Air quality tracker initiative was started in winter of 2020 by the Urban Data Analytics Lab of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) to understand the nature of air pollution in the cities and various regions of India and how it has been impacted by the extraordinary pandemic year of 2020 that has witnessed one of the biggest disruptions in the recent times. This is an inflexion point but also an indicator of what may change and yet not changed despite the disruption. This initiative is designed to provide quick but empirically robust analysis to address some of the basic public curiosities related to air pollution in cities. The initiative leverages publicly available granular real time data (15-minute averages) from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) official online portal Central Control Room for Air Quality Management.. The initiative put out eight reports in the 2020-21 winter. Two additional reports were released in the 2021 summer covering summer and ground-level ozone pollution. The reports use data from 249 official stations under the Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring System (CAAQMS) and cover 115 cities in 22 states and union territories.
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