Former Xiaomi India chief Manu Kumar Jain, who now serves as the India CEO of Abu Dhabi-based technology group G42, has shared a disturbing account of his brief visit to Delhi, where he grappled with the city’s deteriorating air quality.
In a post on X, Jain shared a photo of himself inside a flight wearing a mask and described how he was affected by the capital’s pollution within hours. “I was in Delhi for a day for some important meetings and realized how out of touch I am with the air pollution here,” he wrote.
Jain said he started experiencing symptoms almost immediately. “Within a few hours, my eyes were watering, my throat was burning, I was coughing constantly and even had a headache,” he said, adding that he had forgotten his N95 mask, which made the impact worse.
The technology executive, who grew up in Meerut and studied at IIT Delhi, added that pollution is “personal”. “I love this place – its energy, people, food and so much more,” he wrote.
Jain said he ended up flying out of town early. “Similar experiences are a reminder that we still have a long way to go in terms of air quality,” he added.
Clarifying that he is “not blaming anyone”, Jain called for collective responsibility: “We are all to blame. I sincerely hope that we can turn this around and make a real difference for our children – so that they can grow up and breathe cleaner air.”
His post comes on a day when Delhi woke up to a thick layer of smog. On Friday morning, the city’s air quality remained in the ‘very poor’ category at 373, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Data on CPCB’s Sameer app showed that 13 out of 39 monitoring stations reported AQI levels in the ‘severe’ category, with Wazirpur recording a hazardous 442.
