Note: All Statistical Figures as on 21st May 2006)
Indian Automotive Industry
The Indian automobile industry has come a long way since in the first car ran on the streets of Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1898. The initial years of the industry were characterized by unfavorable government policies. The real big change as we see in the industry today, started to take place with the liberalization policies that the government initiated in the 1991. The liberalization policies had a salutary impact on the Indian economy and the automobile industry in particular.
The automobile industry in the country is one of the key sectors of the economy in terms of the employment opportunities that it offers. The industry directly employs close to around 0.2 million people and indirectly employs around 10 million people. The prospects of the industry also has a bearing on the auto-component industry which is also a major sector in the Indian economy directly employing 0.25 million people.
All is not well with the automobile industry the world over currently with the slowdown that has gripped most of the major economies of the world. The incidents of 9/11 have also contributed to an already ailing global economy. The gap between the manufacturing capacity volume and the assembly volume is growing by the day and has the worried the manufacturers. This state of affairs has triggered a lot of cutthroat competition and consolidation in the industry. Cost reduction initiatives have come to be the in thing in the global industry today. Towards this direction, many automobile factories are being closed down.
The Indian automobile industry is a stark contrast to the global industry due to many of the characteristics, which are peculiar to India. The Indian ...