A sound transportation system plays a pivotal role in the country’s rapid economic and industrial development. The well-developed Indian automotive industry ably fulfils this catalytic role by producing a wide variety of vehicles: passenger cars, light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles such as jeeps, scooters, motor-cycles, mopeds, three wheelers, tractors etc.

The automotive industry comprising of the automobile and the auto component sectors has shown great advances since delicensing and opening up of the sector to FDI in 1993. The investment in the industry is Rs. 50,000 crores up to 31.3.2000. The turnover of the automobile industry exceeded Rs.44,338 crores in 1999-2000. Including turnover of the auto-component sector, the automotive industry’s turnover exceeded Rs.59,558 crores. The industry provides direct employment to 4.5 lakhs and generates indirect employment of 1 crore. The contribution of the automotive industry to GDP has risen from 2.77% in 1992-93 to 4.0% in 1998-99.

Since liberalisation in 1993-94 to 1996-97, the automobile sector has shown a spectacular overall growth rate of over 20% in the number of vehicles manufactured. Also this period was characterised by the entry of global automobile manufacturers for setting up joint ventures in India. There has been substantial addition to capacity creation from 1993-94 to 1998-99. Installed capacity in 4 wheelers had increased from 5.2 lakh to 11.76 lakhs vehicles.

The details of actual production during 1999-2000 and for 2000-2001 (upto October) with the corresponding figures of year before are given below in table 2 :-

Overall automobile sector bagged a growth of 15% in 1999-2000. Comparing figures of this year with the corresponding period of the last year it would be seen that the Indian Automotive Industry is again passing through a recessionary phase with an overall growth rate of (–) 2.5%.

The automobile industry is also contributing to export effort of the country. The details of export during 1999-2000 and for 2000-2001 (upto October) are given below:-

According to a study, automobile exhaust contributes more than 60% of the atmospheric pollution in metropolitan cities. With the growing number of vehicles, the pollution in the cities is ever increasing. Government initiated controls by notifying emission standards from the year 1992 which were further tightened in April, 1996 under the Motor Vehicle Act. For meeting these norms, unleaded petrol was also introduced in metropolitan cities from 1995 which enabled fitments of catalytic convertors on new petrol driven vehicles.

The norms for the year 2000 notified by Ministry of Surface Transport in 1997 require major modification in the engine design especially in regard to fuel injection system in passenger cars and fitment of catalytic converters in 2-stroke engines. These standards are akin to Euro-I norms adopted by European countries in 1992. With the recent directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, passenger cars (both petrol and diesel) had to meet at least Euro-I norms from June 1999 and from April, 2000 only vehicles meeting Euro-II norms could be registered in the National Capital region. These norms have already been implemented by Ministry of Surface Transport as Bharat Stage-I and Bharat Stage-II Norms.

The growth of automobile components industry is closely linked to the growth of automotive industry, as substantial quantity produced is supplied by auto components industry to original equipment manufacturers. Keeping in line with the growth in production/sales of automobiles over the past few years, auto components industry has also registered slow growth. The production during 1999-2000 was of the order of Rs. 16,356 crore compared to Rs. 12,997 crore during 1998-99 registering growth of 25.8 %.

On export front, automobile component sector has registered a growth rate of 18.9% during 1999-2000. Total export of auto components during 1999-2000 was of the order of Rs. 1665 crores compared to Rs. 1400 crores during 1998-99.

Agricultural Machinery mainly consists of Agricultural Tractors, Power Tillers, Combine Harvesters and other machinery and implements.

At present, there are ten units in the organised sector manufacturing agricultural tractors covering a wide range from lower Horse Power in the range of 16-20 to higher Horse Power of 50 and above.

The Industry made a beginning in 1961 with a total production of 880 units. There has been a substantial growth in the production of tractors since late 1980s and the production has reached a level of 2,66,385 in 1999-2000. Production figures of tractors during the last few years are given below: -

Though tractor industry started production by importing technology from renowned manufacturers in USA, UK, USSR, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia etc. Over the years, technology has been fully absorbed. Some tractor manufacturers have introduced higher Horse Power tractors of 75 HP with imported components for meeting the specific requirements of high HP category of tractors.

The production of tractors in the range of 31-40 HP is around 60%, in the range of 41 HP and above is 23% and below 30 HP category is 17% of the total production. Traditionally, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are the main States for the tractor market. The new markets for tractors in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat States are growing at a faster pace.

Earth Moving Equipment and Construction Machinery Industry play a vital role in the economic development of our country. This industry is closely linked with major development and infrastructural schemes such as coal and mineral mining, irrigation and power projects, ports, steel, fertilizers etc. The technology required to manufacture such machines was not earlier available. It was, therefore, necessary to permit import of technology for development of the same from internationally reputed manufacturers like KOMATSU, CATERPILLAR, POCLAIN, DRESSER, DEMAG AND HITACHI. The earth moving equipment currently being manufactured cover Shovels upto 10 cu.m. capacity, Bulldozers upto 770 HP, Dumpers upto 120 HP, Excavators upto 8.5 cu.m. capacity, Scrapper and Motor Graders upto 280 HP and walking Draglines, Mobile cranes etc. Construction equipment, mainly road construction equipment such as graders, loaders, excavators, vibratory compactors, hot mix plants etc. are being manufactured indigenously. These machines help to speed up development in irrigation and power projects, coal and iron ore mining, for excavation of lime stone for cement, for development and reclamation of vast track of land, building roads, making canals, preparing industrial sites and all facets of the country’s development activity. These machines also reduce dependence on labour and provide automation in construction work.

Indigenous production of Earth-moving and Construction Machinery commenced in 1960s. Today, country is, by and large, self-sufficient in respect of these items. In fact, during the last decade, the industry has made enormous progress and has grown both in size and diversity. The total capacity available in the Earth Moving & Construction Equipment Industry is around 6000 nos. With the Government’s emphasis and priority on the development of infrastructure, this group of industry is expected to grow in near future.

The number of Earth-Moving and Construction Equipment manufactured during last 4 years is given below:-

The present trend of diesel engines for all earth- moving machinery has been on manufacturing in line/’V’ type naturally aspirated/turbo charged six cylinders/four cylinders water cooled engines. Apart from this, fuel efficient and low emission turbo charged engines for vehicular applications are also being made indigenously. However, engines using non-conventional sources are being thought of. Production figures of diesel engines for the last few years are given below :-

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