Evaluating air quality efficiency in the major Indian cities using a directional distance function approach

Background: The ongoing advancements in modern society have negatively impacted air quality, and India is one of the worst affected countries. This study aimed to evaluate the efficiency of maintaining air quality in 10 major Indian cities. Methods: The present study employed a directional distance function (DDF) within the framework of data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate the efficiency of 10 major cities including Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Patna, Gurugram, and Thiruvananthapuram from January 01, 2018 to December 31, 2019. Results: The results indicate that air pollution is a significant issue in most cities in India. Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, and Chennai were identified as the most efficient cities in terms of air quality for both 2018 and 2019 whereas Ahmedabad was noted as a purely inefficient city during the same period. Moreover, it was revealed that cities in the northern (Delhi, Lucknow, Patna), western (Ahmedabad), and northwestern (Jaipur, Gurugram) parts of India had higher levels of air pollution compared to the southern (Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram) part of India. Conclusion: There are significant disparities in air quality efficiency among the cities, revealing that southern cities perform better than their northern, western, and northwestern counterparts. It emphasizes the need for targeted interventions to improve air quality, particularly in cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, and Jaipur.