India’s Detroit

(Photo Credit: Mckaysavage’s Photostream)

A story in Business Standard Motoring explains how the Indian city of Chennai is fast becoming the “Detroit” of India – a major global auto hub. Government incentives are key.

The automotive industry occupies an important place in the industrial map of Tamil Nadu. The state’s innovative policy for the sector offers an attractive package of support to projects investing more than Rs 4,000 crore. As a result, since May 2006, investments attracted by Tamil Nadu in automotive and auto components manufacturing is around Rs 21,900 crore. That’s almost five times the investments attracted during previous 15 years. The employment potential, both direct and indirect, in these new projects is roughly 120,000.

V Sumantran, executive vice-chairman, Hinduja Automotive, and chairman, Defiance Technologies, says India will produce around 2 million passenger car units in 2010. In a couple of years, annual production is expected to increase to around 10 million units a year. “Though the role of the ecosystem in Chennai cannot be underestimated, many measures on integration within the IT sector will be required to turn Chennai into the Detroit of the future,” he says.

The full story can be read here.

– The Editors