The Hindu Business Line : `India must focus on design development'

(From right) Mr R. Seshasayee, Chairman-Steering Committee, International Mobility Engineering Congress and Expo 2005 and Managing Director, Ashok Leyland Ltd; Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology; Mr V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council; and Mr R. Mahadevan, President, SAE India, at the International Mobility Engineering Congress and Expo 2005 in Chennai on Sunday — Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , Oct. 23

INDIA cannot stop with just being the shop floor of the world but must take the next step to develop technology solutions and create a wealth of intellectual property, according to Mr R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland.

Addressing the inaugural of the SAEIndia International Mobility Engineering Congress and Exposition 2005 here today, he said after gaining global attention in manufacturing "India can emerge as a major source of design skills for the world."

It has the potential for technology development with its resource of skilled engineering capabilities, the proposed setting up of a National Automotive Testing and R&D Centre and the presence of a critical mass of component industries. Tamil Nadu, particularly Chennai, is richly endowed in this regard, he said.

The advantage for an emerging market like India is that it can leapfrog to the latest in technology as it did in telecommunications, he added.

Inaugurating the exposition, Mr Ted Robertson, President, SAE International, said India has the potential to "solve the (technology) problems of the world." He said that in his 35 professional years, he had come across a number of outstanding engineers from India.

According to Mr Seshasayee, even a few years ago, the Indian auto components industry was worried about foreign competition. "But now, the mood is different," he said, adding that the industry had beaten the target for reaching $1 billion in exports by a good two years.

He observed that the Indian automotive industry had effectively countered the challenge of meeting emission standards in "an extremely compressed timeframe."

Dr V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, said the automotive sector is fully focussing on manufacturing of `hardware' but with electronics playing a prominent role in modern vehicles there is a need for developing software. In this segment too India could dominate as it does in information technology software.

The Union Minister for Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, in his address said India has to move into design development from the low end of technology.

The automobile industry should actively involve itself in the proposed National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project, an automotive testing, homologation and research facility proposed near Chennai at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore, he said.

With electronics constituting 40 per cent of modern automobiles and embedded Electronic Control Units (ECUs) playing key roles, the demand for such components is bound to increase. There is a need to develop low cost ECUs. To be competitive Indian OEMs and component manufacturers need to design and develop them for proprietary rights on the intellectual property.

Government institutions and laboratories, manufacturers and IT companies and associations can come together to develop generic solutions. Agencies under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Information Technology and the Indian Institutes of Technology at Mumbai and Chennai could collaborate in focussed industry-academy interaction, he added.

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