India is the world's fifth country to get a dedicated car crash safety program
- India to adopt a dedicated car crash safety program after the US, China, Japan and South Korea.


India is all set to be the fifth country in the world to adopt a completely dedicated car crash safety program. Currently, besides the continent-based NCAP programs like ASEAN NCAP, Latin NCAP, Euro NCAP, and ANCAP, countries such as the US, China, Japan and South Korea have their own dedicated car crash safety programs to assess car safety in those countries.
The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is all set to launch the first-ever dedicated car crash safety program in India, which is christened as Bharat Bharat New Car Assessment Program (Bharat NCAP) on August 22, 2023. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will launch the Bharat NCAP, which will mark a step forward to improve road safety in the country by raising the safety standards for motor vehicles up to 3.5 tonnes. With India being one of the top countries with alarmingly high numbers of deaths registered every year due to road accidents, the Bharat NCAP is expected to help in minimising that number across the country.
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Before the Bharat NCAP launches tomorrow, here is a quick look at the country-specific dedicated NCAP programs available in other countries.
US (NHTSA & IIHS)
In the US, there are two different agencies that assess the safety of the vehicles sold there. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is a government agency that assesses and provides star ratings for vehicles. It has been testing cars since 1978 and annually crash tests around 125 cars. On the other hand, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) is an independent insurance-industry-backed nonprofit organization that assesses and provides star ratings to vehicles separately. IIHS conducts its own series of six crash tests on over 100 new vehicles each year. Both these two organisations assess and rate the cars sold in the US, basis on their safety standards.
China (C-NCAP)
The China NCAP or C-NCAP is a Chinese car safety assessment program, which has been primarily modelled after safety standards established by Euro NCAP. The C-NCAP program is run by the China Automotive Technology and Research Centre (CATRC).
Japan (JNCAP)
The Japan New Car Assessment Program (JNCAP) was launched in 1995 for improving car safety performance in the country. Japan being one of the leading car manufacturing countries and car markets in the world, the JNCAP crash tests and provides star ratings to different models every year. This program started testing cars on the basis of installation conditions of safety devices and the results for braking performance and full-frontal crash tests. Later side-impact and offset frontal crash tests were introduced in 1999 and 2000, respectively.
South Korea (KNCAP)
Korean NCAP is the new car safety assessment and rating program in South Korea. Under this program, the new car models are tested and provided safety rating basis on their performance in the crash tests.
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