India is out of the global Top 5 for air pollution, but is it good news?

In this exclusive Earth Chakra podcast, host and journalist Chetan Bhattacharji sits down with IQAir Global CEO Frank Hammes to deconstruct the World Air Quality Report 2025, released in March '26. In the IQAir report, India ranked 6th globally, although it still dominates the top 100 cities and includes the world's most polluted place, Loni which borders Delhi.

Pakistan's monitoring improved, so its share in the global top 20 most polluted cities rose, while India's share fell. In 2025, IQAir monitored data from 18 places in Pakistan compared to 11 the previous year. Consequently, the number of Pakistani places in the top 20 most polluted global cities rose to 8, from 6, whereas India's share of cities in the top 20 fell from 11 to 9, thereby shifting the lead ...