MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE TASK FORCE HELD ON 20-09-2005 UNDER THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF SECRETARY (HI&PE) AT UDYOG BHAWAN, NEW DELHI

1. The meeting of the Task Force was held on 20^th September, 2005 under the Chairmanship of Shri Priyadarshi Thakur, Secretary (HI&PE) at Udyog Bhavan to draw up the 10 year Mission Plan for the development of the Indian Automotive Sector. A list of participants in the meeting is enclosed.

2. Initiating the discussions, Secretary (HI&PE) stated that the meeting has been convened in order to develop Strategies and Action Plans to give shape to the aspiration of the Automobile Industry and the intention of the government to develop India into a global hub by 2015. He also indicated that this meeting is the first in the series of meetings that the Ministry proposes to hold.

3. Secretary mentioned that we have to draw up an Action Plan for the Industry and requested the Industry to come with specific recommendations and projects to be implemented in the mission mode for realizing the vision of developing the Indian automotive sector into a global player by 2015. He stated that it would be desirable to evolve specific packages from the point of view of improving competitiveness, technology, export, R&D, training of manpower etc. He urged that the Task Force should clearly identify the desired policy changes, the corrective steps required and new policy initiatives that are necessary to address the problems and the areas of concerns/hurdles hindering the growth. In this connection, Secretary suggested that Working Groups for each broad category of the issues of concern to the automobile industry may be constituted and the report of the Task Force should be ready by mid January, 2006, so that the budget related Task Force recommendations may be addressed in the pre-budget exercise.

4. Dr Surajit Mitra, Joint Secretary, MoHI&PE said that the intention is not to draft yet another policy document but should aim to identify activities and projects to be implemented in a mission mode to make the agreed vision a reality. He suggested that sub-groups may be constituted as per important segments and issues of auto industries to come up with recommendations and road maps within the next 6 weeks, after which inter-ministerial consultation could be held,to generated a consensus on recommendations. Thereafter, a road map and action point could be finalised.

5. Secretary then invited for the views of SIAM, ACMA, ARAI, VRDE, representative of the Deptt. of Science and Technology and the other participants in the meeting.

6. Mr Ravi Kant, Vice president SIAM agreed with the Secretary’s suggestion that the Task Force recommendations should be ready before the pre budget consultations. He said that the document should be very concise to take forward the vision of the Auto Policy of Government of India. He suggested that the objective of this mission document should be to recommend action points which will help the industry double its turnover by 2010 and maintain the growth rate in order to reach a turnover of USD 100 billion by 2015 for which demand creation – both domestic and international will be required. Mr Ravi Kant said that the document should have clear road-maps with the roles and responsibilities of both Government and Industry defined and there must be targets which should be met by the Industry and by the Government. He suggested that there should be only 3-4 committees to look at how to create domestic demand of USD 65 billion and export demand for USD 35 billion by 2015 and how to make Indian Automotive Industry globally competitive.

7. President ACMA agreed to the SIAM suggestions and said that they have got a study done through Mckinsey which has said that the current ratio of export of the component industry (16% of turnover) is expected to increase to 120% of domestic turnover by 2015. He suggested that the committees should look at China and Thailand very closely and understand how they are growing from within and if necessary benchmark with them where they have shown excellence.

8. Mr T C Gopalan, on behalf of TMA said that the current exports of tractors is around 10% of their turnover and it is expected that this ratio would go up to around 40% of turnover by 2015.

9. Director, ARAI suggested that the test facilities coming up under NATRIP should be utilised for designs and other research purposes to get benefit from this huge investment.

10. Mr Bijon Nag, Members Task Force agreed to Mr Ravi Kant’s suggestions and said that the document should also focus on training, man power development and R&D.

11. Director, MoRT&H suggested that if the Industry grows significantly, then we should also look at the negative fall out so that precautionary measures can be taken in terms of emission and safety.

12. Taking into account the views expressed by various participants in the meeting, it was decided to constitute 5 working groups. The broad areas of the working groups and the Chairman in respect of these working groups were decided as below:-

Sl. No.	Name of the Working Group	Chairman
1.	Demand Creation, Brand Building and Infrastructure.	Shri Ravi Kant Vice President, SIAM
2.	Export and International Business.	Shri Deep Kapuria Ex-President, ACMA
3.	Competitiveness Manufacturing Standards and Technology.	Dr. Pawan Goenka COO, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
4.	Environment and Safety.	Shri Jagdish Khattar President, ARAI
5.	Human Resource Development.	Dr. Surinder Kapur CMD, Sona Koyo Steering System Private Limited

13. It was also decided that the Chairmen of the Working Groups would also be co-opted as Special Invitee of the Task Force and they would constitute the Working Groups for their respective areas as they may consider necessary and would submit the first report for their Group within 5 weeks (i.e. by 31-10-2005) so that the same may be further considered by the Task Force.

14. The meeting ended with a vote of thanks to the Chair.