Evolution of the Indian Automotive Industry Post-1991

The Indian automotive industry has four noteworthy sections - commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, three wheelers, and bikes. As per the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), the Indian automotive market has three sections - passenger vehicles, multi-purpose vehicles, and utility vehicles. It is then further sub-divided based on the length of the vehicle as segment A, B, C and so on. The Indian automotive industry was a very precautious and safeguarded industry with not very many companies till the economy opened in 1991. Liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991 and de-licensing of the passenger car industry in 1993 paved way for the entry of global players like Hyundai, Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Daewoo,

Gupta, V. (2009). The export boom in automobile sector has largely been possible due to improved performance of auto components segment. In the component industry, the top rung manufacturers made desperate attempt to overcome depressed domestic market of late 90s by tapping the export market and making efforts to improve quality and competitive potential. Exports also earned them higher margins - S. B., Vikram, S., & D, S. G. (2011). Presently, there are more than 30 OEMs offering more than 75 options in all categories of vehicles. India’s automotive industry is the world’s sixth largest producer of automobiles in terms of volume and value and has grown 14.4% in the last decade. The industry contributes 7% to India’s GDP, 7-8% of the total employed population (about 13 million people), 4% of exports. - Bhattacharya, S.

- Bhattacharya, S. (2014). This has been also due to various manufacturers locally based which helped in the Indian Automotive achieve a position on a global rank and recognition globally as well. One of the major corporates to do so is Tata Motors. Their recent model the Nano launched in 2008 was launched with the perception of creating and manufacturing the worlds cheapest automobile and this was mainly due to the supply requirement by the vast amount of population being deprived of a motor vehicle. Originally a company for trucks and buses, Tata motors had entered the passenger vehicle segment in the 1998. Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (renamed Tata Motors in 2003), which was primarily engaged in the production of commercial vehicles and utility vehicles till the mid-1990s, rolled out its small car “Indica’ in 1998. Indica was well received in the market and emerged as one of the prime competitors to MSIL. Gupta, V. (2009). But all the glory does come with criticism, as briefly said by S. B., Vikram, S., & D, S. G. (2011), according to the Draft automotive mission plan, issued by Government of India in September 2006, for the period 2006-2016, the industry not only needs to think big in terms of scales but also needs