Safety in numbers only

The UK-registered FIA Foundation, which was set up to promote road safety and sustainable mobility, is one of two major contributors to Global NCAP, the independent UK-based agency that conducts crash tests on new cars. The latter agency was in the news last week when it revealed that five small cars made in India failed global-standard crash tests. The irony of these donor links, however, is this that no less than six Indian automobile associations are funding members of the FIA Foundation, one of the highest among the 152 founding members. China, for instance, has just one member and Brazil, which has turned out more Formula 1 drivers than India, has just two.