New research has suggested that India’s air pollution deaths are about 30 per cent higher than earlier estimates — 1.67 million premature deaths during 2019, or more than 10 times the country’s coronavirus death toll during 2020. These 1.67 million premature deaths attributable to air pollution made up nearly 18 per cent of India’s total deaths during 2019, according to the study that has underlined the burden of disease and death and the economic impacts of poor air quality. The study by a consortium of researchers at the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi, and collaborating institutions has calculated the economic loss from disease and deaths due to air pollution at 1.4 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2019, or Rs 260,000 crore. This is more than three times higher than the Centre’s current health budget of about Rs 65,000 crore.