Auto industry barons discuss COVID-19 impact with Prakash Javadekar, suggest measures to revive sector

Barons of the automobile industry on Thursday held a discussion with the Union Minister for heavy industries and public enterprises Prakash Javadekar to talk about the impact of the coronavirus crisis and suggested measures to revive the sector. 

Javadekar convened a meeting with a group of select CEOs of the Indian automobile industry, to understand the possible impact of COVID-19 on the sector and listen to suggestions from the Industry on possible policy interventions to minimise the impact, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises said in a press release. 

The meeting had representation from both the original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) and also the Auto Component sector. Rajan Wadhera, President, Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and Deepak Jain, President, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) co-led this Industry team. 

RC Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki; Pawan Munjal, CMD and CEO of Hero Group, Vikram Kirloskar of Kirloskar Group and Pawan Goenka, Managing Director of Mahindra and Mahindra also participated in the meeting. 

The meeting, held through video conferencing saw suggestions ranging from reviving the sector, ensuring livelihood and mobilisation of resources, the ministry said. 

Javadekar said that not only did the demands were put forth but also very concrete suggestions also came up during the course of discussions.

Among the suggestions made by the industrialists were batch testing for workers before joining the work again, online registration, then sanitisation of selling points and a physical separator between two workers.

The industry highlighted key issues with some suggestions related to re-opening of the entire automotive industry value chain, support for dealerships, employment support interventions, boosting demand and with respect to the requirement for financial support, the ministry statement said.

Javadekar assured the industry captains that the ministry will discuss all these suggestions and demands with respective ministries like Transport Ministry, Commerce Ministry, Finance Ministry and other ministries concerned.

According to the statement, the industry barons appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in dealing with COVID-19. “India really did very well in managing COVID-19 and we have saved precious lives, now we have to concentrate on livelihood," Javadekar stressed.

Arjun Meghwal, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises and also Arun Goel, Secretary – Heavy Industries also participated in these deliberations.