The Hindu Business Line : India to showcase potential at Frankfurt Motor Show

New Delhi, Sept. 12 If Sunil Bharti Mittal set the tone for Brand India at the World Economic Forum, it would be now the turn of Tata Motors Managing Director, Mr Ravi Kant, and Mahindra President, Automotive Sector and Member of Board, Mr Pawan Goenka, to do the same at the International Frankfurt Motor Show to begin on Thursday.

It would not only be the industry honchos who would be present, but also the Union Minister of Heavy Industries, Mr Santosh Mohan Dev, accompanied with the Joint Secretary, Mr Surajit Mitra.

At the inaugural session of the show, Mr Dev would address the gathering in the presence of German Vice-Chancellor, Ms Angela Merkel, on the auto industry in India and the possible areas of cooperation between the two countries. This would be followed by an India Day, which would showcase the country’s economic development and future potential.

On Friday, Mr Ravi Kant, who recently took over as the President of Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), would be highlighting investment opportunities, sourcing of components between the two countries and some of the key areas of technology cooperation. Mr Ravi Kant would also flag off the Indian Automotive Mission Plan, which was released by the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in January. He would also be accompanied by Mr Goenka, Vice-President of SIAM and Mr E. Bala Subramonium, Head, Small Car Sourcing, Tata Motors, amongst others. The Indian auto part makers would also not like to be left behind in exploring trade opportunities on the components front.

“Last year SIAM had signed MoU with VDA, the German auto industry association and this year, a joint working group will be set up to explore areas of cooperation with regard to alternative fuels, bio fuels, hybrids amongst others.

Further, possibility of cooperation at the institutional level was also being considered to share advances in technology and research and development front,” said a SIAM official.

German automobile companies such as BMW, DaimlerChrysler are already present in the Indian market. Volkswagen has launched its cars recently and Skoda India Managing Director, Mr Karsten Bogun, said last week that the company was open to sharing its production facility with Audi, which was also from the same group for domestic operations.

On the components side, German auto parts companies such as Bosch and ZF Steering are currently operating here.