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Assessing effectiveness of India’s industrial emission monitoring systems

This study, as part of the USAID-supported Cleaner Air and Better Health (CABH) project, analyses the public accessibility and quality of the CEMS data relayed by various state OCEMS portals. It makes recommendations for consolidating CEMS regulations and providing legal sanctity to CEMS data. The study ranks 20 publicly accessible OCEMS portals (out of 32 states/UTs requiring CEMS to be installed as of 31 December 2021) for ease of public access and transparency. The study also evaluates the quality of CEMS data relayed by six states and six industry types in 2019 and 2020. The data quality was evaluated on the basis of number of hours of data availability over each year, frequency of missing data, and compliance to guidelines on different emission parameters to be monitored. The study also makes recommendations regarding integrating ambient air quality monitors within industrial facilities into the national network for more accurate air quality monitoring.