Scrap and grow

Scrapping policy should consider ownership trend

After a year of negotiation, India may soon announce a policy on scrapping vehicles. At a time when demand for cars and commercial vehicles is poor, even in the two years preceding the pandemic, a scrapping policy is a sensible way to kill many birds with one stone. Apart from boosting demand, the proposal to allow vehicles older than 15 years to be scrapped could help improve auto emission standards, reduce steel imports (since metal from scrapped vehicles can be recycled), and expand employment in the large scrapyards that need to come up to service this new market. The broad