The government on Friday asked the auto industry to make global-scale manufacturing facilities for better exports, rely less on imports and develop indigenous products.

“We need to build global scale plants in the auto sector that are at par with international standards. We should aim at improving the scale and quality of what we are producing and export it to the rest of the world. The key is to create a sustainable value chain,” Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Railways, said.

Speaking at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers' (SIAM) 60th annual convention, titled ‘Re-Building the Nation, Responsibly’, which was held virtually, Goyal said the current trends indicate that people will continue to buy cars, try out self-drive, autonomous and electric vehicles, and therefore, as a corollary, the automobile sector’s health would eventually improve.

“In the Covid-19 era, we have seen the demand for shared mobility fizzing away, which was once the talk of the town...We are a listening government and we will continue to do all that we can to help the auto-industry. We will also look at devising innovative models to boost exports,” he said.

Goyal said skilling is another aspect that needs to be looked into, if “we are to ace in domestic manufacturing”. Upskilling and re-skilling should be treated as a priority and an industry-academia partnership is one of the best available models to achieve this goal.

Independent think-tank

Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport & Highways and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, said SIAM should create an independent think tank of retired industry, legal, policy, and government experts to resolve industry challenges.

He said the industry has come to global standards on many regulatory fronts and the government upholds the need for long- term regulatory roadmap and infrastructure development for the benefit of the automobile industry.

“It is time the country also focuses on alternative biofuel technologies such as ethanol, methanol, LNG, and so on. The Government has changed the definition of MSME, has invested heavily in road infrastructure, including 22 green express highways and is focusing on road safety guidelines, and is bringing alternative cleaner fuels to India,” he added.

Infra development

Reassuring the automobile industry, Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Information & Broadcasting and Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, said infrastructure is the only answer to the growth story of India and the government is looking at investing ₹100 lakh crore towards infrastructure projects over the coming times.

“This will also hugely benefit the automobile industry,” he said adding that the government was also focusing on e-mobility by pushing for creating better infrastructure and providing incentive to EV manufacturers.

“Once the cost of electrified vehicles goes down, demand will increase and this segment will be highly profitable,” he added.

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