Since it was launched in 2015, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has been widely used in reporting and discussing air quality in India.
There are multiple apps and websites that can be accessed to find out the air pollution levels, almost always in AQI terms.
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Last week, the Central government updated its air quality management rules, increasing the penalties for stubble burning, effective immediately. The penalties now stand at Rs 10,000 for farmers who have two to five acres of land, and Rs 30,000 for farmers with more than five acres.
The notification came days after the Supreme Court pulled up the government over its inaction in combatting air pollution in Delhi, calling the Environmental Protection Act 'toothless'.
Around the same time, however, a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi-based environmental think tank, pointed out that stubble burning contributes only 8 percent to Delhi's air pollution.
If that's the case, is increasing penalties just another example of bike shedding, focused more on optics than substance?
