The company has curated detailed guidelines for each location and conducted intensive training for maintaining social distancing at workplaces. Enhanced sanitisation measures are being implemented.

In FY20, the industry sales experienced a sharp decline of 14.8 per cent y-o-y vis-à-vis a growth of about 6.4 per cent during FY19 led by factors such as increased insurance costs, uneven monsoon, high ownership costs, curtailed lending by the NBFC segment,etc.

It is estimated that one Indian city is wiped out every year due to road accidents. In 2018 alone, a mind-boggling 149,000 people lost their lives on Indian roads, which is equivalent to the population of Meghalaya’s capital Shillong.

Though India accounts for just 2 per cent of automotives globally, it is responsible for more than 11 per cent of road traffic deaths. In 2018 alone, around 149,000 people lost their lives on Indian roads.

With rising awareness, every consumer today is India wants safety features to be a standard fitment in the vehicle. While cost of the vehicle may go up due these new fitments initially, Prashanth Doreswamy, Country Head of Continental India and Managing Director, Continental Automotive India, believes prices to come down gradually as safety installations increase.

Increasing sales of passenger cars is boosting the brakes market in India. At the same time, regulatory mandates for making vehicles safer is leading to rising need to use advanced braking systems like ABS (anti-lock braking system), electronic stability control (ESC), etc.

The increase in awareness regarding safety norms has boosted growth in vehicle braking system technologies in the country.

Road safety is gaining importance in India, with increased awareness among the end users, driven by safety-related regulations. In the highly competitive market, passive safety systems are becoming the major differentiator for automobiles, says Rakesh Rao.

With automobile manufacturers harnessing emerging technologies, eyeing surge in demand for new-age vehicles, Anjan Kumar delves through changing dynamics of the automotives from efficiency towards innovation.