NEW DELHI, Jan 17: It is war. And it is official now. After the cola wars, it will be the car wars that will be fought on the home turf. And nobody knows it better than industry minister Murasoli Maran. Today, Maran acknowledged that he himself had ``signed the declaration of war yesterday by launching the Telco small car.''Maran's friendly little piece of advice to Maruti managing director, RSSLN Bhaskaradu, took the ball literally to MUL's court. ``I would warn you, beware of competition, both domestic and global,'' he said.
Maran's much ado about Swadeshi yesterday at the launch function was missing today, though general rancour woven around Maruti was much in evidence as he took off right at the outset. With that, the first simmerings of the small car wars that began with Maran's unveiling the Tata's small car on Thursday, came out in the open today. He was delivering the inaugural address at the 4th International Conference on Recent Trends in Automotive Technologies here on Friday.
The audience
comprised of over 300 world delegates at the conference, jointly sponsored by the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
``Symbolically, I own 50 per cent in the Maruti car. Now, I am somewhat worried about Maruti's 82 per cent market share. I am sandwiched,'' the minister said. Caught as he was in a peculiar dilemma, Maran could neither utter a word of derision against Tata car, nor sing paeans about it beyond a point. ``There is greater need for attention,'' is all he would advise. In fact, Maran could not have been more explicit. He even hoped ``it would send the signals in right places.'' In response, Bhaskaradu assured the minister, saying ``please don't worry sir, we will retain our leadership.'' That was as close to a public assurance as Maruti could have got.
Stating that to be competitive in the foreign and domestic markets, it is imperative that the technology is constantly upgraded, the
minister added that the demand for cars in the developing countries is set to grow at just the right moment to make up for the shortfall in the traditional markets. The Indian automotive scenario, Maran said, is one of the most attractive in the world.
In his keynote address, senior partner in Roland Berger of Germany Otto Hirschbach said the industry has to play according to certain rules and these rules are laid down by those who are most successful. Competition has become global and it is no more limited to domestic companies.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
