The Indian capital closed all schools, banned lorries and halted construction work on Monday as air quality in New Delhi plummeted to its worst level this year, with a thick layer of yellowish haze engulfing the city of 22 million.
Air pollution was recorded in the “severe plus” category, with the average Air Quality Index across New Delhi hovering at about 480 in the morning. Some areas recorded readings off the charts, breaching the measurable 500 mark.
Swiss technology company IQAir, which analyses global pollution data, recorded an air quality index of 1,743 in the afternoon whereas the US Embassy in New Delhi—which uses the Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow chart—recorded the AQI levels at above 1,600.
Any figure above 50 is considered harmful, with 300 or above deemed a health hazard. Visibility dropped to just 150 metres.
The smog forced authorities to shut all schools following their decision last week to close only primary schools. The city government said children would move to online learning. Officials also invoked strict mitigation measures in an effort to control the pollution.
Following advice from India's Commission for Air Quality Management, authorities banned all public construction work and the entry of diesel-run commercial vehicles into the urban area.
The commission urged officials to also consider shutting colleges and other higher educational institutions and begin reducing the number of vehicles on the streets. It also recommended that half of all government employees work from home.
New Delhi has seen a gradual deterioration in air quality since late October – an annual autumn and winter phenomenon in the world’s most polluted capital. But the smog suddenly worsened at the weekend as cold temperatures gripped the city, bringing a layer of fog that mixed with pollutants and smoke from crop burning on farms.
Experts say air quality readings between 400 and 500 on the government's scale are equal to smoking 25 cigarettes a day.
The concentration of PM2.5 – fine particles in the air blamed for lung and heart diseases – has reached 527 microns per cubic metre in New Delhi, more than 100 times the safe limit set by the World Health Organisation.
The Supreme Court came down heavily on the city government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government for its failure to curb the pollution crisis and ordered them to take all possible measures to bring down the pollution levels.
"It is the constitutional obligation of the central government and state governments to ensure the citizens live in a pollution-free atmosphere. All possible actions shall be taken at the level of these governments to ensure that the AQI is brought down,” the Supreme Court said on Monday, adding that the AQI level inside the courtroom was 990.
It further added that scaling down preventive measures to tackle pollution would require the top court’s permission.
Large swaths of India’s northern states were reeling under distressing air pollution levels. Delhi’s neighbouring states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh where the Taj Mahal, the 17th century Mughal mausoleum in Agra city, remained shrouded in smog as AQi levels hovered at about 300.
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
'Laal Kaptaan'
Director: Navdeep Singh
Stars: Saif Ali Khan, Manav Vij, Deepak Dobriyal, Zoya Hussain
Rating: 2/5
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
match info
Chelsea 2
Willian (13'), Ross Barkley (64')
Liverpool 0
Tips for SMEs to cope
- Adapt your business model. Make changes that are future-proof to the new normal
- Make sure you have an online presence
- Open communication with suppliers, especially if they are international. Look for local suppliers to avoid delivery delays
- Open communication with customers to see how they are coping and be flexible about extending terms, etc
Courtesy: Craig Moore, founder and CEO of Beehive, which provides term finance and working capital finance to SMEs. Only SMEs that have been trading for two years are eligible for funding from Beehive.
JAPAN SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Masaaki Higashiguchi, Shuichi Gonda, Daniel Schmidt
Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Tomoaki Makino, Maya Yoshida, Sho Sasaki, Hiroki Sakai, Sei Muroya, Genta Miura, Takehiro Tomiyasu
Midfielders: Toshihiro Aoyama, Genki Haraguchi, Gaku Shibasaki, Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Shoya Nakajima, Takumi Minamino, Hidemasa Morita, Ritsu Doan
Forwards: Yuya Osako, Takuma Asano, Koya Kitagawa
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
- Ovarian tissue surgically removed
- Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
- Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
- Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Company profile
Name: GiftBag.ae
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2011
Number of employees: 4
Sector: E-commerce
Funding: Self-funded to date
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
