Parliamentary proceedings: Only one in five cities have achieved NCAP targets
The NCAP, which was launched in 2019, originally aimed for a 20%-30% reduction in PM2.5 and PM10 levels by 2024, on the 2017 baseline levels. However, in 2022, the target was revised to achieve up to a 40% reduction in PM10 levels, with no targets for PM 2.5, or to meet national standards (60 µg/m³) by 2025-26.
Out of 130 cities, 48 million-plus cities/urban agglomerations (population greater than a million) are funded under the 15th Finance Commission Million Plus City Challenge Fund as an air quality performance grant, and the remaining 82 cities are funded under Control of Pollution Scheme of Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Performance-linked grant of ₹13,036.52 crore was provided to 130 cities for critical gap funding.
With the deadline for achieving targets set for March 2026, data shared by the Environment Ministry shows that with reference to the 2017-18 baseline, only 25 of the 130 cities have achieved a minimum 40% reduction in PM10 as of 2024-25. On the other hand, there are also 25 cities that have reported an increase in PM10 levels when compared with 2017-18.
The four cities with the sharpest improvement (reduction) in particulate matter levels are Bareilly (76%), Varanasi (74.3%), and Firozabad (59.5%) in Uttar Pradesh, and Dehradun (57.2%) in Uttarakhand.
'There has been notable improvement in PM10 levels in major Indian cities,' Mr. Vardhan said in his response in the Lok Sabha. 'Mumbai has shown improvement in PM10 levels with a 44% reduction in 2024-25 compared to FY2017-18, followed by Kolkata (37%), Delhi (15%), and Chennai (12%). PM10 data in respect of 2017-18 and 2024-25 and per cent improvement in PM10 concentrations of Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai in FY 2024-25 w.r.t. FY 2017-18. These improvements reflect the positive impact of various air quality improvement measures implemented under NCAP,' the Minister said.
In all, 103 cities had shown a reduction in PM10 concentration in 2024-25 with respect to 2017-18, and 22 had achieved the 40% target as well as kept annual concentrations below 60 µg/m³, the statement said.
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First Post
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- First Post
Air India crash: How to spin-doctor and peddle narratives, the Western way
Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore used to terrorise villainous Western media by suing them in his courts. They learned to toe the line read more There has been a virtual masterclass lately in the creation and dissemination of biased narratives. Not only in the case of the ill-fated Air India 171 (Boeing 787, June 12, 2025) that crashed, but also in some other, unrelated instances. The age-old practices of 'truth by repeated assertion' and 'dubious circular references' as well as 'strategic silence' have all been deployed in full force. The bottom line with the Air India flight: there is reasonable doubt about whether there was mechanical/software failure and/or sabotage or possible pilot error. Any or all of these caused both engines to turn off in flight. But the way the spin-doctors have spun it, it is now 'official' that the commanding pilot was suicidal and turned off the fuel switch. Boeing, the plane maker, and General Electric, the engine maker, are blameless. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is, alas, not surprising. It is in the interests of Western MNCs to limit reputational damage and monetary loss related to their products. They do massive marketing by unleashing their PR agencies. We also saw how they protect themselves in other instances. A leaked Pfizer contract for their Covid vaccine insisted that if anything happened, it was the user's problem, not Pfizer's: there was no indemnity. Incidentally, a report on July 19 said that the Pfizer Covid vaccine can lead to severe vision problems. Oh, sorry, no indemnity. What is deplorable in the Air India case is that the AAIB, the Indian entity investigating the disaster, chose to release a half-baked preliminary report with enough ambiguity that a case could be (and definitely was) built up against the poor dead pilots. Any marketing person could have read the report and told them that it would be used to blame the pilots and absolve the manufacturers. Besides, the AAIB report was released late night on a Friday, India time, which meant that the Western media had all of one working day to do the spin-doctoring, which they did with remarkable gusto. Meanwhile, the Indian media slept. Whose decision was this? Clearly, Indian babus need a remedial course in public relations if this was mere incompetence. Of course, if it was intentional, that would be even worse. There is a pattern. In earlier air accidents, such as the Jeju Air crash involving a Boeing 737-800 in South Korea in December, the pilots were blamed. In accidents involving Lion Air (Boeing 737 Max 8, 2018), China Airlines (737-200, 1989), Flydubai (737-800, 2016), ditto. I am beginning to believe that a lot of Asian pilots are poorly trained and/or suicidal. Ditto with the F-35 that fell into the ocean off Japan. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Truth by repeated assertion is a powerful force for gaslighting the gullible. I wonder what excuses we'll hear about the Delta Airlines Boeing 767 whose engine caught fire in the air after take-off from LAX on July 20. The pilots didn't die, so they will speak up. Besides, they were Westerners. I am eagerly awaiting the spin on this. I also noticed with grim amusement how the BBC, WSJ, Bloomberg, and Reuters, and so on were busy quoting each other to validate their assertions. This is a standard tactic that India's 'distorians' (see Utpal Kumar's powerful book Eminent Distorians) have perfected: B will quote third-hand hearsay from A, then C will quote B, D will quote C, and before you know it, the hearsay has become the truth. But if you wind it back from D to C to B to A it becomes, 'I hear someone told someone that xyz happened.' Out of thin air, then. