Carbonaceous aerosol emissions arise from energy use and the burning of forest, grasslands and agricultural residues. The emissions lead to air-quality degradation and related health-risks on local to regional scales and to climate impacts on regional to global scales. In south Asia, there is dominance of small combustion sources (e.g. residential cooking and heating), less-developed industry (e.g. brick kilns), and vehicular emission. The broad objectives of this major national initiative involving more than a dozen institutes are extensive understanding of carbonaceous aerosol emissions from regional sources including emission inventory, source apportionment, and their seasonal and long-term atmospheric abundance. Specifically, IIT Kanpur will be estimating emission magnitude and uncertainty of carbonaceous aerosols and co-emitted species from major vehicular tail pipes. In addition, an inverse modelling methods will be employed with the aid of molecular markers and isotope finger printing for deducing regional atmospheric abundance of carbonaceous aerosols, measured over a two year long period, from two North-East Himalayan sites.