TEHRAN - In a shocking revelation belying India’s tall claims of rapid economic progress and development, seven of the top ten most polluted cities in the world are in India. A study by Greenpeace showing South Asia’s fight against deteriorating air quality and its toll on global economy was released on Tuesday.

India’s commercial hub Gurugram led the most polluted cities in the world in 2018, with other commercial hubs Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Noida, and Bhiwadi in the top six worst-affected cities.

What's alarming, according to the report, is that air pollution is likely to cause the death of an estimated seven million lives globally in the next year while costing the world’s economy nearly $ 225 billion.

The index measures the presence of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5, a pollutant that can fester deep in the lungs and bloodstream of human beings.

“This has enormous impacts, on our health and on our wallets,” Yeb Sano, executive director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia, said in a statement. “In addition to human lives lost, there’s an estimated cost of $225 billion in lost labor, and trillions in medical costs.”

India, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, makes up 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities, with five in China, two in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh.

China made progress in its usually dismal pollution levels, with average concentrations falling by 12 percent in 2018 from the previous year, according to the data.