Narain said many participants at the workshop were acting like India has just realized that there is an air pollution problem. "If you want to work here, you have to respect the action that is already happening here. The reason farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn crop stubble is because there are no economic incentives to stop burning. They don't have machinery that will allow them to bail it and plough it back. Please don't lecture us unless you are sensitive to the challenges here," Narain said, adding that "local and global pollution are intrinsically linked. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector in US is increasing. You can help us fix local and we can work together to fix the global problem," she said. During the group discussion to arrive at final recommendations, participants discussed if India could have policy where state governments are given deadlines to meet air quality standards . If they failed to meet the deadlines, they could be penalized by withholding central funds for various projects. US has a similar policy and experts suggested that India could also implement such a system but it would require suitable legislation to enforce such a plan.

LakiTisopulos of South Coast Air Quality Management District (SQAMD), one of the panelists said Indian air pollution control agency is not strong and policy "way too dispersed." The way ahead could be to empower the central pollution control board (CPCB) with necessary resources and set deadlines or clean air targets to the existing national air quality monitoring programme (NAMP). There could also be a third party verification to the process. "It will take legislative action to do this," he added. Some participants in the audience said such a policy may be difficult in India considering that political systems are very different in every state here. "Each country has to devise their own pathway. But if there is a time frame people start taking it seriously," Tisopilos added.

Narain said such a system already exsists in India but implementation is poor. She spoke about the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) which classifies different parts of the country based on pollution, toxicity and other parameters and series of interventions kick in based on the ranking, like no further projects will be allowed in areas ranking the worst. "But the data available was very poor so even decision making has been poor. We don't have a full proof way of finding out whether the interventions are working," Narain said.

Narain told TOI that she agrees in principle with the US model where investments are cut down to an area that is highly polluted. "It forces accountability. It is a good model but we need to have basics in place."

C Arden Pope III, economist from the Brigham Young University said it was critical to acknowledge that "combustion sources like coal burning, diesel exhaust, transportation are driving the health effects." IIT Kanpur professor, Mukesh Sharma cited a study published in Nature to say that combustion sources are six times more harmful than crustal particles like dust.

US embassy officials told TOI that following the announcement of an agreement to cooperate on air pollution during President Obama's visit to India last January, the North India office of the embassy had requested for proposals to carry forward the agreement. Research Triangle Institute (RTI), North Carolina was selected to organize the workshops and a grant was given to them. "The recommendations will be consolidated and then used to move forward on air pollution control. We are open to criticism and different views in the forum," they said. The embassy will also start debates on climate change in various Indian universities soon.

US embassy tries to keep dirty air away:

Some Indian participants took exception to US embassy's claims that it is trying to ensure that polluted air from outside doesn't enter the embassy premises by insulating it and making certain changes in the architecture, while some others felt it was scientific and smart.

Liam Fitzgerald, Resource Conservation Unit, US Embassy made a presentation on how the embassy in its various offices has put in place systems to identify leaks in the "building envelope of residences and offices" and residences are tested for rate of leakage. He also said about a million dollars have been invested in the air quality control program for offices and residences of staff in India. Their maintenance programme also includes inspection to uncover or unblock any fresh air ducts in the buildings.