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD There is also the lovely tactic of strategic silence. It has been used to un-person people who ask inconvenient questions. It has also been used to defenestrate inconvenient news. Just days ago, under the Deep State-installed new regime in Syria, hundreds of minority Druze were brutally massacred. There was video on X of armed men in uniform forcing Druze men to jump off tall buildings, and desecrating their shrines. Similarly, there is a brutal reign of terror, rape, murder, and thuggery against Hindus, Buddhists, and others under the Deep State-blessed regime of Mohammed Yunus in Bangladesh: a clear genocide. Neither Syria nor Bangladesh gets any headlines. There are no loud human-rights protests as in the case of Gaza. This is not news. It is un-news. 'Manufacturing Consent' all the way. India is particularly vulnerable to this gaslighting because Indians consume a lot of English-language 'news.' Scholars have long noted how the US public has been maintained in a state of ignorance so they could be easily manipulated. The same is true of the Indian middle class. So, there is yet another reason to do less in English. Fooling, say, the Chinese or Japanese public is a lot more difficult. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The fact is that even though Indians may be literate in English, they do not understand the context and the subtext of what is fed to them by the likes of The Economist, NPR, The Financial Times, The New York Times, etc. The best way I can explain this is the 100+5 analogy in the Mahabharata: they may fight with each other on domestic matters, but Anglosphere and Deep State are in cahoots when it comes to international matters. Things are both getting better and getting worse. On the one hand, social media and its imprint on generative AI mean that it is ever easier to propagate fake news (in addition to deepfake audio and video, of course). On the other hand, despite the problem of charlatans and paid agents provocateurs getting lots of eyeballs, the large number of Indians on social media may push back against the worst kinds of blood libel against India and Indians, of which there's plenty these days, often created by bots from 'friendly' countries. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This is a serious matter indeed. One solution is to do a version of the Great Chinese Firewall and ban wholesale the worst offenders. Indeed, a few of the vilest handles have been ejected from X. However, the pusillanimity with which notorious Pakistani handles were unbanned, then re-banned after outrage, shows there's something rotten in the Information Ministry. Almost exactly the same as the unbanning of Pakistani cricketers, then rebanning after outrage. Is there anybody in charge? Information warfare is insidious. Going back to the Air India case, I think the families of the maligned pilots should sue for gigantic sums for libel and defamation. The sad state of the Indian judiciary may mean that, unfortunately, this will not go far. However, there is precedent: Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore used to terrorise villainous Western media by suing them in his courts. They learned to toe the line. If this tactic does not work, India should eject the hostile media. The Indian market is increasingly important to Western media (not vice versa) because soon there will be more English-reading consumers in India than in the Five Eyes Anglosphere. I should say that in quotes because as I said above, most Indians are blissfully unaware of the hidden agendas, and naively believe them. But 'Judeo-Christian' culture is very different from dharmic. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD I keep getting emails from The New York Times with tempting offers to subscribe to them for something really cheap like Rs. 25 a month. They need Indian readers. I have been shouting from the rooftops for years that one of these charlatan media houses needs to be kicked out, harshly, with 24 hours' notice to wind up and leave. As in the Asian proverb, 'Kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.' The monkeys will notice, and behave. Otherwise, the information warfare is just going to get worse. The writer has been a conservative columnist for over 25 years. His academic interest is innovation. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
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First Post
7 minutes ago
- First Post
From ‘India out' to strategic embrace: Maldives resets ties with New Delhi
Not long ago, it would have been difficult to imagine that Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu—who rose to power on the back of a robust 'India Out' campaign—would extend an invitation to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend the Maldives' most significant national event on July 25, 2025, the country's 60th Independence Day, as the Guest of Honour. Yet, that is precisely what has unfolded. In a post on X, Prime Minister Modi stated: 'Day after tomorrow, 25th July, I will be in the Maldives at the invitation of President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. I am honoured to be taking part in the 60th Independence Day celebrations of the Maldives. This year we also mark 60 years of India-Maldives diplomatic relations. The talks with President Muizzu will certainly add momentum to bilateral ties across diverse sectors.' STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This moment carries deep symbolic significance. Only a few years ago, the India-Maldives relationship had reached a historic low. President Muizzu's 'India Out' campaign actively challenged India's strategic