NextMile Brings Together 60+ Experts and Youth Voices for Road Safety Policy
On 28 September, CFI concluded the Grand Finale of NextMile at India Habitat Centre — a multi-stakeholder launchpad for evidence-based road safety policymaking.
The premise
On 28 September 2025, Crashfree India (CFI) successfully concluded the Grand Finale of the inaugural NextMile: Road Safety Policy Ideathon at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. More than a competition, NextMile marks the beginning of an ambitious effort to transform India's policy ecosystem — embedding data-driven, evidence-based approaches into road safety policymaking.
Billed as one of the country's most visionary youth-led policy innovation platforms, NextMile convened 60+ experts across academia, government, civil society and industry, alongside India's brightest young thinkers. The initiative was designed not only to crowdsource ideas, but to spark a national dialogue on systemic challenges and catalyse a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach to improving road safety outcomes across the country.
“Collaboration is the key to solving road safety issues. No single stakeholder — whether government, industry or civil society — can solve road safety alone. We need cross-sectoral, intergenerational partnerships.”
The event was graced by some of the most respected voices in mobility, transport policy and law — including Vaibhav Dange (Ex-Advisor, MoRTH), Justice J.R. Midha (Ex-Judge, Delhi High Court), Abhay Damle (Ex-Joint Secretary, MoRTH), Prof. Geetam Tiwari (Chair, TRIPP IIT Delhi), Dipak K. Dash (Senior Editor, Times of India), R. Venkat Ratnam (DG, Lead Agency on Road Safety, Punjab), Akhilesh Srivastava (President, IRF-IC), Rama Shankar Pandey (Chairman, FICCI Road Safety), Aishwarya Raman (OMI Foundation), Gautam Singh (Head of Research, SaveLife Foundation), Col. Sanjiv Sharma (Head, CoERS IIT Madras), and many more.
How the day unfolded
Launched in June 2025, the initiative drew over 700 registrations from students and young professionals across India. From 250+ concept notes, 37 teams advanced to an intensive mentorship stage, where urban planners, lawyers, policy strategists and industry veterans helped refine ideas into evidence-backed policy proposals. Following rigorous evaluation, 10 teams reached the finale, presenting to a jury of eminent experts.
Finalists hailed from institutions such as IIM and NLSIU, while experts from WRI, IIT Madras' CoERS, AIIMS Trauma Centre, Raahgiri Foundation, NIUA, NASSCOM and OMI Foundation enriched the discourse. The teams addressed six pressing challenges:
- Crash Compensation & Insurance Reform
- Regulating E-Commerce & Delivery Rider Safety
- Local Blackspot Identification
- Road Safety Data Transparency
- On-Road Emergency Response Protocols
- Speed Management in Urban Areas
“This is the first time I've seen young teams gathering such relevant information and translating it into policy ideas. With more work, many of these can evolve into actual policies.”
Ideas worth backing
The jury honoured three teams for exceptional contributions:
- Winner — StrategistsRegulating E-Commerce & Delivery Rider Safety.
- First Runner-Up — Safer Miles InitiativeCrash Compensation & Insurance Reform.
- Second Runner-Up — A²Regulating E-Commerce & Delivery Rider Safety.
“If the claim after a crash is received after 10 years, the money has no value. Families lose their breadwinners, children drop out of school, livelihoods collapse. No disease matches this rate of mortality.”
Justice Midha's work — including the FastDAR scheme and judicial reforms for expediting compensation — has already transformed outcomes for thousands of victims, a spirit of reform that NextMile seeks to carry forward.
Where NextMile goes next
What makes NextMile distinct is its commitment to ensure that proposals move from ideas to implementation and pilots.
“If even two of today's young participants choose a career in policymaking, the desired result will have been achieved.”
“NextMile is not the end — it's just the beginning. Through this initiative, we've shown how youth energy, expert mentorship, and evidence-based policymaking can converge to generate impactful solutions. Our next step is to pilot these ideas through a collaborative approach.”
Experts, institutions and organisations are warmly invited to join the journey — through advocacy, pilot programmes, research or policy reform — and write to aastha.shreeharsh@crashfreeindia.org to collaborate.
Apply for the next NextMile cohort
If you are 18–25 and want to shape Indian road safety policy, NextMile is your runway.
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60+ experts and India's youth converged at IHC Delhi to shape evidence-based road safety policy.