Will Smog Destroy New Delhi’s $80 Billion Economy?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 1:26AM EST · Published Nov 7, 8:45AM EST

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Will Smog Destroy New Delhi’s $80 Billion Economy? — © Thinkstock

By some measures, New Delhi is the most polluted city in the world. It is also one of the largest urban economies in the region, with a state domestic economy estimated at $80 billion. That puts it on par with New Mexico. New Delhi’s economy could collapse under the weight of air that chokes off the ability of its population to go to work or to school.

How bad is the air pollution today? According to the Times of India:

“Air pollution in Delhi-NCR is not just devastating the environment but harmful amount of gases, dust, fumes and odour are causing breathing problems to people,” said D S Rawat, secretary general of ASSOCHAM while releasing the chamber’s survey.

“Companies should offer employees flexible working hours to cope with this problem,” said Rawat. “Environment and air pollution related issues might hurt brand India and hit sectors like tourism, outdoor recreation as people tend to stay away from polluted areas so as not to breathe in dense and toxic air,” he said.

“Sick days together with vistis to hospital might impact middle class people the most as high levels of pollution are linked to serious chronic illnesses, like heart disease and lung cancer, which are costly to treat,” added Rawat.

Currently, schools are shuttered in the city, due to high air pollution.

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The problem will persist indefinitely, as it has in the recent past. According to National Geographic:

From the skies above to the ground below, Delhi is polluted. This Indian territory, which includes the capital city of New Delhi, is half the size of Rhode Island, and is home to twice the population of New York City.

Beijing, China, often makes headlines for its polluted air, but a global study of air pollution in 2014 by the World Health Organization found that Delhi’s air contained several times more fine particulate pollution than Beijing’s. By most measurements, it’s the most polluted area in the world.

The city is essentially shut down several days of the year. As the pollution gets worse, that could grow to weeks or longer. No economy can thrive under these conditions.

New Delhi may be the first large global city to have its financial strength ruined by air pollution.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.