In good news, India on Wednesday became one of the few nations who have the world's cleanest petrol and diesel after oil companies rolled out Euro-VI emission compliant fuels. 

What's more important is that it happened without any disruptions or hike in prices. The development would have resulted in up to Re 1 per litre rise in the prices as the country jumped from BS-IV grade to BS-IV. However, the oil companies decided to pass this benefit to customers and adjusted it against the reduction in global oil prices that have fallen to a 17-year-low.

"We are today 100 per cent supplying BS-VI petrol and diesel. All the over 68,700 petrol pumps in the country are selling the cleaner fuel from today," Sanjiv Singh, Chairman, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) - the firm that controls roughly half of the market was quoted by a news agency.

He further added that the switch hasn't led to a change in the prices adding that the feat was achieved in just three years and none of the large economies has done it so far.

It's been a fortnight since oil companies changed their prices. As of today, a litre of petrol in Delhi costs Rs 69.59 while diesel costs Rs 62.29.

With this, India will join a league of select countries that use fuel containing just 10 parts per million of sulphur. It will reduce vehicular emissions to a significant level, thereby reducing pollution.

Notably, India adopted the Euro-III standard of fuel in 2010 and it had a sulphur content of 350 ppm. It took seven years to move to the BS-IV equivalent in 2017 that has a sulphur content of 50 ppm.  

India adopted Euro-III equivalent (or Bharat Stage-III) fuel with a sulphur content of 350 ppm in 2010 and then took seven years to move to BS-IV that had a sulphur content of 50 ppm. From BS-IV to BS-VI it took just three years.