New Delhi, Oct. 22 -- India's premier automobile testing agency, the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), plans to manufacture soft target dummies domestically, as imported models don't yield accurate results in crash tests because they are not tailored to Indian body standards, according to two people aware of the development and the agency's FY26 annual report.

Currently, India imports these crash dummies from countries including China, Japan, and Germany. Imports of 'other measuring and checking instruments, applications and machines', of which these dummies are a part, totalled $1.3 billion in FY26, 11% higher than in FY25, according to commerce ministry data.

"We are definitely localizing soft target dummies. And these ...