No B*S*

An admission at the very outset: I realize that the second half of this article quickly departs from "LinkedIn" quality to something more suitable for Facebook. But I'm still recovering from a Thanksgiving weekend packed with stuffed turkeys and bleary eyed deal hunting, so that the lines between personal and professional life are blurrier than usual. Hope it's the same for you.

I'm trying  to connect my impressions during my recent visit to India, a nation pursuing ambitious goals of cleaning up various forms of pollution: that of air due to vehicular and other emissions and that of the economy due to corrupt practices. 

I flew into New Delhi for the Emissions Control & Technology conference, within couple of days after major newspapers screamed of some of the worst pollution having hit the nation's capital. Delhi has had PM10, the concentration of particles smaller than 10microns above 200 ug/m3, an order of magnitude higher than the recommended limits. Here's a chart looking at the comparison of the particle concentrations across the world (a subset I pulled from the published WHO figures).

Clearly the situation is dire and the Indian government's initiative for leapfrogging the vehicle emission norms from Bharat Stage (BS) IV nationwide (equivalent to Euro IV) to BS VI in April 2020 should be applauded. Not all of the air quality problems are traced to tailpipe emissions (the recent problems were attributed mostly to crop burning in the countryside). But tremendous strides have been taken in developing cleaner fuels, efficient powertrains and after-treatment technologies, and it is imperative that the benefits of these advancements be made available nationwide in India. I'm an optimist, and despite the challenges pointed in the conference for implementing these BS VI norms in a short time, the overarching sentiment I heard was one of hope and determination. Representatives from leading OEMs, the government, national labs, and the supply chain got together and echoed a "yes we can" message. Having said that, there were a couple of interesting and not-so-obvious takeaways: 

• One of the speakers pointed out that the challenge is never one of technical capability but rather of skilled human manpower: with the tens of platforms per OEM which will have to be compliant with the new norms, the auto industry in India faces a short supply of engineers trained in emission control technologies (note youngsters, this may be an opportunity!) 
• Even when newer BSVI models become super clean, it would take decades before the existing older and dirtier vehicles are put out of circulation. "There is no end-of-life concept in India, vehicles are used forever", as one put succinctly. This calls for retrofitting existing vehicles or government incentive programs promoting the average consumer to trade-in current vehicles for newer ones. 
• The fallibility of applying European regulations "as-is" to the Indian scenario should be considered carefully. A vehicle was fitted with expensive PEMS equipment and run for weeks, and not a single "valid" RDE test could be recorded. (RDE is the real-world driving emissions requirement in Europe, and there is much work done in defining a valid driving test, such as duration, urban/rural/highway driving, altitude and so on). Under Indian conditions, the tests and expensive PEMS equipment had to survive heavy traffic, harsh weather and dust conditions. Developing India's own RDE test cycle or a supplemental lab test cycle to mimic Indian driving conditions will be an important challenge to tackle. 

These observations clearly indicate that the success in achieving clean air will require more than good intentions, but rather a consistent and rigorous pursuit of proper implementation of these norms.       

On the eve of the conference, we were also confronted with the overnight decision by the government to remove certain high denominations from circulation, a move aimed to promote the rich to turn in black money. A very different manifestation of "pollution" control, and may be with even greater impact. Time will tell whether the decision achieved the desired goal, but again the audacity to take some action is commendable. In a country where cash is still king, carrying four one-thousand rupee notes, now useless, and three American credit cards, also useless - felt uneasy, so say the least. But I won't complain - my inconvenience at not having money to tip the staff at Le Meridien was easily eclipsed by the hardships the common man has faced, trying to run small businesses and buying groceries with much of the currency now reduced to mere paper.

Two days later in Pune, on a busy sidewalk lined with tens of restaurants ranging from roadside snacks to fresh juice (and also a Subway!), a little girl - she may be barely 8, same age as my own daughter - ran up to me with balloons tied to each of her little hands. The fact that she was barefooted did not slow her down. She wanted me to buy one of her balloons. I chose "purple", and realized even as she took the right one off, that she knew her colors in English. As I gave her the money, she looked up, smiled and said "thank you". I asked her if she'd had dinner and she laughed, said no. It was probably her first sale of the evening, she'd earned her ten  rupees (equivalent to 20 cents) and indicated that the money will now help her get food. It's safe to say that the little girl was playfully oblivious to the movement in her country, with rich folks apparently struggling to offload millions of rupees in 500 and 1000 rupee denominations. I mention this little incident only because it was a good reminder that ultimately our work - whether that of engineers trying to convert the last bit of tailpipe emissions or that of leaders trying to grow a healthy economy - is going to benefit the next generation and provide kids like this little girl a reasonable chance of having a decent life.

In a recent interview to Forbes, Satya Nadella said that as the CEO of Microsoft part of his job was "to pass judgment on an uncertain future and curate culture" and that foreign trips helped him learn a lot on both these fronts. I think this provides an excellent lens through which to look at India today, a nation aspiring to continue its trajectory of high economic growth, while pledging to protect its environment and ensuring that the benefits reach every resident. At the very least, I can confidently say that the emissions industry is geared up and ready to clean up, and may be provide another dimension to the "Swachh Bharat" movement.