New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- India has an uninsured-vehicle problem. That much is beyond dispute. Where opinion divides is on what actually fixes it. The Supreme Court's recent order extending mandatory third-party insurance tenure-four years for new cars and six for two-wheelers-answers that question with a longer lock-in. The data available to the industry suggests this will not close the compliance gap. It may well widen it.

Start with what the order gets right. Its enforcement measures-camera-integrated challans and a pilot linking fuel access to valid insurance-target the mechanism of non-compliance directly. These deserve support and, ideally, faster rollout. The tenure extension is a separate question, and worth examining on its own term...