Air pollution hurts growth: Trying new ideas could make a difference
Live MintIt astonishes sympathetic global observers that India, with its wealth of public policy experts, should be so inept at handling a major threat to the health and productivity of its population, afflicting not just Delhi, but the entire northern belt of the country in the concluding months of every calendar year. If this is going to be an unsolvably predictable annual event, instead of the Graded Response Action Plan responding behind the curve to close down construction sites and educational institutions and bar entry of trucks into the city, there should be a pre-announced construction shutdown at this time of year and a consolidated school vacation in November-December instead of separate holidays in summer and winter. There have been ad hoc measures from time-to-time, like alternating days for even-odd licence plates, instead of a consolidated plan for the number of new vehicles that can be permitted in the national capital region every year, and the manner in which this containment could be achieved. Not enough owners of private cars jump instead into a metro, unlike Western capital cities where even high-ranking officials travel to work using underground public transport.