• Great improvement. But the entire process of planning and notification by the ministry of surface transport (MOST) lacked transparency.

• No study to show the new standards' impact on the air quality.

• Permitted emission of hydrocarbons (HC) from two-wheelers (2.4 gm/km) is higher than that suggested by the H B Mathur committee.

• Decisions on cold and warm start emissions and urban driving cycle for laboratory test of vehicle emissions not brought to public notice. Government accepted European urban driving cycles just by renaming it "modified Indian driving cycles'. As driving patterns in India are quite different, it underestimates actual emissions by 30-40 per cent.

• Standards for the year 2000 have taken into account the durability of catalytic converters, but nobody knows who will certify this. Certificates obtained from abroad indicate only their working in high quality fuel.

• Little effort made to cut down diesel subsidies to discourage the use of dirty diesel.