- In the third week of November 2025, AQI levels in Delhi and neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad and Noida reached hazardous levels, crossing 600 in some parts.
- The deteriorating air quality in the larger national capital region is not only impacting people’s health but also their work productivity.
- Adopting environment-friendly methods across sectors, and implementing supporting infrastructure could help, suggest experts.
At 8.30 a.m. on a November morning, a thick smog hangs in the air as commuters, mostly office-goers and college students, surge into Noida’s Botanical Garden metro station. The Delhi Metro train pulls out of the platform, cutting through the grey haze.
Inside the coach, the chatter around work, air pollution and its impact on productivity is punctuated by intermittent chains of coughing and sniffling.
“Within 10-15 minutes of my daily commute, my eyes start burning due to the pollution. By the time I reach office, I feel exhausted. My focus is down and I am unable to give my best,” says Vanshika Bindal, a 22-year-old AI solution delivery associate at an IT firm, who regularly travels via metro between Noida and Delhi.
According to the open-source air quality monitoring platform AQI, Delhi’s AQI level was hovering between 198-554 in the third week of November. The AQI levels in the neighbouring NCR cities were even worse, with Ghaziabad recording 220-663, and Noida 213-636. While different indices may interpret data differently, typically an AQI reading above 300 is considered hazardous, which affects even healthy people and can seriously impact those with existing health issues.
“Each time the city’s AQI dips into the ‘poor’ zone, my respiratory issues flare up,” says Parul Juyal, who works in a Noida-based education consultancy, glancing at the smog-heavy Delhi–Noida skyline. “Even when my office allows me to work from home, the coughing and recurring infections slow me down. I simply can’t perform at my usual pace.”
Bindal and Juyal are test cases of pollution-induced productivity loss, and they are not alone. Delhi NCR, home to over 35 million people and one of India’s most dynamic economic corridors, is increasingly feeling the strain of deteriorating air quality on work and efficiency. Every winter, the skyline turns grey with smog, and the average Air Quality Index (AQI) routinely crosses 300-400, far above safe levels. The top 10 cities in the world with the highest AQI levels are all in India with New Delhi topping the list, according to World Air Quality Report 2024 by pollution tracker AQI.
While the public debate around the impact of air pollution often centres around visibility, flight and train delays, a deeper crisis of erosion of productivity is gradually coming to light. India’s demographic dividend, its biggest economic strength, is being compromised by environmental stressors that are sapping health and efficiency.
Loss of business
The impact of air pollution on productivity has been well-documented. According to the World Economic Forum, air pollution costs the Indian economy about $95 billion every fiscal year. From corporate and retail to the transport and construction sectors, it hurts companies’ productivity and performance in different ways. While lower labour productivity, lower consumer footfall and premature employee mortality have a direct impact; lower employee productivity and increased health expenses indirectly impact businesses.
A 2021 study underlines that employee productivity decreases by 8-10% on high pollution days. The study, jointly conducted by Dalberg Advisors, Clean Air Fund and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), finds that approximately 1.3 billion working days are lost per annum due to absenteeism. The impact of absenteeism (employees are absent from work) is higher for a working age population who have dependents, such as children.
Similarly, presenteeism (employee is at work but not functioning at full efficiency due to illness, stress, or other issues) is a hidden cost which may directly impact corporate profits. Both presenteeism and absenteeism cost between $30 billion to $41 billion annually, the report estimates. It also notes that while both negatively impact productivity, presenteeism can have a greater financial cost.
As employees work overtime to cover up for lost productivity, the cost continues to exist in the forms of burnout, attrition, and increased difficulty for HR managers to attract talent, the study underscores.
Alvin David, Global Talent Head at Newgen, an IT firm, concurs. “Due to high pollution, companies are facing multiple challenges — recruiters are finding difficulty in attracting top talent. It is affecting attrition as well,” he said.
“Across sectors, we are hearing that new recruits are avoiding joining [offices in] Delhi NCR. Those based in other regions are hesitating to travel for projects or relocate to NCR cities due to high air pollution during winter. In fact, some employees are requesting to relocate to places where the air quality is better,” he adds.
Employees who live with their families, witness elderly parents or children having recurring health issues due to air pollution. Constantly juggling medical responsibilities impacts their focus and productivity while also increasing their reliance on companies’ health cover, notes David.
Specific sectors, such as travel and transport sector, face increasing impacts. “We and our partners cannot use BS-IV vehicles, which form nearly 40% of the fleet, due to regulatory restrictions due to high pollution. This is an opportunity loss,” points out Bijendra Singh, Managing Director of Kuruma Travels, a transport and hospitality company.
Impact on youth
It is not just office-goers who are affected, according to Neha Sharma, senior manager HR at Success Pact, a staffing firm. “Air pollution is no longer an outdoor issue; it is affecting everyone, everywhere. We have observed that even people working from home are falling sick and are not able to do their jobs properly,” she says.
Young, skilled, and part of India’s booming tech workforce, software engineer Smriti Girdhar and her team’s productivity is usually measured in lines of code and the output speed. But, of late, the output fluctuates in tandem with air pollution spikes.
“When someone is unwell, other teammates have to work extra. It is not only one person’s output that suffers, but the entire team’s,” explains Girdhar, who works as a program manager in a gaming company. She says that during peak pollution period, at least 10-12% of her team members apply for sick leave every week.
“You cannot avail leave every other day; you cannot blame pollution — the work needs to be carried out. It is a common sentiment among my peers. So, it’s obvious that you are pushing yourself at work but you are not at your 100%,” says Gurgaon-based Kunal G., a contractual manager working for a government department.
Air pollution is also burdening the next generation of professionals, particularly university and college students. An informal opinion poll, conducted for this article, asked over 100 students of University of Delhi about how air pollution is affecting their health, efficiency and mental well-being. Over 65% respondents said poor air quality leads to a decline in their productivity — focus, energy, output — but they push themselves to do the job. Another 27% respondents registered a sharp drop in their performance. Apart from physical well-being, air pollution is also impacting mental well-being, in the form of stress levels, mood, irritability, and motivation. In response to another query, 57% of the same cohort said high pollution leaves them feeling more stressed, demotivated and low. Another 32.7% reported increased stress accompanied by drop in productivity.
Chirashree Ghosh, Professor at the Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, says students are already seeing dips in energy, focus, and performance. “If they enter the workforce with these productivity setbacks, India’s future talent pool weakens. Fewer high-skilled graduates mean slower innovation, reduced research output, and a hit to global competitiveness. An unhealthy youth cohort ultimately drives up healthcare costs and drags down productivity the moment they step into the labour market,” she says.
She highlights that any country’s economic growth depends not only on experienced workers but also their health and its impact on future generations. “It [health] is crucial as it ensures a stable future labour supply and supports long-term economic growth. Air pollution threatens this,” she says.
Ghosh says Delhi NCR and north India is characterised by high density of population, high volume of vehicles, seasonal stubble burning, dust and industrial pollution. It a land locked, bowl-shaped geography that traps pollutants. It does not have vents like coastal winds, high rainfall (like other parts of the country) which help in clearing pollutants.
“So, the stakeholders need to manage the situation by adopting environment-friendly methods across sectors; each one of us are stakeholders in this drive,” she explains.
Singh of Kuruma Travels agrees: “We all have a role to play. We have started shifting to electric vehicles to reduce our carbon footprint but we also need to have infrastructure to support this shift.”
Read more: The lab-field disconnect in the capital’s pollution crisis [Commentary]
Banner image: Office goers walk amidst dense smog. (AP Photo)
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