All eyes are on Delhi where the sprawling Pragati Maidan is all set to host the five-day Auto Expo 2012, reckoned the second largest automotive event in Asia in terms of its popularity and magnitude after the Shanghai Show, from January 7. Having attracted almost all the leading global vehicle and component manufacturers who have set up shop and keep expanding their operations, India is rated a most influential auto power with the number of exhibitors at the Delhi show, from 24 countries, exceeding 1,500 for the first time. The expo will witness 50 new launches of cars, trucks & buses, two-wheelers and other India-specific products. World tyre majors like Michelin, Bridgestone, Pirelli, Dunlop and Continental and prominent component manufacturers from France, Canada, Germany, Japan and Hong Kong will have a stronger presence in the expo this time than ever before. The other focus areas include alternative fuels, electric and hybrid mobility, etc., with stalls exclusively devoted for the related technologies. The exhibition venue was agog with enthusiastic booking for space going on till the last moment.
India and China, with their resilient economy, enjoy the unique distinction of having led the Asian recovery from the recession of 2008 that ravaged all the countries around the world. Though most of them have managed to come out of the crisis, several others are still reeling under the damage done. There is still optimism among Western circles that India will re-emerge a global auto power after weathering the current slowdown. This is based on the projection made in the much-publicisied Automotive Mission Plan 2006-16 that the Indian auto sector’s contribution to GDP would almost double with its turnover rising to $145 billion by 2016.
The latest development that has cheered both the government and industry in India is that the growth in key infrastructural areas with a weightage of 38 per cent in the overall Index of Industrial Production has bounced back to 6.8 per cent in November after hitting a low of 0.3 per cent in October. This is clear indication that, with comfortable foreign exchange reserves, the economy is in for a major breakthrough in all industry sectors, including automobiles. Foreign investors are as much interested in India as in the pre-recession period when the country’s automotive sector registered a double-digit growth for three years in a row while the industry worldwide reported poor or stagnant growth. It is against this encouraging backdrop that the Auto Expo being held in Delhi assumes special significance.
MOTORINDIA continues to be associated with Auto Expo as Media Partner since 1986.