“The competency of the automotive and allied industry in producing next generation products lies in its ability to integrate electronics and Information Technology in automotive engineering. The industry, which already accounts for about 60% of the global software requirements, is able to achieve greater levels of customization, is heavily dependent on IT for mass customization,” said   Mr A Viswanathan, Country Managing Director, Visteon India.

Addressing the Panel on “Automotive & Allied Sectors: India Advantage” at Connect 2010, India’s premier ICT event, being organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today, Mr Viswanathan , said that the biggest challenge of the industry is the lack of competent people with both IT and automotive knowledge. Hence, the academia should come forward to create special courses on automotive subjects in engineering colleges. There should be bridge courses to help increase the talent pool to build next generation technologies in automotive industry.

He pointed out that the industry is expecting the auto industry to achieve a 20% growth in the years to come. This will boost the automotive industries, especially in tier II and tier III cities, besides bringing new business to the Indian ICT industry.

Earlier providing the opening remarks, Dr V Sumantran, Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Limited and Chairman, Defiance Technologies, said that India has produced about 2 million passenger car units in 2010 and in a couple of years, the annual production of the industry is expected to increase to around 10 million passenger car units per year. Though the role of ecosystem in Chennai cannot be underestimated, many measures on integration within the IT sector will be required to build Chennai as the Detroit of the future.

Mr Kiminobu Tokuyama, Managing Director & CEO, Nissan Motor India, in his address, said that the proactive industrial policies of Tamil Nadu government has helped the company go for expansion and setting up of technology centers in Chennai. Currently, Nissan is carrying out high value business processes such as designing, IT development and business support. The company has recruited around 2500 technicians from institutions in and around Chennai for its technology center. Nissan is bullish about India’s small car segment – it is in the process of introducing new small car models in the years to come.

Participating in the panel discussion, Mr R Dinesh, Joint Managing Director, TV Sundram Iyengar & Sons, said that the ecosystem for the industry should be an inward development process from every production center. In the global supply chain, about 50% of business depends on the production pool, and the IT sector partnership will help a lot in replicating business processes elsewhere.

Logistics growth in India can be attributed to proactive government policies. Chennai can provide a good infrastructure for the supply chain industry. The ongoing development in ports and roadways will help the industry achieve a 2% reduction in the total logistics cost.

TVS has established a training center which trains not only its employees but also workers of other companies. So far, nearly 8000 people were trained in IT & automotive integration subjects.

Mr Kevin R Thieneman, India Country Manager, Caterpillar Asia, and Mr Subramanyam Raghavan, CFO, Michelin India also spoke.