Indian car buyers are becoming increasingly safety-conscious. Crash safety ratings now play a key role in shaping purchase decisions, and are even parts of the official marketing campaigns of many models. Bharat NCAP is India’s own new-car evaluation program. Previously Global NCAP used to crash test cars and SUVs under its ‘Safer cars for India’ program. Recently, a man filed an RTI ( Right To Information) request seeking details of bodyshell stability and other aspects of vehicles tested under the Bharat NCAP program. Interestingly, in its response, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said that it cannot reveal this information as it is ‘ confidential data’ of the concerned carmaker.
One of the most glaring differences between Global NCAP (and most other international NCAP programs) and Bharat NCAP (BNCAP) is that the latter’s results page doesn’t go into the details of ‘modifiers’ like bodyshell stability, footwell rupture and more. These, however, impact the overall crash performance scores.
Let us explain with an example. The Maruti Suzuki Victoris has been tested both by Global NCAP (GNCAP) and BNCAP. It was awarded full five-star safety ratings in both crash tests. In Global NCAP tests, the Victoris scored 33.72 points out of 34 points in Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) tests and 41 out of 49 in Child Occupant Protection (COP) tests. In Bharat NCAP tests, it scored 31.66 / 32.00 in AOP tests and 43.00/ 49.00 in COP tests.
The fact sheets, available on the bodies’ respective websites, highlights a noticeable compromise in transparency. The GNCAP fact sheet has a ‘comments section’ that talks in detail about the overall damage caused to the dummies and the factors like structural stability and ruptures. In the case of the Victoris, the Global NCAP fact sheet says ‘ The footwell area was rated as stable. The bodyshell was rated as stable and it is capable of withstanding further loadings.’
Bharat NCAP’s fact sheets lack such comments, leaving consumers in the dark, about such modifiers.
An X (previously Twitter) user (‘The Yawning Chihuahua’ on X), filed an RTI request on 24/03/2026, seeking details of all modifiers used in testing for all vehicles tested (and results published) under the Bharat NCAP program till date. ‘Kindly provide the list of all modifiers, as defined in latest applicable version of AIS197, that have been applied to the vehicle under Adult Occupant Protection, including the names of the modifiers and their impact on the AOP score of the vehicle’- it reads.
This request got a response from MoRTH on 11/05/2026 saying ‘Considering the scope of AIS 197 (Cl. No.7.3), introduced under Rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rule, 1989 and Section 8(1) of the RTI Act- commercial confidence, the requested data cannot be furnished being proprietary intellectual property and confidential in nature to respective OEM’. In simple terms, the requested information is ‘confidential and cannot be shared! This raises several questions and concerns.
It is true that BNCAP penalises vehicles for unstable bodyshells, footwell ruptures and other such issues while calculating AOP scores. However, not including those data in fact sheets and refusing to share them even against requests aren’t healthy practices.
A lack of transparency here will force people to believe that a car that scored high scores in crash tests would have a stable body structure. It may also make people dubious about the authenticity of BNCAP ratings and may even make them assume things or draw conclusions on their own- both of which aren’t going to do good for the product in the long run, particularly when actual crashworthiness can be decisive in car purchases.