Right towards the end of February 2023 the Indian government had aired plans for mandatory third-party insurance for vehicles impounded on highways. At the time, the government had said that the move intended to resolve the issue of the high number of uninsured vehicles plying in India. However, as per an RTI reply sent by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), the government does not have information on the number of insured vehicles in India. No data on insured vehicles? On March 6, 2023, MediaNama sent an RTI request to the IRDAI asking for: All non-confidential documents regarding the third-party insurance State-wise figures of the number of vehicles insured in India Government measures to ensure a vehicle owner’s consent in paying for the third party vehicle insurance On all three counts, the IRDAI on March 16 replied that “the information sought is not available” with it. However, what’s even more bizarre is that the Union Ministry of Finance confirmed in the Parliament on March 20 that over 50 percent of vehicles in the country are uninsured. Uninsured vehicle numbers presented in Parliament: According to Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Karad, “As per the information provided by Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) the total estimated vehicle fleet is 30.48 crore (excluding data from Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Lakshadweep), of which 16.54 crore vehicles are uninsured.” So, if the Road Transport and Highways Ministry has data on uninsured vehicles, how come the IRDAI has…
