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Air pollution is a much-discussed issue worldwide and in India. It poses major threat to human health which is known to even reduce life expectancy along with many other risks and diseases. Thus, monitoring and control of air pollution is a vital task for all the countries of the world today. Air Quality Index (AQI) is one such tool used to measure and communicate air quality status for public awareness. Many indices have been developed with different applications and therefore different methods to capture air quality as accurately as possible without making it complicated for public understanding. There are merits and demerits of each index and this study tries to critically evaluate some popular indices used by some countries to give a fundamental understanding and comparison between these indices. The study has compared five indices with Indian AQI to understand their mathematical formulation, advantages and limitations in order to assess the possibilities and potential of improving the existing index system in India. The study concludes that there are some major limitations with the existing index and offers comparison with other five indices to draw upon for improvement. The study also recommends that the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) of India call for more stringency.
Keywords: Air pollution, Air Quality Index, Merits, Demerits, National Ambient Air Quality Standards.
