Mains Practice Questions for the Day
- Q. Despite the expansion of air-quality monitoring and the implementation of the National Clean Air Programme, improvements in urban air quality remain uneven across India. Evaluate India’s clean-air framework and suggest measures for achieving sustained results.
- Q. India’s nutrition challenge cannot be addressed through food supplementation alone. In this context, examine how Mission Poshan 2.0 and Rashtriya Poshan Maah promote a lifecycle and community-based approach to nutrition. Suggest measures to strengthen implementation.
Q. Despite the expansion of air-quality monitoring and the implementation of the National Clean Air Programme, improvements in urban air quality remain uneven across India. Evaluate India’s clean-air framework and suggest measures for achieving sustained results.
Introduction:
Air pollution is a serious public-health and environmental challenge caused by transport, industries, construction dust, waste burning and biomass combustion. The National Clean Air Programme (NCAP), launched in 2019, provides a multi-sectoral framework for improving air quality in 130 cities.
Body
Progress Achieved
- City-specific planning: Clean Air Action Plans have been prepared to address locally important pollution sources.
- Expanded monitoring: India has established 1,646 monitoring stations across 603 cities, including manual and real-time systems.
- Digital governance: The SAMEER application provides AQI information, while the PRANA portal tracks the physical and financial progress of NCAP projects.
- Measurable improvement: In 2025–26, 108 cities recorded lower PM10 levels than the 2017–18 baseline. Fourteen cities met national standards.
- Sectoral interventions: BS-VI norms, electric-mobility schemes, industrial OCEMS, construction-dust controls, crop-residue management and Extended Producer Responsibility have widened the policy response.
- Institutional support: CPCB, State Pollution Control Boards and CAQM provide regulatory and enforcement mechanisms.
Continuing Limitations
Air pollution operates across an airshed, but administrative action remains divided by municipal and State boundaries. Monitoring is concentrated in major cities, while smaller towns and rural industrial areas remain under-covered. Many Urban Local Bodies and SPCBs lack technical staff and laboratory capacity.
Only about 70.5% of NCAP grants had been utilised. Uneven enforcement, weak source-apportionment studies and excessive dependence on emergency measures restrict long-term progress. Policy also remains more focused on PM10 than finer PM2.5 and secondary pollutants.
Way Forward
- Adopt regional airshed-management plans.
- Expand monitoring to smaller cities and industrial clusters.
- Update emission inventories and source-apportionment studies.
- Link grants to independently verified pollution reduction.
- Strengthen public transport, walking and cycling infrastructure.
- Enforce industrial, waste-burning and construction-dust standards.
- Use satellite data, forecasting and health-impact assessments.
- Strengthen citizen participation and public disclosure.
Conclusion:
India has established a strong clean-air framework, but sustained improvement requires year-round source reduction, capable local institutions and coordinated airshed-level governance.
Q. India’s nutrition challenge cannot be addressed through food supplementation alone. In this context, examine how Mission Poshan 2.0 and Rashtriya Poshan Maah promote a lifecycle and community-based approach to nutrition. Suggest measures to strengthen implementation.
Introduction:
Malnutrition affects physical growth, learning ability, maternal health and economic productivity. Since its causes include inadequate diets, poor sanitation, limited healthcare and inappropriate caregiving, India requires an integrated approach extending beyond food distribution.
Body
Lifecycle Approach
- Mission Poshan 2.0 combines POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anganwadi Services and nutritional support for adolescent girls. It covers adolescence, pregnancy, lactation, infancy and early childhood, thereby addressing the intergenerational transmission of malnutrition.
- The focus on the first 1,000 days supports maternal nutrition, breastfeeding, complementary feeding and growth monitoring. PMMVY supplements this approach through maternity benefits and promotion of health-seeking behaviour.
Community-Based Strategy
Rashtriya Poshan Maah converts nutrition into a Jan Andolan. Recipe demonstrations, Poshan Melas and protein-awareness campaigns promote dietary diversity using affordable local foods.
Anganwadi Management Committees, Mothers’ Committees and menu boards strengthen community monitoring of meals and beneficiary entitlements. The integration of early stimulation, developmental milestones and ECCE recognises that nutrition and learning are interconnected.
The Poshan Tracker provides near real-time information on attendance, growth monitoring and service delivery.
Implementation Gaps
The programme faces uneven Anganwadi infrastructure, frontline vacancies and variation in meal quality. Poverty limits dietary diversity, while social norms often disadvantage women and girls. Digital errors may exclude eligible beneficiaries, and departmental convergence remains weak.
Way Forward
- Upgrade Anganwadi infrastructure and fill staff vacancies.
- Expand local procurement through SHGs and farmer groups.
- Ensure independent food-quality testing.
- Use digital data for timely corrective action.
- Simplify PMMVY enrolment and payments.
- Integrate nutrition with healthcare, sanitation and social protection.
- Institutionalise community social audits.
Conclusion:
A combination of adequate food, maternal support, responsive caregiving and accountable local institutions can translate Mission Poshan 2.0 into improved and lasting nutrition outcomes.
