After deliberating over the idea for some time, the NDA government has come out with draft rules to make microdots mandatory in vehicles. The move is aimed at making India free from vehicle thefts and spurious spare parts. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways under Nitin Gadkari issued a draft notification on July 24, amending the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989, and allowing motor vehicles and their parts, components, assemblies, sub-assemblies to be affixed with permanent and nearly invisible microdots that can be read physically with a microscope and identified with ultraviolet light. Microdots are a globally proven technology to ensure originality in spare parts of machines and components, including in the automobile sector. The government has envisaged that with microdots becoming a permanent feature in vehicles, identifying them would become easier in case they are stolen. According to the draft, the microdots and adhesive are to become a permanent fixture/affixation which cannot be removed without damaging the asset itself. The microdots are to comply with AIS 155 requirements, if affixed. The draft rules shall be taken into consideration after the expiry of a period of 30 days from the date on which they were published in the gazette. Anyone affected by them may send in objections in the next one month. In Delhi alone, around five vehicles were stolen every hour last year, according to data released by Delhi Police recently. The microdot technology involves spraying thousands of microscopic dots onto vehicles or other assets to form a unique identification. Each microdot carries this identification which is registered to the owner, but is not visible to the naked eye. Also, duplicate spare parts have been a pet peeve of the auto industry for decades. Officials said this move will also ensure that consumers have a way of identifying original parts from fake ones and that contributes to overall safety as well.
