PIB Tracker108 of 130 cities cut PM10 since 2017-18; 14 of them meet the standard
The fifth Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan ranked all 130 NCAP cities and put Lucknow, Rourkela and Kalinganagar on top, but the ranking scores measures taken, not measured air.
What happened
- MoEFCC marked Swachh Vayu Diwas on 7 September 2026 by conferring the 5th Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan awards and releasing the Compendium of Best Management Practices under NCAP, with NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava as Chief Guest.
- Against FY 2017-18, annual PM10 in FY 2025-26 was lower in 108 of 130 NCAP cities — 72 by over 20 per cent, 26 by over 40 per cent, and 14 meeting the NAAQS.
- Air-quality performance-linked grants of ₹16,423.55 crore reached the 130 cities from FY 2019-20 to FY 2025-26; reported utilisation is ₹11,575.54 crore, or 70.5 per cent.
- All 130 cities were ranked in three population groups — above 10 lakh, 3-10 lakh and below 3 lakh — through city self-assessment, State-level Monitoring Committee approval, CPCB evaluation and independent field verification, with 10 cities selected.
- Lucknow, Rourkela and Kalinganagar led the three categories; ward-level assessment covered more than 7,400 wards, with Ward 70 Lucknow, Wards 30 and 36 of Bhubaneswar and Ward 13 Rourkela first in their groups.
For Prelims
- National Clean Air Programme: launched in 2019 in mission mode for urban air, covering 130 cities in 24 States and UTs, all of which have prepared State and city clean air action plans monitored by Central, State and District committees.
- NCAP outcome, FY 2025-26 against FY 2017-18: 108 of 130 cities recorded lower annual PM10; 72 cut it by more than 20 per cent, 26 by more than 40 per cent, and 14 met the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
- NCAP funding: ₹16,423.55 crore in air-quality performance-linked grants to the 130 cities from FY 2019-20 to FY 2025-26, of which ₹11,575.54 crore — 70.5 per cent — is reported utilised. The awards release states the figure as ₹16,425 crore.
- Swachh Vayu Sarvekshan: an annual MoEFCC assessment of the 130 NCAP cities, launched in 2022-23; the 2026 edition is the 5th. Categories are 47 cities of 10 lakh or more, 44 of 3-10 lakh and 40 below 3 lakh — counts that sum to 131 against a programme of 130 cities.
- How cities are ranked: self-assessment by the city, approval by the State-level Monitoring Committee, evaluation by CPCB and field verification by independent committees, ending in 10 best-performing cities. The framework, released in 2022-23, covers road dust, solid waste, vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, C&D waste, DG sets and commercial establishments, and IEC activity.
- Toppers: 2026 — Lucknow (above 10 lakh), Rourkela (3-10 lakh), Kalinganagar (below 3 lakh), with 10 cities recognised. 2025 — Indore, Amravati and Dewas, with 11 cities recognised.
- Ward-level Sarvekshan: carried out in more than 7,400 wards; 10 wards awarded nationally in three groups — above 30,000, 10,000-30,000 and below 10,000 population — topped by Ward 70 Lucknow, Wards 30 and 36 of Bhubaneswar and Ward 13 Rourkela; a further 69 wards, three from each of 23 States and UTs, were awarded.
- PRANA: the Portal for Regulation of Air-Pollution in Non-Attainment cities, which tracks the physical and financial status of city action plans for the 130 NCAP cities. The wider monitoring network had 1,646 stations across 603 cities in 28 States and 7 UTs as on March 2026, with the SAMEER app giving near real-time AQI for more than 292 cities.
For UPSC: This is the standard evidence base for any question on urban air pollution: what NCAP funds, what it has changed and how it measures itself. Use the 108-of-130 PM10 series for progress and the 14 meeting NAAQS for its limit. Use the Sarvekshan's self-assessment-first method whenever an answer asks how a public programme should be evaluated, or how competition between cities is engineered.
What it is NOT: Neither release states any NCAP reduction target or target year, gives a PM10 or PM2.5 concentration or a Sarvekshan score for any ranked city, or mentions the Fifteenth Finance Commission million-plus cities grant; the only benchmark named is the NAAQS, met by 14 of 130 cities, and no city is described as having met a programme target. The ranking begins with the city's own self-assessment of measures taken on dust, waste, vehicles, industry and outreach rather than with measured air quality, and the compendium is described as a collection of practices for replication, not as an evaluation of them.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.14 · GS2.10 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Open a clean-air answer by separating the two things NCAP produced this week: a concentration series and a league table. In FY 2025-26, 108 of 130 cities had less PM10 than in 2017-18 and 14 met the standard. Separately, ten cities won awards for measures taken. Only the first is an air-quality outcome.
Substantiation (data)
₹16,423.55 crore of performance-linked grants reached 130 cities between FY 2019-20 and FY 2025-26, with ₹11,575.54 crore — 70.5 per cent — reported used. Against FY 2017-18, 108 cities cut annual PM10, 72 by over 20 per cent and 26 by over 40 per cent, while 14 met the National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
Exemplification
Use the source apportionment finding, from studies under NCAP, that construction and road dust contribute around 40-50 per cent of PM10 in most Indian cities. It explains why city action plans lead with road redevelopment, mechanised sweeping and C&D waste handling, and why the compendium's sectors open with road dust control rather than with industry.
Counterpoint
The Sarvekshan is not an air-quality league table. Cities are scored on measures taken across road dust, solid waste, vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, C&D waste, DG sets and awareness activity; a State-level Monitoring Committee approves, CPCB evaluates and independent committees verify in the field. Effort is what is ranked, and effort is claimed first by the city itself.
Problematisation
Three gaps are worth naming. No reduction target or target year appears anywhere, so 108, 72 and 26 float free of any benchmark except the NAAQS. Twenty-two of 130 cities show no PM10 improvement after seven years of grants, and none is named. And 29.5 per cent of the money released has not been reported as spent.
Position
NCAP's measurable claim rests on PM10 against a 2017-18 base; its public face is a ranking of administrative effort. The two will keep diverging while the award is the visible output. Publishing each ranked city's concentration beside its rank would make the competition run on the thing the programme exists to change.
Deploys into: Conservation and pollution (GS3.14): a national urban air programme and what counts as an outcome · Government policies and interventions (GS2.10): performance-linked grants, reported utilisation and non-attainment cities · Reading a ranking: self-assessment, third-party verification and the gap between effort and effect · Multi-level governance: MoEFCC, CPCB, State-level Monitoring Committees and urban local bodies in one delivery chain · Urban dust and waste: road dust as 40-50 per cent of PM10 and the sectors a city clean air action plan must cover
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-09-07 · PRID 2307658 · PIB source ↗