Udyog Sanchetana (E) - Oct' 2023
Virendra Grover
IITian, Trainer, Editor "Udyog Sanchetana", Career Coach, Author Freelance BLOGGER, Life Member LUB, IEI, IIM, GMA
Literally "Udyog Sanchetana" means awareness of industry. The objective is to help JOB-Seekers for Career Planning. Startups have opportunities in Manufacturing, Services, Agriculture and even in Social Entrepreneurship to address hundreds civic issues, including Road Safety.
We also have a monthly HINDI edition. 113th edition could be visited at - https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/virendra-grover-889a3a27_113udyog-sanchetana-h-sept-2023-%E0%A4%8F%E0%A4%95-activity-7114495839930097664-o3ks?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Road crashes cost India 3-5% GDP?
Deaths and injuries in Road Crashes in India are a major but neglected public health challenge that require effective and sustainable prevention.
THINK.......Could this be a Business?
As per World Bank, it costs to the Indian economy 3 to 5 percent of GDP each year. While it would be impossible to attach a value to each case of personal loss and sufferings to assess the global social cost, many families are driven deeply into poverty by the loss of breadwinners and added burden of caring for the members disabled by road traffic injuries.
India ranks first in road crash deaths across 199 countries reported in the World Road Statistics. As per World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Global Status Report on Road Safety, 2018, India accounts for almost 11 percent of the road crash related deaths in the world. [Statesman | New Delhi |?September 22, 2022]
A few Highlights of News are -
Male death victims account for 92%…
There was an increase of 3.6 percent in fatal crashes in Delhi as compared to 2020. There was an increase of 13 percent in total crashes. However, the death rate per one lakh population remains the same.
Poor road condition…
Poor road condition factors include, poor light condition, weather condition, unguarded civil work, slippery road, light reflection from front and encroachment on road. These factors could be further broken down into, no central verge, hole or pit on road, faulty road design, narrow road and sharp curve etc.
Vehicles increased 10 times with population…
WHO characterizes road deaths as a preventable health epidemic. Calling it accident dilutes public support for policy solutions to road crashes. Transportation Alternatives launched the ‘Crash Not Accident’ campaign asking people to pledge that they will stop using the word “accident” and replace it with “crash.”
Where we Stand - Every day, 400 or one life snuffed out every 3.6 minutes in road accidents in India
India was committed to reduce the number of road accidents and fatalities by 50 per cent by 2020. However, road safety levels have taken a serious hit with the country witnessing one of the highest growth rates of vehicles in the world and rapid urbanisation over the years. It is even more disconcerting to know that accidental deaths are mostly of young people in the productive age group, causing substantial loss of productivity to the nation.
The Scenario & Solution
Major Rail or Air accident involving a few hundred victims is taken very seriously by the concerned Ministries, but for 1.3 to 1.5 Lakh deaths every year in Road Accidents, there is no Authority to be held Responsible.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), maintains data, takes policy decisions, directs State Governments, where responsibility is jointly shared by multiple authorities District Magistrate, Development Authority, Transport Department, PWD, Civic Body and Traffic Police; each agency puts in its best, but we don’t even have a System to record correct figures. Here are few facts:
[Source page 9 of a study by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT- Delhi) -https://tripc.iitd.ac.in/assets/publication/TRIPC_status_report_Aug222.pdf]
What Needs to be Done?
Each district/ town should have a single, authority to maintain record of every major/ minor ACCIDENT, with unique ID; analyse cause, suggest remedial measures to prevent recurrence.
Follow up with concerned departments for action, including Insurance cases for both Life and Property, Medical Costs etc.
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To ensure that third party insurance claims are settled within 3 – 6 months, though it takes even 8 – 10 years and Insurance companies make a huge profit of over 40 percent on premium receipts in a year.
How to Proceed
Interestingly, not all pay for Third Party Insurance (TPI) and not all cases deserving compensation are enlisted.
Even the pollution-under-control (PUC) test is not taken seriously by all automobile users, despite heavy penalty. Task is entrusted to Thousands of private franchises. Its the responsibility of Ministry of Environment, but handled by office of Transport Authority.
Mandatory FITNESS test is not complied and the issue gets highlighted only when a school van or bus meets with accident.
The transport department sets SPEED limits, issues driving licences (DL), supposed to check Overloading, but here again staff and resources are not adequate. The subject is one of the important components of Making SMART Cities and let there be a "Challenge for soliciting Solutions".
Documents like DL, PUC, Insurance etc. are checked by Traffic Police, only when you are caught for some traffic violation, otherwise none bothers.
Public transport in cities is offered by shared Autos, E-rickshaws, Private buses with NO check or study for Traffic Density, the root cause of road rage and accidents. Long distance travellers face the music year after year during festive seasons. Here are few glimpses that could be seen in media reports every year:-
Parking is a big constraint in public places and incidence of Road Rage is growing, but we have no remedial measures.
Incidentally, all traffic and transport related issues form component of SMART City Mission, but there again NO single authority to be held responsible for.
All these issues are highlighted in a recent publication in Hindi, with title Traffic Control. https://notionpress.com/read/traffic-control
Club TULSI – A case for Social Entrepreneurship
Institutions generally have number of clubs in the campus to promote music, drama, debate, literary and various social/ cultural activities. Some of the Students having interest in Social Service may come forward to form Club TULSI, where 5 letters are acronym for Traffic-Transport Urban Life System Improvement.
Undertake study of certain civic issues, help through camps wherever possible and in the process the group could find some of the issues that offer Opportunity for Business. This could be a market research project and it could help in developing detailed project report (DPR).
Indore – the CLEAN city of India
Indore in MP is getting the crown continuously for the last few years as the cleanest city, but as a casual visitor, I found it has many miles to go and let this be done through public participation under PPP mode.
IIT-Indore and IIM- Indore could take a lead by inviting business proposals from groups of students participating from all local institutions. A convention could provide platform for presentations. Some of the viable ideas could be selected to work with local administration.
Large corporates, Industry Associations like LUB, CII etc could provide backup support as Mentors, where the startups may also avail CSR funds, besides exploring novel ways of resource generation.
In Ghaziabad the civic body has put No-Parking sign boards everywhere without guiding "Where to ParK" and Traffic Police moves with smartphones to FINE, but this is no way of Enforcement.
Enforcement should go along with Education, Engineering and Example, the 4E combine. IIT-Madras has developed excellent Apps and tech-systems for Road Safety. There could many more such systems, devices, controls available that could solve traffic issues and bring down FATAL Accidents (Road CRASHES).
Startups could take control of specific territories of Cities or National Highways to take responsibility. These could be Linked with MoRTH to work for Mission ZERO Fatalities.
It's Possible – Mumkin Hai.
If India is achieve 3rd place among world economies, it’s time we plan to take note of each activity that contributes to GDP and 3-5 percent loss is not a small figure to be overlooked.