India relies heavily on coal-based thermal power plants to meet its energy demands. Sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) emitted from these plants and industries is a major air pollutant. Analysis of spatial and temporal changes in SO 2 using accurate and continuous observations is required to formulate mitigation strategies to curb the increasing air pollution in India. Here, we present the temporal changes in SO 2 concentrations over India in the past four decades . Our analysis shows that the Central and East India, and Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) are the hotspots of SO 2 , as these regions house a cluster of thermal power plants, petroleum refineries, steel manufacturing units, and cement Industries. Thermal power plants (51%), and manufacturing and construction industries (29%) are the main sources of anthropogenic SO 2 in India. Its concentration over India is higher in winter (December-February) and lower in pre-monsoon (March-May) seasons. The temporal analyses reveal that SO 2 concentrations in India increased between 1980 and 2010 due to high coal burning and lack of novel technology to contain the emissions during the period. However, SO 2 shows a decreasing trend in recent decade (2010-2020) because of the environmental regulations and implementation of effective control technologies such as the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) and scrubber. Since 2010, India's renewable energy production has also been increased substantially when India adopted a sustainable development policy. Therefore, the shift in energy production from conventional coal to renewable sources, solid environmental regulation, better inventory, and effective technology would help to curb SO 2 pollution in India. Both economic growth and air pollution control can be performed hand-in-hand by adopting new technology to reduce SO 2 and GHG emissions.

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India is a country with more than 67% of its population (947 million) residing in rural areas and 33% in urban areas (472 million) as of 2020. Therefore, health of...

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<p>India is a country having more than 67% of its population (947 million) residing in rural areas as of 2020. Therefore, health of the people in rural India becomes important for development plans, economy and growth of the nation. As the sources of NO<sub>2</sub> are closely linked to the industrial and economic development of a country, we use satellite measurements of NO<sub>2</sub> in rural and urban areas of India to analyse the air quality in these areas. Our findings for rural areas show strong seasonal variations, with winter having the highest NO<sub>2 </sub>(2.0×10<sup>15</sup>molec./cm<sup>2</sup>) whereas monsoon having the lowest (1.5×10<sup>15</sup>molec./cm<sup>2</sup>) levels. Around 40% of the total NO<sub>2 </sub>pollution comes from rural sources with 45% of it attributed to road transport, however urban areas with more than 90% of their NO<sub>2</sub> from power sector were focused in the past studies. Our assessment shows that the NO<sub>2</sub> exposure in rural regions is as severe as in urban areas; indicating the need for more effective reduction measures of population exposure and protection of public health. Henceforth, this study reveals that rural India is gradually getting polluted from its nearby regions as well as from the new sources within, which is a big concern for the health of the large rural population of India.</p> <p> </p>