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MOTORINDIA
l
April 2012
117
the R&D capabilities of the academ-
ic institutions and national laborato-
ries. The e-infrastructure in India is
also growing very rapidly, and must
be effectively utilized by the auto-
motive sector”.
Dr. Chidambaram further said that
though the proprietary research by
companies could be done by tech-
nology transfer or in-house R&D
and supportive applied research, it
would be better for the industries to
make use of the technology assess-
ment capabilities of the academia.
The directed basic research sup-
ported by the Government could be
based on technology foresight anal-
ysis. This can be done on the long-
term requirement of a company not
only in the automotive sector but
other areas also.
According to Dr. Chidambaram,
for every industry there should be
directed basic research as some ar-
eas would always be India-specific.
“India is interested in R&D that
leads to innovation”.
Dr. V. Sumantran, Conference
Chairman and Executive Vice
Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Ltd.
said mobility has to be viewed as a
system which called for control of
vehicles, dynamic pricing of the use
of road infrastructure, green initia-
tives and use of computers to moni-
tor, control and intervene in order
to see how the vehicle is driven or
used, and systems to address the
topic of safety in which India lagged
behind.
Mr. Alejandro Vera Casso, Ad-
viser, Investment and Technology
Promotion for Asia Pacific, UNI-
DO, said how the UNIDO interven-
tion helped the Indian automotive
SMEs become technologically ad-
vanced and globally competitive in
their production process. This ena-
bled them to be part of the supply
chain of the multinational automo-
tive companies that set up manufac-
turing bases in India. Having made
significant achievements in the ma-
chine tool and automotive sectors,
UNIDO has begun to look at aero-
space industries.
Mr. Michael Carter, Consul -
Commercial and Trade Commis-
sioner for Australia to South India,
said a delegation from the State of
Victoria in Australia was in Chen-
nai, looking for collaboration in au-
tomotive research and development
and innovation.
Stressing the strategic and eco-
nomic importance of the automotive
sector in a developing economy,
he talked about the Australian In-
dia Strategic Research Fund with
an Australian contribution of Aus $
65 million with matching contribu-
tion from India to help collaborative
research efforts in the automotive
sector to bring about commercial
results.
Mr. John Harry Conomos, Aus-
tralian, Automotive Industry Envoy,
said that Australia is one of the 13
countries capable of creating a car
from concept to showroom. The
advanced design, engineering and
production of the automotive in-
dustry in Australia are supported by
strong R&D. With 160 component
and service companies, the State of
Victoria has a very strong interna-
tional presence. The State has been
a centre for design and engineering
of global vehicles and it has been
doing the design, development and
engineering of vehicles for offshore
producers.
The conference discussed topics
like efficient components and sys-
tem for automotives; advanced driv-
er assistance system (ADAS); mod-
ern vehicle controls – semi and full
autonomous vehicle control; and
intelligent vehicle and road systems,
transportation management and road
and traffic safety technologies.
w
research & Development
Dr. V. Sumantran, Conference Chair-
man and Executive Vice Chairman,
Hinduja Automotive Ltd.
“There are many trends that lead us to believe that we can no longer
address automotive technologies in the context of passenger cars alone.
Some of the trends are the need to find cost-effective, more economic
and sustainable systems, greater concern for environment, urbaniza-
tion and population density which compel us to think differently about
mobility, and reversal of trends seen so far like reversing the city space
to the citizens limiting entry of private vehicles.”
– Dr. V. Sumantran