Giving the inaugural address to boost a purchaser and developer relationship in the Indian automotive industry, Mr. Surajit Mitra, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises said, “We want to break into new markets especially in the auto component sector with liberalized market policies and opening of Special Economic Zones. I believe we can create an atmosphere for a process to engage everyone not only as purchaser but also as a developer.”

He also unveiled his plans for the National Institute of Forging along with National Institute of Design, another government initiative and marked forging as an important sector for the automotive industry. “We look forward to create a demand for new technology and innovative designing to modernize our industry with such initiatives”, he added.

He also mentioned about the ongoing National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) to create a state of the art testing, validation and R&D infrastructure in the country, which will help in transferring technology from tier I to tier III cities. The Project with investment of $ 380 million aims at setting up independent automotive centers at Manesar, Chennai, Pune, Indore and Rae Bareily.

Representing the BMW Group, Mr. Thomas Thym, Head IPO, stressed that they aim at exploring the opportunities for procurement of production material (components) as well as IT and engineering services. “We would like to focus on exports from India to the BMW Group International Production Network and increasing the sourcing share from here”, he said.

Mr. Vijay Inamke, Sourcing Leader, IPO, Cummins Inc. sighted the success of their IPO in India with which chalked an impressive growth rate of $1 Million (1999) to $193 Million (2007).

The conference was also saw other corporate conglomerates and along with presentations of IPO representatives from Chysler LLC, Fiat India Automobiles, General Motors India Pvt. Ltd, Renault India Pvt, Ltd and Trelborg Automotive.