Up Against Towering Odds
The stakeholders of India’s auto manufacturing industry, be it the OEMs, auto component manufacturers or machine tool makers, have been facing one challenge after another – a slowdown, the BS6 norms sprint, and now Covid-19. How are they holding up? Industry voices share their perspectives and experiences.
In early February, during the week that Auto Expo 2020 was held at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan, worries and concerns around Covid-19 had begun to grow, particularly among countries, companies and people who had close economic ties to China and were therefore keeping a watch on the epidemic that had began to take root along the New Silk Road from China to Western Europe. Among them were event organizers and automotive manufacturers who had begun to exercise some degree of caution. As a result, not only the expo had restricted the entry of travelers of any nationality coming in from China, but even the expo participants came in well-informed about the growing menace of Covid-19 and its probable impact on Indian manufacturing.
MeshMix Media’s Senior VP Strategy, Dinesh Mishra visited the Auto Expo, and spoke with prominent auto component and machine tool manufacturers at the show on various important issues ranging from the state of India’s auto industry, the adoption of BS6 emission norms and its impacts, and how Coronavirus could likely effect the manufacturing sector. The following cover feature contains excerpts from the talks held at the show, which give many insights into how the industry has been dealing with myriad challenges, many of them unprecedented, in a bid for growth.
