The air in Delhi is thick with pollution and it's hitting businesses. Live from the UK,

this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. I'm Gideon Long. Good morning.

The authorities in the Indian capital Delhi have raised their assessment of air pollution in the city to grade four,

the highest level possible. Residents have been urged to stay indoors, especially children and people with respiratory problems.

The BBC's Davina Gupta is in Delhi.

Hi, Davina.

Hi, Gideon.

Just give our listeners an idea of what the air quality is like where you are at the moment.

The air, which I'm'm breathing is really heavy.

The visibility has dropped sharply.

So it's like I'm standing inside a cloud of dust and smoke.

This is something which has become a normalized situation for nearly 30 million residents of the city.

It happens almost every winter, especially in November and December months,

because the weather conditions are such that they trap the pollutants in the air.

On top of that, there are farmers in neighbouring states that burn crops double to clear fields for the next planting season.

And Davina, obviously this affects everybody in Delhi and the surrounding area, but how

specifically does it affect business?

The government here triggers something called a graded response action plan. Now, this is, it's got

a level of restrictions. So right now we're on the fourth stage,

which is the most severe restriction. And that means that construction work would stop. So any kind

of real estate renovation work stops. So that impacts the daily wages who are involved with this

kind of work. You will also see that officers are advised

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