smoke from stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana (October–November) towards Delhi.

• Dust from the Thar Desert in Rajasthan, plus road dust and construction dust.

• Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025 winners [5]:

• Over 10 lakh people: Indore (Madhya Pradesh), with 200/200. It planted over 16 lakh trees and runs 120 electric and 150 CNG buses. Jabalpur (MP) came second with 199/200 and runs an 11 MW waste-to-energy plant.
• 3–10 lakh people: Amravati (Maharashtra), with 200/200. It built 340 km of end-to-end paved roads and turned 19 acres of barren land into dense forest.
• Under 3 lakh people: Dewas (MP), with 193/200. Its industries shifted to cleaner fuels.

Don't confuse with

• GRAP (Graded Response Action Plan): an emergency plan for Delhi-NCR only. Its stages switch on when the AQI gets worse. NCAP is a long-term, nationwide plan with yearly targets.
• CAQM (Commission for Air Quality Management): a statutory body (set up by a law) under an Act of 2021. It covers Delhi-NCR plus Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and UP. NCAP is a programme, not a body set up by law.
• NAAQS: the legal standard set by the CPCB in 2009. It decides whether a city is "non-attainment". NCAP is the plan to bring those cities within the standard.
• National AQI (2015): a public information tool that turns readings of 8 pollutants into one number and one colour. It sets no reduction target. NCAP does.

Prelims Hooks

• NCAP: launched in January 2019 by MoEFCC, covering 131 non-attainment cities. The target is up to 40% PM10 cut by 2025-26 (base 2017-18). The original target was 20–30% by 2024 (base 2017).
• A non-attainment city failed NAAQS for PM10 or NO₂ (not PM2.5) for five years in a row, 2011–15. This is a common trap.
• Cities upload progress on the PRANA portal. They are ranked each year in the Swachh Vayu Survekshan, in three population groups [4].
• Swachh Vayu Survekshan 2025 rank 1: Indore (over 10 lakh), Amravati (3–10 lakh), Dewas (under 3 lakh) [5].
• About ₹13,237 crore in performance-linked grants has gone to 130 cities. PM10 fell in 103 of 130 cities [2][3].
• Swachh Vayu Diwas is on 7 September [6].

Mains Points

• Geography makes the problem worse: most NCAP cities are in the IGP. This plain is a landlocked basin hemmed in by the Himalaya. In winter, temperature inversion, a low mixing height and calm winds trap pollution near the ground. Stubble smoke from Punjab and Haryana and dust from the Thar add to it (GS-I distribution, GS-III environment).
• What NCAP does well: it gives each city a plan, a deadline and money linked to results. It ranks cities publicly through the Swachh Vayu Survekshan and tracks them on PRANA. PM10 fell in 103 of 130 cities, and 64 cities cut it by more than 20% [2][3]. It sits within a layered response: NAAQS (2009) → AQI (2015) → NCAP (2019) → GRAP → CAQM (2021).
• Gaps and way forward:
• Gaps: NCAP focuses on PM10 and on single cities. There are few monitors in small towns and rural areas. NAAQS is far looser than the WHO 2021 values [1].
• Way forward: plan at the airshed level across the IGP, set targets for PM2.5, add monitoring stations, and stop stubble burning at its source through crop diversification and ex-situ use of crop residue (collecting the straw and using it away from the field).

Related concepts

• National Ambient Air Quality Standards
• National Air Quality Index
• Non-attainment city
• Graded Response Action Plan
• Commission for Air Quality Management

Read more

• Air quality standards and clean-air governance