India struggles to put out crop waste fires that fuel air pollution

India's efforts to reduce crop-waste burning, a major source of air pollution during the winter, by spending billions of rupees over the past four years have done little to avert a sharp deterioration in air quality.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana states, part of the farm belt that borders the capital, New Delhi, accounts for 30-40 per cent of air pollution in October and November, according to air-quality monitoring agency SAFAR.

In 2018, Narendra Modi's administration set out to tackle the problem by establishing a fund to help farmers get rid of rice paddy straw, left by mechanised harvesters, by using