This refers to Dinesh Mohan's article "Unsafe in an Indian car" (February 6). It is not surprising that cars, even the ones manufactured by trusted Indian companies, are not safe on road (given the government's lax rules). What amazes is that even foreign companies such as Suzuki and Hyundai, which have a reputation of building safe cars in their country, follow the Indian practice of making easy profits. In this respect, India has been a loser in the transfer of technology from abroad. Also, when carmakers say they make cars to suit Indian roads, what is their reference point - national highways or badly built internal arteries of roads? The government, too, has given little importance to road safety. There is no reason for having inferior Indian safety standards compared to those of the Global New Car Assessment Programme. It speaks volumes for the inertia of the government that the Sundar committee's 2007 recommendation to form a regulatory authority is languishing in bureaucratic red tape.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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