Last week, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, travelled to India. In tow was the largest ever Prime Ministerial trade delegation, with over 100 companies and organisations seeking to promote business ties between Britain and India.
The timing and nature of the delegation was interesting: the European Union is currently in the midst of complicated negotiations over a free trade agreement with India. Cameron has committed to a referendum on Britain’s EU membership by the end of 2017, should his party win the next parliamentary election – expected to be held in 2015. In the event of a ‘no’ vote and subsequent withdrawal from the EU, Britain could find itself excluded from any preferential trade arrangements with what the government expects will be the third largest global economy by 2050.
This Thursday (28 February), India’s finance minister, P Chidambaram, will present India’s eagerly awaited 2013/14 Union Budget, and automotive industry analysts will be watching closely to see how the budget will address the concerns of the car and commercial vehicle sectors in particular
This week, Automotive World has sent its own delegation to India, to host the 2013 edition of its Chennai-based truck conference. Commercial Vehicle Megatrends India 2013 will take place on 26 and 27 February at the ITC Grand Chola hotel, and will bring together over 300 OEMs, suppliers, regulatory bodies and other parties to discuss the prospects for India’s commercial vehicle industry.
The timing of Automotive World’s Indian CV conference is also interesting. This Thursday (28 February), India’s finance minister, P Chidambaram, will present India’s eagerly awaited 2013/14 Union Budget, and automotive industry analysts will be watching closely to see how the budget will address the concerns of the car and commercial vehicle sectors in particular. The slowdown in these sectors has led India’s automotive industry trade body, SIAM, to petition the government to initiate fleet modernisation and emission control programmes, and to reduce excise duty in the budget.
In an interview with India’s NDTV, R. C. Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki, said deficit control would be the central theme of a budget which some analysts expect to be one of the most austere in many years. The threat of a credit rating downgrade for the country is very real, said Bhargava, and so any hope for a cut in excise duty for the automotive industry seems unrealistic. With India’s economy struggling, concessions in the budget will not suddenly enable the industry to return to its recent impressive growth rates, he said, adding that the rapid growth forecast two years ago will not be rediscovered any time soon. Growth of 5-6% would still add car sales, but even if the new vehicle market recovers in 2013, it would take a major change after the 2014 election for the industry to be able to revert to a double digit growth rate.
Political and fiscal decisions made in the next few months will of course affect the CV sector; it is for events like Commercial Vehicle Megatrends India 2013 to look further into the future and to discuss the business models, technologies, and trends that look set to shape India’s CV industry in the next ten years and beyond.
Political and fiscal decisions made in the next few months will of course affect the CV sector; it is for events like Commercial Vehicle Megatrends India 2013 to look further into the future
The conference agenda features a line-up of key OEM speakers, including Daimler’s Marc Llistosella, Scania’s Anders Grundströmer, Volvo’s Philippe Divry, Ashok Leyland’s Nandkumar Khandare and AMW’s Anirudh Bhuwalka and A. Ramasubramanian. Mayank Agochiya of Ricardo, Continental’s Thalavai Venkatesan, Vishnu Sundaram from Harman and S. Narayanan of WABCO India will be among the many supplier representatives speaking at the conference.
Follow Automotive World for reports and videos from the event. More details about the conference itself can be found by following this link. And as the details of the 2013/14 budget emerge later this week, we will look at the industry’s reaction and assess the impact it will have on India’s car and CV sectors.
Martin Kahl is Editor of Automotive World.
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