Delhi gasps, Beijing breathes: Can China teach India how to clean up smog?

In this episode of Statecraft, Geeta Mohan examines why Delhi remains one of the world's most polluted cities while Beijing has drastically improved its air quality over the past decade. The Chinese government declared what Premier Li Keqiang called a 'war against pollution'. While Delhi grapples with policy paralysis, Beijing implemented a command-and-control model, shutting down thousands of coal boilers, slashing coal use, and heavily investing in renewable energy. The programme delves into the critical lessons Delhi must learn from China's success, focusing on cross-state coordination, strict enforcement by bodies like the National Green Tribunal, technological adoption, and transparent data. It highlights the futility of temporary measures like cloud seeding, which the Ministry of Earth Sciences has called an 'experiment', not a systemic solution.