• Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav announced the awards of the Clean Air Survey 2023 in Bhopal.

 Background -

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has been implementing the National Clean Air Program (NCAP) since 2019 as a national-level strategy to reduce air pollution levels at city and regional scale in India.

 Objective -

• The objective of launching Swachh Vayu Survekshan is to reduce air pollution by 40% by the year 2025-26 and to rank 131 cities of the country to implement the City Action Plan prepared as part of NCAP.

 Major components of evaluation -

• Solid waste management,
• road dust management,
• Management of construction and demolition waste,
• Control of vehicle emissions and industrial pollution.

 Results of Clean Air Survey 2023 -

 Class I: Cities with a population of more than 1 million

• Also, in the category of cities with population more than 10 lakh, Indore has got first place, Agra has got second place and Thane has got third place.
• Whereas Chandigarh stood at 22nd position.

Second category: Cities with population between 3 to 10 lakh -

• In the above category, Amravati got first, Moradabad second and Guntur third.

 Third category: Cities with population less than 3 lakh -

• Under this category, Parwanoo (Himachal Pradesh) stood first, Kalaamba (Himachal Pradesh) second and Angul (Odisha) third.

 Note-

• It is not based on measurement of air quality parameters to rank cities but on actions taken by cities to improve air quality in different areas.

 Important facts for exam- 

 Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change-

• Formation-1985
• Headquarters - New Delhi
• Minister - Bhupendra Yadav