Every winter, Delhi NCR holds its breath as toxic smog returns, turning clean air into a privilege and exposing policy failures that extend far beyond the city. Despite emergency measures and seasonal bans, the crisis persists because its roots lie in decades of agricultural policy choices in north-western India that incentivised unsustainable cropping patterns and normalised stubble burning. This CCS Working Paper, Delhi’s Air Pollution and What Lies Beneath, authored by Amit Chandra and Gaurav Gupta, examines the more profound structural, technical, and policy distortions that link farm-level incentives in Punjab and Haryana to Delhi’s annual air pollution emergency. By tracing how well-intentioned but flawed interventions reshaped land use, irrigation practices, and market incentives, the paper argues that durable solutions lie not in short-term bans but in rethinking the foundational design of India’s agricultural and environmental policies.