Monday, February 06, 2012
By Pawan Rana
ARAI shakes hand with Korean, Chinese firms for technology sharing and harmonization
In order to keep car companies abreast with the latest know-how of the Indian auto industry standards and homologation, Indian Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) has entered into alliance with Chinese and South Korean companies. Under this tie up the companies will be getting technical knowledge and knowledge about latest development in the auto industry from ARAI. Notably, ARAI provides technical assistance to Indian car makers and with sharing information with the new entrants, India could see newer technologies entering the country far earlier than expected. Notably, a lot of Chinese and South Korean car companies and car component makers are soon to enter India.
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However, ARAI has not disclosed the names of the car makers with which it has entered alliance, but these are hoped to be strategic ones. Notably, ARAI provides technical know-how and is into research and development in auto sector besides giving certifications regarding safety and other norms. Besides ARAI also studies international standards and harmonizes them with Indian standards. The Indian authority invests Rs 22 crore in R&D every year.
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With the alliance in place, India will see a faster homologation of Indian safety and other standards and thus it will ease speedy entry of new cars in India. Reportedly, ARAI is also in talks with some companies in Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa. Significantly, a team of ARAI officials have already visited some of these countries for technical collaboration and harmonization.
ARAI has a testing facility at Pune and it is here that cars for India are tested for safety and other standards. It is here that ARAI grants tests the mileage and issues certifications related to safety and mileage. ARAI also has a tyre testing laboratory and it is at the ARAI facility that cars are tested for emission and safety standards. Based on the report of the testing, a car is granted certificate by ARAI. At present cars like Maruti Alto, Nissan Micra and other newly launched cars come with ARAI certified mileage figures.
