SIAM, ATMA, ITTAC host virtual seminar on ‘Road Safety Advocacy for Tyres’

Apex automotive industry body, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) along with Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) and Indian Tyre Technical Advisory Committee (ITTAC) held its second edition of ‘Road Safety Advocacy for Tyres’ on a virtual platform. The seminar themed ‘Technology & Environmental Challenges’, was part of a tri-virtual series.

 Under the ‘Tri Series Seminar’, ATMA-SIAM is organising three sessions to spread awareness on various aspects of tyre care, road safety, and sustainability to advocate the road safety mission by MoRTH. While the first series focused on tyre and road safety, the second one focuses on technology and environmental issues, and the third series will be on standards, regulations and sustainability.

Yesterday’s session saw participation of government officials as well as industry leaders and subject experts, who deliberated upon topics such as sustainable mobility and technology and environmental challenges.

 In his opening remarks,  Prashant K Banerjee, Executive Director, SIAM, said, “The tyre sector is one of the most regulated ones, but the irony is that despite being one of  the most critical component for a safe drive tyres don’t  get enough attention. I believe that tyres deserve to be dealt on priority and with more respect therefore, this is important to spread awareness amongst the users.”

 Chief Guest, Ravi Agarwal, Additional Secretary, MoEF & CC, said, “This initiative by SIAM, ATMA and ITTA will go a long way in creating awareness about tyre-maintenance and safety. Also, there is no doubt about the fact that automobiles are the true indicators of economic well-being of the country. There is a lot of potential for research in this area as it has a widespread impact on the environment as well as the economy. Also, a practical and sustainable model for extended producer economy in the domain of tyres must be constituted. The concept of a circular economy is important for the management of tyres from the design stage to the end of product lifecycle.”

Rajiv Budhraja, Director General, ATMA, said, “Road safety and tyre care are very much part of the inner core functioning of our association. In the first phase, we connected closely with the users, further in second phase, we touched product, sustainability and environment and in the third and final phase, we will be connecting with influencers and policy makers. Life safety is of utmost importance and deserves more attention in awareness campaign. And now the time is RIPE for tyres and safety elements that are associated. We call this RIPE, where R stands for Respect, I for information, P for practice and E for educate.”

During the inaugural session  Ravin Kurian, Chairman, ITTAC  highlighted the commitment of industry along with the challenges to attain low rolling resistance and improving hostile environment for tyres. 

The first presentation on ‘Scenario towards Sustainable Mobility’ was hosted by Tom Thomas, Ex. Executive Director,  R&D, Technology and Projects, CEAT; Dr K Rajkumar, Director, IRMRA; V K Misra, Director Technical, J K Tyre & Industries. They presented technical papers on sustainable- mobility: emerging new raw materials scenario, role of rubber industry in environment sustainability and end of life: Tyre Management. The session was moderated by P K Mohamed, Chief Advisor – R&D, Apollo Tyres.

The second presentation-session was conducted on Technology & Environmental Challenges.  Dr D Balakrishnan, General Manager, Ashok Leyland Ltd spoke about the challenges specific to commercial vehicle tyres. Another expert, Dr Cyrille Roget, Innovation and Scientific Communication Director, Michelin (Europe) shared his thoughts on ‘Sustainable Mobility: Technology Trends & Development’.   Anand Kulkarni, Vice-President (Product Line EV), Tata Motors spoke about ‘Tyre Requirement for EVs – Future Perspective. The second presentation session was moderated by Mr Renji Issac, VP (R&D) and Technology, CEAT.

SIAM-ATMA and ITTAC will host the third session on ‘Regulation and Sustainability’ in October 2021.