Air Quality Index (AQI) is one such tool for effective dissemination of air quality information to people.As a part of this, Union Environment Ministry proposed to extend the measurement of air quality on real time basis in 22 state capitals and 44 other cities with a population of more than one million. This index will help the people know about the level of pollution in the ambient air on daily basis.
The AQI Display has been increased from the initial 10 cities to currently 24 cities in 10 states of India.At present, total 43 Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations all over the country are connected with NAQI . Under the current measurement of air quality, 8 parameters are kept for calculating AQI. The proposed AQI will consider eight pollutants (PM10, PM2.5, NO2, SO2, CO, O3, NH3, and Pb) in which one of PM10 or PM2.5 parameter is mandatory. There are six AQI categories, namely Good, Satisfactory, Moderately polluted, Poor, Very Poor, and Severe.