Giving Compass' Take:

• The air pollution problem in India is exacerbated by the economic and social issues. This makes it difficult to implement policy in a developing country. 

• Can India potentially receive some help from other countries? How are India's environmental problems linked to their social and economic problems?

• The intensity of the pollution in Delhi will get worse until India decides to take action. 

The dirty downside to India's dramatic economic growth has received a decidedly foul airing in recent months as New Delhi—joining such big cities as Beijing, Los Angeles and Lagos, Nigeria—earned even more of a global black eye for its horrific off-the-charts air pollution.

The smog was so bad during the latest peak pollution season that a prominent official compared New Delhi to a “gas chamber,” a major medical group pronounced its air a “public health emergency,” United Airlines temporarily suspended its flights, and public health officials publicly compared the harms of breathing in India's capital to smoking dozens of cigarettes a day.

Cleaning up filthy air isn't India's only gasping economic or environmental concern. But rising initiatives to reduce India's smog have been vexed by the many gaps and challenges that confront the best-made public policy proposals in the developing world, including woes with big, deep-rooted issues such as economic and social inequity, rural-urban migration, sustainable and clean energy supplies, and climate change. Still, how bad must things get before Indians demand change and make it stick?

Read more about the polluted air problem by Gulrez Shah Azhar at RAND Corporation