footprint in the archipelago, marked by personal attacks and sharp rhetoric against Prime Minister Modi himself. Many analysts concluded at the time that India had effectively 'lost' the Maldives to China—particularly when Muizzu broke with diplomatic precedent by choosing Beijing as the destination for his first official overseas visit. Muizzu took deliberate steps to distance Maldives from India, including demanding the withdrawal of Indian defense personnel and enhancing ties with China. Anti-India narratives became mainstream, and the political climate was steeped in antagonism toward New Delhi. Despite these provocations, what followed is nothing short of remarkable: a dramatic turnaround in relations that reflects India's strategic patience and diplomacy, and the statesmanship of Prime Minister Modi. The credit for this diplomatic transformation lies squarely with PM Modi. Faced with political hostility and personal criticism, he chose to remain committed to a pragmatic, forward-looking foreign policy. Rather than retaliating, Modi's approach emphasized engagement, development cooperation, and people-to-people ties—hallmarks of a mature global leader. India has traditionally been Maldives' first responder in times of crisis—be it natural disasters, public health emergencies, or economic instability. During President Muizzu's state visit to India from October 6-10, 2024, both nations reaffirmed their commitment to mutual security and development. This culminated in the adoption of the 'Vision for Comprehensive Economic and Maritime Security Partnership.' On that occasion, President Muizzu reassured New Delhi of its security concerns, stating: STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The Maldives will not do anything that would harm India's security interests. We value India's role as a close neighbour and friend.' This statement marked a sharp departure from his earlier rhetoric, signalling a shift towards mutual respect and constructive cooperation. India, in turn, has remained steadfast in supporting the Maldives' maritime and defense capabilities—providing coastal radar systems, naval vessels, and training for Maldivian defense personnel since before Muizzu's term. Notably, these efforts included the inauguration of a network of coastal radar stations and the establishment of a Composite Training Centre at Maafilaafushi during previous governments, particularly under President Solih, laying the foundation for today's robust security architecture. Economic considerations also played a pivotal role in this diplomatic recalibration. As the Maldives undertook expansive infrastructure projects—many backed by Chinese loans—its external debt surged, crossing $8 billion by early 2024 and exceeding 110 per cent of its GDP. The nation's tourism-dependent economy remained fragile, with foreign exchange reserves under immense strain, at times covering barely a month of imports. New Delhi, however, stood by as a consistent and generous partner. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD In May 2024, India rolled over a $50 million Treasury Bill at the Maldives' request—a move the Maldivian government described as a 'true gesture of goodwill.' Further, during Muizzu's visit to India in October 2024, New Delhi extended significant financial support, including a $400 million currency swap agreement and an Rs 30 billion line of credit under the SAARC framework. President Muizzu acknowledged India's assistance: 'I am thankful for the Indian Government's decision to provide support in the form of Rs 30 billion in addition to a $400 million bilateral currency swap… which will be instrumental in addressing the foreign exchange issues we are facing.' Unlike China's debt-driven model, India's approach focused on economic stabilisation, sustainable infrastructure, and capacity-building—promoting long-term development without the burden of unmanageable debt. Strategically, Maldives' location in the heart of the Indian Ocean makes it indispensable to India's security calculus and central to its broader MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) vision. Guided by this doctrine, India has continually prioritized the Maldives' development and security needs, anchored in mutual respect and shared regional concerns. Under this framework, India has deployed maritime surveillance infrastructure, conducted joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) exercises—including a major one in May 2025—and consistently trained Maldivian defence forces. These engagements underscore India's role as a reliable partner and affirm its commitment to regional peace and stability. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Equally noteworthy is President Muizzu's own evolution. He gradually came to realize that a confrontational posture toward India offered no tangible benefits. Strategic pragmatism ultimately prevailed. Both he and his advisors understood that partnership with India serves Maldivian interests far better than antagonism. This diplomatic turnaround offers a broader lesson for regional leaders—particularly for Bangladesh's interim leader Mohammad Yunus. While anti-India rhetoric may provide short-term domestic political gains, it seldom translates into long-term strategic or economic benefits. Foreign policy must be rooted in reason and rationality. For the countries in India's neighbourhood, maintaining cooperative and constructive relations with New Delhi is not just diplomatically prudent—it brings real, measurable benefits to their people. Imran Khurshid is a visiting research fellow at the International Centre for Peace Studies, New Delhi. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
New Indian Express
7 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Mamata Banerjee alleges 'linguistic terror' against Bengalis in BJP-ruled states
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