Progress Through Research

Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director, The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) talks to The Machinist about different aspects of the Indian automotive industry.

- Swati Deshpande

Can you please tell us about ARAI and its functional areas?

ARAI is research association of the automotive industry with Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India. It works in harmony and complete confidence with its members, customers and the Government of India. ARAI has been playing a crucial role in assuring safe, less polluting and more efficient vehicles by providing technical expertise in R&D, testing, certification, homologation and framing of vehicle regulations.

Along with the government, we also support the industry’s research programs by helping them with testing and validation for their new products. Additionally, ARAI undertakes their supplier development or Tier 1 development for optimising the technology.

Can you please tell us about ARAI’s state-of-the-art laboratories?

We are really proud of our labs and equally competent people working in it. As our customers are wide spread—right from material developers to tier 1 or tier 2 component manufacturers—we have expertise in each of the specific areas. ARAI is well-equipped with 15 state-of-the-art infrastructural facilities catering to variety of needs including Emission Certification, Automotive electronics, Automotive materials lab, NVH, etc.