9 November/10 November 2019 ★ FTWeekend 3
The Imperial, one of New Delhi’s oldest
five-starhotels,backeduptravelagency
reports that pollution was hurting busi-
ness in the city, with falling numbers of
overseas tourists. “The focus is on the
fact that indoor air is a major deciding
factor for guests... and is becoming a
sellingpointtoday,”hesaid.
To retain customers, Mr Wanchoo
saidthehotelwasinstallingairfiltration
systems and special air cleaners
designed to reduce particularly danger-
ous PM 2.5 particles, which penetrate
deepintothelungsandbloodstream.
Other companies are looking for a sil-
ver lining in the relentless smog. Uber
launched a social media campaign with
the hashtag #LeaveYourCarBehind,
encouraging people to stop driving cars
andusetheride-hailingappinstead.
Health-conscious students are also
taking action. Upanita Chakravarty,
whoisstudyingenvironmentanddevel-
opment, said when India declared the
public health emergency, universities
did not close but students still decided
to miss classes on the worst days. “You
love your body more than anything else
and you want to protect it no matter
what,”shesaid.
Instead of venturing out into the dirty
air, the students and faculty decided to
meet virtually using Google Hangouts.
“The last two years [the weather has]
been really changing. Just after Diwali,
the weather changes,” said Ms Chakra-
varty.“It’snotcloud,it’ssmog.”Schools,saidhisschoolshadalaterstart
time to avoid the worst pollution in the
morning. The schools have also
installedadoubleairfiltrationsystem.
“Today, children carrying a nebuliser
[a device used to treat asthma] in Delhi
is very common,” said Mr Arora. “It’s
almost criminal not to be giving our
children clean air.” But, with a tuition
fee of Rs60,000 ($840) a year, only New
Delhi’selitecanaffordtosendtheirchil-
drentotheseprivatepreschools.
The financial costs are also mounting,
withIndiahometo15ofthe20mostpol-
luted cities on the planet, according to
IQAir,anairqualitydatacompany.
Karthik Ganesan from the Council on
Energy, Environment and Water, a Del-
hi-based think-tank, said: “The eco-
nomic impact is the direct effect of pol-
lutiononhealthandlostproductivity.”
Total welfare costs related to pollu-
tion amounted to $505bn, approxi-
mately 7.7 per cent of India’s gross
domestic product in 2013, according to
the World Bank. While the emergency
measures may help reduce some emis-
sions, better-off New Delhi residents
have invested in air-filtration systems
and purifiers, and sealed their windows
and doors. The rest rely on masks or
nothingatall.
Just a handful of companies used to
make air purifiers, said Sanjiv Luthra,
who sells the devices. Now a wide vari-
ety of brands are on the market. Mr
Luthra said that monthly sales
increased 25 per cent since pollution
levelssurgedthisyear.
Nitin Malhotra, chief executive of
247around, a company that services
home appliances, said the jump in busi-
nesswasnotlimitedtothecapitalcity.
“We see major growth up north in
states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh, as the pollution transfers to
thoselocations,”saidMrMalhotra.
Tourism in the “Golden Triangle” of
New Delhi, Jaipur and Agra has also
beenhithardbypollution.
Vijay Wanchoo, general manager atST E P H A N I E F I N D L AY A N D
J YOT S N A S I N G H— NEW DELHI
When Indian authorities this week
parked air purifiers outside the Taj
Mahal in an attempt to clean the atmos-
phere surrounding the world heritage
site,itwasasignofthetimes.
The marble mausoleum is just over
100 miles away from New Delhi, the
Indian capital that is one of the world’s
most polluted cities. India was forced to
declare a public health emergency in
recent days after clouds of toxic smog
sentpollutionlevelssoaringmanytimes
abovewhataredeemedtobesafelevels.
The heavy pollution — caused by
industrial production, vehicles and
farmers burning field stubble — has led
to cars being banned from the city’s
roads and residents being forced to stay
homeasfactoriesandschoolsclosed.
Pollution levels on the Air Quality
Index last month rose above 400 —
compared with the safe level of 50 —
promptingArvindKejriwal,NewDelhi’s
chief minister, to say the capital city had
“turnedintoagaschamber”.
More than 620m children in south
Asia breathe polluted air, according to
Unicef, which called on the Indian gov-
ernment to take “urgent action to
addresstheairqualitycrisis”.
Anil Sachdev, a paediatrician at Sir
GangaRamHospital,saidtheseverityof
children’s health problems related to
pollution was increasing. He recalled:
“When I was a child, I remember we
used to see blue sky and the birds chirp-
ing here and there, but now you hardly
see any birds chirping and it’s always a
greysky.”
Amol Arora, managing director at the
Shemrock and Shemford Group of
India struggles
to clean up its
act in smog
emergency
Polluted air threatens public health and the
economy, with the poor set to be worst hit
‘You hardly see any
birds chirping and it’s
always a grey sky’
Anil Sachdev, paediatrician
R O B I N H A R D I N G— TOKYO
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has given
orders for Japan’s first economic stimu-
lus package since 2016 as his govern-
ment frets about a global slowdown,
the impact of higher consumption tax
and the risk of a hangover from next
year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Government officials vowed to produce
an “agile” and “comprehensive” stimu-
lus that will take advantage of ultra-low
interest rates and borrow in order to
financepublicinvestment.
The planned stimulus highlights
concerns about the health of the world
economy as well as a global move
towards looser fiscal policy, given slug-
gish private demand and the ability for
governments to borrow at negative
interestrates.
“To speed up our recovery [from nat-
ural disasters], deal with risks from
abroad and accelerate productivity
growth, we are formulating an eco-
nomicplanalongthelinesofa15-month
budget,” said Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s
chiefcabinetsecretary.
The plan would combine a supple-
mentary budget for the remainder of
the 2019 fiscal year, which runs to
March 2020, with spending plans that
would boost the economy all the way
into 2021. The scale of the stimulus has
notyetbeendecided.
The plan will include spending for
reconstruction after Typhoon Hagibis,
which caused extensive destruction in
easternJapanlastmonth.
Mr Suga said there would also be
spending to raise productivity in small
businesses, agriculture and regional
Japan, as well as investment to improve
economic competitiveness beyond the
Olympics. There are fears of a slump
late next year, once real estate invest-
menttimedforthegamesiscomplete.
“Puttingthecurrentlowinterestrates
to good use, we want to deploy fiscal
borrowing and investment proactively
to invigorate investment for future
growth,”MrSugasaid.
The Bank of Japan has cut overnight
interest rates to minus 0.1 per cent and
purchased government bonds worth
trillions of yen but the flat yield curve
now makes it hard for banks and insur-
ers to turn a profit. The BoJ has also
increasingly sought to maintain higher
yieldsonthelongestdurationbonds.Global slowdown
Japan to launch stimulus plan
to support economy into 2021
The Himalayas form a natural barrier to cleaner air in northern India The Himalayas form a natural barrier to cleaner air in northern India
CHINABANGLADESHPAKISTANINDIANew Delhi
Agra
Kanpur
Varanasi
PatnaThe burning of crops during
October and November coupled
with slow winds from the north west
push the polluted air
into the plains of
northern IndiaCold air from the Himalayas prevents the
warmer air dispersing north into TibetThe polluted air continues slowly
east towards BangladeshHim
alay
asSource: Nasa Eosdis WorldviewMurky: heavy smog clouds the old quarters of Delhi last weekend— Nasir Kachroo/NurPhoto/GettyI N T E R N AT I O N A L