Zerodha's Nithin Kamath reacts as Delhi, Mumbai rank among costliest cities, says ‘pricier cities have worse AQI…’

Online brokerage platform Zerodha's Chief Executive Officer Nithin Kamath brought attention to India's rising air pollution levels as New Delhi and Mumbai ranked among the costliest cities in the world in terms of property prices. 

In a post on social media platform X, Nithin Kamath also highlighted how cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru have ranked in Knight Frank's Q4 2024 Global Luxury Market Rankings over rising housing prices. 

New Delhi ranked 6th among the costliest cities in the world. Average home prices in Delhi increased 6.7 per cent, followed by Mumbai at the 7th position with a 6.1 per cent rise in the average property prices, according to the Knight Frank report.

“What doesn't get nearly enough attention is the AQI of the three cities. The pricier cities in India have worse air quality, and these are averages for the city; most places have a higher AQI,” said Kamath in his post on platform X.

The Zerodha chief also cited an Ourworldindata article stating that pollution levels worldwide seem to follow a “U-shaped pattern.” He gave examples of countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, where this same pattern is visible — pollution levels rise drastically and then fall as the nation develops.

“But despite this, we don't have to accept pollution as a given because of technological advancements; we can do a lot to reduce the obvious sources of pollutants,” said Kamath in his post. 

Air pollutants

Nithin Kamath also focused on pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are generated from the burning of coal for power. Currently, this contributes nearly 70 per cent of India's energy needs.

However, people can counter the sulfur dioxide pollution by installing scrubbers in power plants, which help trap the sulphur. According to Kamath's post, these industry-grade scrubbers are not installed in India.

“Even though China continues to burn record amounts of coal, its sulfur emissions have gone down because of this. In India, both coal use and SO₂ emissions are still rising,” said Kamath in his post. 

On the nitrogen oxide pollution front, Kamath said that transportation is the biggest source of pollution, and people living in urban areas are exposed to them even more due to the density and congestion in the cities.

“A lot can be done with stricter emission standards, which have historically forced automakers to innovate with technologies like catalytic convertors. Another thing that helps is the electrification of transport fleets,” said Kamath.

Linking the rise in pollution with higher living costs, Kamath said that higher pollution means more health issues for the people in the region. 

The Zerodha CEO also cited a Reuters report stating that insurance companies in India are likely to make people living in New Delhi pay 10 to 15 per cent more for new health insurance policies after the rise in claims related to air pollution in 2024.

“Now think about all the other channels through which pollution will interact with prices and inflation. This is scary,” Kamath noted in his post. 

Air pollution debate 

India's air pollution debate received fuel when American entrepreneur influencer Bryan Johnson expressed his concerns about the nation's air pollution and poor air quality index earlier this month. 

Mint reported earlier that Johnson, who carried his air purifier during the podcast shoot with Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamath, left the shoot mid-way due to poor air quality standards in the city of Mumbai. 

This move sparked the air pollution debate back on social media platforms and ever since then has been raging in India.