Mr. K.V.S. Prakash Rao, President of the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA), has called for creation of auto clusters/zones in different cities, without which it would be difficult to sustain growth expected in the next ten years.
In his welcome address at FADA’s 51st annual session held in Vijayawada on September 18, Mr. Rao said shrinking space for commercial & industrial activities and increasing congestion and pollution have not only made the cost of real estate prohibitive, but have also led the State Governments to come up with stringent land use laws. 3S automobile dealerships encompassing sales, service & spares under one roof cannot operate from a commercial or industrial area. Hence the need for auto clusters/zones in cities.
He also pitched for simplifying the registration procedure and delegating the registration of new vehicles to automobile dealerships in Andhra Pradesh on the lines of the schemes introduced by the Delhi and Rajasthan Governments. He hoped that the signing of an MoU between the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC) and the AP State Skills Development Council (APSSDC) would give further impetus to the skilling of people in the State.
Mr. Kesineni Srinivas, MP, speaking on the occasion, expressed the hope that the Andhra Pradesh Government, under the leadership of the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandra Babu Naidu, would favourably consider suggestions aimed at removing road blocks and promoting all-round growth of the State. In fact, it contracted 56 per cent of the debts of the unified State at the time of bifurcation and there was not much organised industrial and service activity to generate revenue. However, Mr. Naidu was working hard for the growth and development of the State which registered a growth of 9 per cent in GDP and 15 per cent in revenue last year.
Referring to the Auto Nagar in Vijayawada developed for workshop activities way back in 1960, Mr. Srinivas said the Andhra Pradesh Government would favourably consider the suggestion for setting up an auto zone comprising sales & service activities.
Mr. Ganta Subba Rao, Managing Director & CEO, Andhra Pradesh State Skills Development Corporation (APSSDC), stated that the Corporation has been set up on a PPP model with the objective of skilling over two crore people in the State during the next 10-15 years. With double-digit growth envisaged, Andhra Pradesh would need incremental human resources of approximately 10 million skilled workers during 2012-22, across the high-priority and emerging sectors. The idea was to shape the State as the skilled workforce and knowledge hub for the world. A multi-pronged approach, including the setting up of 36 Centres of Excellence, would be adopted to achieve the goal.
He also cited resource crunch arising from the bifurcation of the State and shortage of qualified trainers as two major challenges, going forward.
Mr. Sunil Chaturvedi, CEO, ASDC, said that AMP 2016-2026, likely to be brought out by the Centre shortly, envisages 3x growth in production volumes of vehicles and 5x growth in revenues in the next 10 years. This presents a gigantic challenge of skilling of huge manpower required by the auto sector.
There are currently 2,000 training delivery centres accredited by ASDC, which need to be increased to 10,000 to meet the present demand for skilled manpower.
He invited automobile dealers to become training centres of ASDC, which would not only increase skilled manpower availability for the auto sector, including automobile dealerships, but would also become an additional revenue stream for them.
On the occasion, ASDC and APSSDC signed an MoU with the objective of giving fillip to the skilling of people in the State.
The occasion also saw a presentation by Mr. Amit Jain, CEO & Co-founder of Cardekho.com, which made it clear that digitalization and online presence is the way forward for automobile dealerships to cut costs, increase efficiency and improve profitability. Cardekho.com could associate with automobile dealers as a technology partner, to enable them to focus on their core business areas and stay viable in a fiercely competitive environment.
An MoU between FADA and Cardekho.com was also signed on the occasion.
Since the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister who was expected to grace the occasion was not able to make it due to his other official engagements, a group of senior FADA members, led by Mr. Prakash Rao, met him in his office after the annual session.