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Launched by the Environment Ministry, under ‘Swachh Bharat’
- Colour coded: AQI act as ‘One Number- One Colour-One Description’ to judge the Air Quality for Common Man to judge the air quality within his vicinity
- Central Pollution Control Board along with State Pollution Control Boards has been operating National Air Monitoring Program (NAMP) covering 240 cities of the country.
- Real time monitoring: Continuous monitoring systems that provide data on near real-time basis are also installed in a few cities.
- AQI categories: There are six AQI categories-
Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe.
- List of 8 pollutants: for which short-term (up to 24-hourly averaging period) National Ambient Air Quality Standards are prescribed.
- Particulate Matter (size less than 10 µm) or (PM10),
- Particulate Matter (size less than 2.5 µm) or (PM5),
- Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2),
- Sulphur Dioxide (SO2),
- Carbon Monoxide (CO),
- Ozone (O3),
- Ammonia (NH3), and
Lead (Pb)
