Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal urged the auto components industry to reflect on the level of investments and time and effort that they have been putting in to develop new technology, new designs, new products and thus help India’s indigenization and localization efforts. ‘It would also help us provide solutions to other countries instead of being dependant on their R&D for all times to come. Good ideas will find traction and acceptability both in India and all over the world’, he added. He was addressing the ACMA’s Atmanirbhar Excellence Awards and Technology Summit 2023. 

The Minister noted that India had entered the Amritkaal and was leading the world in crucial arenas such as sustainability and said that the growth of our economy and our businesses would depend upon our levels of investment in technology and R&D. He observed that several sectors and companies were reaping an ROI that was many times their investment in innovation and R&D. 

He said that as a nation, if we address the twin challenges of productivity and quality, India would excel with its technology level, managerial capabilities, skilled workforce and commitment levels. With focus on these two aspects, India would also excel in price competitiveness and succeed in meeting the needs of both India and the world’, he added.

 The Minister called to attention the obvious synergies between auto component manufacturing and defence indigenization and urged the industry to focus their efforts on promoting indigenous manufacturing and building self-reliance in defence technology.

He also asked organizations like ACMA to hand-hold and support startups by interacting with them, providing them new opportunities, reward and encourage their R&D setbacks, treating it as stepping stones to success. Instant success comes but very rarely in R&D. It is  a long haul but India must go down that path’, the Minister stressed.

 The Minister asked the auto components industry to also focus on formalizing the informal portion of the sector to ensure that duplicate components don’t affect India’s credibility in the world market. He urged the industry to raise their voice against infringement of copyrights and patents. He also asked the industry to make an extra effort to educate their customers on the quality of products, the life-time costs and the risks associated with low quality products. ‘The Consumer Affairs Ministry would be happy to partner with you on your efforts to promote quality’, the Minister assured.

 The Minister gave a new definition for athmanirbharta to the industry as not only being self-reliant but ensuring that the rest of the world was ‘nirbhar’ or reliant on India for their needs. The Minister brought to focus the several accolades that India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had received from across the world for its decisive leadership and said that the world was looking up to India for solutions to the daunting problems of the day.

 Shri Goyal said that India would be the next frontier of technology, development, production, supply and would serve the world honourably, while respecting the environment and sustainability. He noted that sustainability and respect for nature came naturally to us and was ingrained in our cultural and civilizational ethos. He also asked the auto industry to make a net zero commitment to itself and set timelines to achieve it. 

The Minister asked the industry to ensure that the entire supply chain of auto manufacturing worked to promote Indian industry by supporting and empowering suppliers of raw materials and components, even if that meant incurring  extra costs in the short run. In the long run we will succeed in creating a robust ecosystem for manufacturing in India, the Minister added. He asked big companies to narrow down on tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers and see how they could be supported and encouraged. 

In conclusion, Shri Goyal noted that India was at an inflection point where myriad opportunities were available to excel. He asked auto components industry to grab the opportunity and work together as a team, with all stakeholders, including the government to ensure that all emerging opportunities are leveraged to become what the world wants it to become.

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