The India We Are Still Building: Independence Day, Cars24 and the Road to a Crashfree India

Autonauts,

Generations of Indians spent their lives winning freedom, and many did not live to see it. What they left us was not a finished country. They left each generation a part of India to build.

For us, that part begins on the road. An Indian should be able to leave home in the morning and return safely to their family at night. Yet roughly 1.8 lakh people die on India's roads every year.

One road crash left both of Aman's parents with severe disabilities. Their son became their caregiver and the person holding the family's finances together. When Aman told Crashfree India his story, their compensation case was still pending before the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal. The forms, hearings and waiting had become part of the family's life.

This is the India Crashfree India is working towards: roads that do not take people away from their families, and a system that does not leave families like Aman's to find their way through the aftermath alone. Through Crashfree India, Cars24 has committed to the goal of zero road fatalities in India by 2040.

Project Rakshak puts students and young people on the ground with district administrations, police and road-owning agencies. They audit dangerous roads and stay with the problem until a finding in a report becomes a fix on the road. In its first year, 31 priority sites were audited across 18 cities. Those audits led to 25 approvals, and engineering work has begun at seven locations.

Crash compensation claims worth ₹80,455 crore remain pending across roughly 10.46 lakh cases. That is lakhs of victims and families waiting for their claims to move through the system. Our team has sat with more than 120 victims and families to understand where the system fails them. Helpdesks at Sharda Hospital and the AIIMS Trauma Centre have directly supported over 100 victims and family members. 1,400+ guides have reached people trying to find their way through the days after a crash, and AASHA is now live to answer their questions at any hour. The work now goes further: following claims from the FIR to the final disbursal, fixing the claim process in Gurugram and South-West Delhi, and mapping it across more districts so a working model can be repeated.

SATARK gives police the vehicle intelligence they need to act. It reads a number plate, checks pending challans, insurance, fitness and PUCC, applies rules set by the police, and sends a priority alert to an officer. It is live in Jaipur, Bengaluru and Gurugram. Across the Jaipur and Bengaluru deployments, it has scanned 3 lakh+ vehicles, surfaced ₹30 crore+ in pending challans and helped police intercept 350+ vehicles.

Crashfree India is carried by Cars24. The company gives this work its technology, reach and staying power. When you build Cars24 well, you give this mission more capacity to work on roads, with police and beside families after a crash. Your work is part of this.

When someone at home asks what you are building at Cars24, tell them this too. The company you are helping build audits dangerous roads, helps families pursue compensation, and gives police tools to stop high-risk vehicles. You are helping build the institution that has chosen to stay with this problem until India reaches zero.

I am proud that this is ours, and I want our very best work behind it. Build Cars24 with everything you have.

Fourteen Independence Days from now, it will be 2040. Our goal is that by then, no Indian family should lose someone to a road crash. It will take governments, police, engineers, courts, hospitals, citizens and years of work. Cars24 will keep doing its part until the number is zero.

That is the country I want Cars24 to help build. A country where the freedom to move does not come with the fear that someone you love may not return.

Happy Independence Day.

Vikram

See the work

• Aman's story

• Project Rakshak dashboard

• Justice Unserved report