Our Bureau The Centre will continue to support the automotive industry, but it will be the responsibility of individual players to devise strategy and stay successful by taking advantage of incentive measures, according to Arun Goel, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries.

He was responding to a question on the exit of automotive players like Ford from the Indian market.

‘Supporting the industry’

“We don’t look at one particular company. We are supporting the entire industry. We are offering a level playing field as compared to any other country in the world.

“Our role is that of a facilitator and we want to attract investments through various programmes such as the PLI scheme. It’s up to each company to figure out how they fit in based on their corporate strategy,” he said after an interaction with the industry players in Chennai on the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the automobile industry. Highlighting the industry’s potential, he said the Indian auto sector received $34.5 billion investments during the five years preceding Covid. “If the Indian auto ecosystem was not attractive, why would those investments have come,” he added.

The auto industry continues to see investments and job growth. Also, exports are on the rise. The Indian auto industry’s domestic sales and exports have grown at a CAGR of 8-10 per cent in the last five years. So, it is a success and an encouraging story, said Goel.

He also pointed out that the PLI scheme would encourage the existing component players to graduate to next level of manufacturing advanced automotive technology products.