The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has emerged as a decisive force in transforming India’s approach to industrial emissions and sustainable energy. Since its inception in 2020 and statutory empowerment via the CAQM Act, 2021, the Commission has demonstrated measurable success in reducing emissions, curbing stubble burning, and improving air quality across Delhi-NCR and adjoining states.
Between January and September 2023, Delhi-NCR recorded an average AQI of 167 — the second-best in six years. July 2025 was the cleanest July in a decade with an AQI of 79. PM?? levels have declined by 15% since 2017-18, and GRAP Stage III restrictions were revoked in early 2025 due to sustained improvement in ambient air quality.
A key driver of this progress has been CAQM’s aggressive interventions in stubble burning across Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. From 2021 to 2024, fire counts in Punjab dropped from 71,304 to 10,909 and in Haryana from 6,829 to 1,315 — with Punjab achieving over 80% reduction. Thermal power generators in Punjab have also partnered with farmers to repurpose paddy straw as biomass fuel for co-firing, cutting emissions while creating new income streams.
The Commission’s biomass co-firing mandate began in 2021, requiring 11 NCR thermal power plants to co-fire 5–10% biomass with coal. In June 2025, CAQM extended paddy straw-based biomass fuel use to brick kilns in non-NCR Punjab and Haryana, targeting at least 50% co-firing by November 2028.
As of mid-2025, 11 TPPs in NCR and 71 nationwide have adopted biomass co-firing, saving 25.79 lakh MT and 34.77 lakh MT of CO? respectively. Nearly 1,650 industrial units in Delhi have transitioned to cleaner fuels.
Dr. Rajeev Sharma, environmentalist and former Vice Principal of D.A.V. College, Hoshiarpur, noted: “CAQM’s steps to boost biomass pellet manufacturing, including torrefied pellets, through technology access, training, and subsidies have doubled co-firing in TPPs from 11.7 lakh MT in FY24 to 21.49 lakh MT by mid-FY26.”
Beyond thermal power, CAQM has tightened pollution control across sectors — from mandatory dust control SOPs at construction sites to AI-based vehicle counting, drone surveillance, and citizen-led campaigns like #VayuMitra.
The CAQM model is now being seen as a blueprint for replication in other high-pollution cities such as Bengaluru, linking environmental protection with economic growth through green jobs in biomass, clean fuels, and technology deployment.
