GRAP stages and smog season: planning your work and study
In this article (9 sections)
- The four stages in one table
- How the 2025 season actually unfolded
- A stage-by-stage plan for someone studying and working
- At Stage I: set up the home workspace
- At Stage II: rehearse remote days
- At Stage III: follow the orders, not the headlines
- At Stage IV: minimise travel
- Planning your study hours around smog weeks
- Checking the current stage yourself
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GRAP, the Graded Response Action Plan, is a four-stage set of restrictions that the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) invokes across Delhi NCR as Delhi's air quality index worsens. Since the schedule revised on 21 November 2025, the decision on letting offices run at 50% strength with the rest working from home sits at Stage III, not Stage IV. For a learner or new analyst, that makes Stage II the right moment to prepare, because Stage III can arrive within days.
The four stages in one table
The thresholds below are Delhi AQI bands, using the official labels. The office and school actions are paraphrased from CAQM's revised schedule (Order No. 120017/27/GRAP/2021/CAQM dated 21 November 2025, which revised the 13 December 2024 schedule). The full order is on the Delhi Environment Department site and on caqm.nic.in.
| Stage | Delhi AQI | What changes that affects your week |
|---|---|---|
| I | 'Poor', 201–300 | Mostly dust, waste and vehicle-related measures; little change to office routines |
| II | 'Very Poor', 301–400 | Staggered timings for public offices were moved to this stage in the revision |
| III | 'Severe', 401–450 | NCR state governments and GNCTD decide whether public, municipal and private offices can work at 50% strength with the rest from home; the Centre decides for central government offices; schools may move to hybrid classes up to Class V |
| IV | 'Severe+', above 450 | Hybrid classes become mandatory for Classes VI–IX and XI in Delhi and the NCR districts of Gurugram, Faridabad, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar; the most restrictive measures apply |
The citizen charter in the same order adds a line that is worth quoting exactly: "People, whose positions allow working from home, may work from home." It is advice to citizens, not an instruction to employers.
How the 2025 season actually unfolded
Knowing the calendar helps you plan. In 2025, Stage I was invoked on 14 October, Stage II on 19 October and Stage III on 11 November. That is under four weeks from the first stage to the one that affects office attendance. Past dates do not predict this year's, but they show the season usually starts in mid-October and escalates within weeks, not months.
A stage-by-stage plan for someone studying and working
Treat each stage as a trigger for a specific preparation, so you are not scrambling on the morning a state order comes out.
At Stage I: set up the home workspace
- Test your home internet during your class hours for a full week, not just once. Note drops.
- Decide where your mobile hotspot backup comes from and check its data limit.
- Ask your manager, in writing, what the team did last season when Stage III was invoked. Some teams have a standing rule; many do not.
At Stage II: rehearse remote days
- Do one full workday or one full class from home and list what failed: a VPN, a second screen, a noisy room.
- If you attend optional in-person labs at our Noida centre, confirm with your counsellor how a lab day moves online if restrictions tighten. Everything in the programme is already taught live online, so a missed lab day is a change of room, not a missed lesson.
- If you have school-age family members, check the school's own hybrid-class plan, since Stage III and IV school measures can change who needs the quiet room at home.
At Stage III: follow the orders, not the headlines
- Look for the notice from your state government (Delhi, UP or Haryana) and then your employer's notice. The GRAP schedule asks the state governments to decide, so the rule for a Noida office and a Gurugram office can differ on the same day.
- Shift commute-heavy tasks, such as document submissions or interviews at an office, earlier in the week if you can.
At Stage IV: minimise travel
- Move any in-person interview to video if the employer agrees.
- Keep study sessions at home and use recordings for anything you cannot attend live.
Planning your study hours around smog weeks
For self-paced practice, the smog season is a good time to front-load work that needs no travel. A simple rule for a 3–4 month course:
| If a stage lasts | Plan this instead of travelling |
|---|---|
| A few days | Rewatch recorded sessions and redo the practice notebooks |
| One to two weeks | Build one portfolio piece end to end, such as the air-quality data project, which uses the same AQI bands described here |
| Longer | Book online doubt-clearing slots and a mock interview; ask for a lab day later in the course |
Checking the current stage yourself
Do not rely on screenshots in group chats. CAQM publishes the orders invoking and revoking each stage on caqm.nic.in, and the Central Pollution Control Board publishes the AQI on airquality.cpcb.gov.in. Your state government's order is what decides whether the office measures apply to you.
If you are choosing between a course with fixed in-person days and one that runs live online, the smog season is a practical argument for the second. Our Data Analyst programme runs live online, with optional in-person labs at our Noida centre that you can skip in a bad week without missing content.
The stage thresholds and measures above are from the revised schedule of 21 November 2025, as of September 2026. CAQM can revise the schedule again, so check the current order before each season.
Frequently asked questions
Does GRAP Stage III mean my office must let me work from home?
No. Under the revised schedule, Stage III asks the NCR state governments and the Delhi government to take a decision on letting public, municipal and private offices work at 50% strength with the rest at home. It is a decision point for governments, not an automatic right, so watch for your state's order and your employer's notice.
Which AQI level triggers each GRAP stage?
The schedule is keyed to Delhi's AQI. Stage I is 'Poor' (201 to 300), Stage II 'Very Poor' (301 to 400), Stage III 'Severe' (401 to 450) and Stage IV 'Severe+' (above 450). The Commission for Air Quality Management announces when a stage is invoked or revoked.
Pankit Kumar has 10 years in Data Science & AI, building and shipping production systems in regulated pharma and clinical environments. He is a freelance trainer at Boston Institute of Analytics, AnalytixLabs and Scaler, and has taught this material to thousands of working professionals.
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