European Union Regulations in Indian Tyre Industry

This paper presents, compares and contrasts the existing Indian AIS142 regulations with the UN R117 Regulations that are set to be implemented in the Indian tyre manufacturing industry. The study evaluates the two sets of regulations with respect to safety, environmental and economic aspects. The paper points to the fact that in toto implementation of the UN R117 regulations in a short span of time without considering unique operating structure of country’s transport sector poses a greater risk of imposing significant socio-economic costs not only on the tyre industry but also could lead to a cascading impact on other stakeholders of transport industry. The study highlights that many countries in the world notably the USA and China have their own country specific regulation that does not necessarily conform to the UN R117 regulations and take into account their own national interests, namely their own geographical spread and terrain of operation, besides environmental and economic structure of the transportation sector in their countries. The paper posits that a detailed study of the costs and benefits of implementing the UN R117 in India needs to be carried out taking into account the composition of the transportation sector in the country which includes the underlying road infrastructure, socio-economic nature of the operations, the historical development of the sector and its contribution, and the imposition of the standards leading to disruption before its adoption. without any tangible benefits.