India's Auto Sector Must Shift to Global Competitiveness and Tech Leadership, Say Industry Leaders

Indian auto sector needs to move beyond just focusing on resilience and build globally competitive, technology-rich, and sustainable value chains in the country, industry leaders said on Wednesday.

The automobile industry continues to be a strong pillar for the Indian economy and it has tremendous potential to move towards scale and global leadership, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) President Shailesh Chandra said here at the Annual Session of Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA).

"The next phase must be about converting resilience into global competitiveness, technology leadership, scale, and global leadership," he noted.

Stating that Indian automobile and auto components sectors have posted record performance, including exports, he said, "India is becoming an important automotive manufacturing and technology base for the world."

Chandra further said, "The opportunity before us is therefore much larger than just import substitution. Given our current scale and growth trajectory, our ambition should be to establish India as one of the world's leading automotive manufacturing and mobility hubs."

Moreover, the Indian auto sector should "ensure that 'Made in India' becomes synonymous with quality, technology, reliability, and global competitiveness," he said.

Stressing on the need to move from import substitution to "design in India, make in India, and export from India", Chandra said there is an important distinction between self-reliance and isolation.

"Our objective should not be to disconnect ourselves from global value chains. Rather, India should become a preferred node in the global value chain," he asserted.

Chandra further said,"We should follow a simple principle: design in India, develop in India, manufacture in India, and export from here."

A significant proportion of value creation lies at the design and development stage, which India can increasingly build, leveraging its large and growing automotive market, he noted.

"Let us therefore move forward with a clear ambition-not really to build resilient supply chains for India, but to build globally competitive, technology-rich, and sustainable automotive value chains from India," Chandra said.

Sharing similar sentiments, ACMA President Vikrampati Singhania said India is already amongst the world's largest automotive markets, with a deep manufacturing ecosystem, a strong entrepreneurial base, and engineering capabilities increasingly recognised across the world.

"For years, we have spoken about make in India. The next phase must increasingly be about creating in India, engineering in India, and innovating in India, for India and for the world," he noted.