Maruti Suzuki’s RC Bhargava tells what India needs to do to create jobs

The Maruti chairman said prospects for India’s automobile industry were somewhat unclear at present.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) chairman RC Bhargava on Wednesday said the key to growing the economy and creating jobs lies in the growth of the manufacturing sector. India, he said, has been attempting to do this for the last 70 years without reaching the desired growth levels as it adopted Soviet policies that did not deliver results. Bhargava called for a national consensus on the need to grow manufacturing and to create jobs.

Addressing shareholders at the company’s 39th annual general meeting, he said: “In the last 5-6 years, many changes have been made by the government in policies, which are making conditions much more conducive to competitive manufacturing.”

He said: “To the best of my understanding and knowledge, the government is very aware of all other steps which are needed to ensure and bring about competitiveness of the Indian industry. I believe the pandemic is creating a greater awareness among all the people in the country that this is the time to make radical changes in the way we do our work. This is the time when we should take steps which should lead to much faster growth of the economy, which means much faster growth of manufacturing.”

The Maruti chairman said prospects for India’s automobile industry were somewhat unclear at present. Bhargava added, however, the growth of the auto sector, particularly the car segment is a good indicator of the well-being of the people of a country and its economic health. Moreover, it is also an indicator of how well the country is growing in terms of providing different kinds of benefits to the citizens.

Bhargava said the auto sector cannot be an independent island in the economy. “ We are part of the whole economy; we will grow as the whole grows,” he said, while mentioning that fortunately the government is very keen and taking many steps to boost the entire economy,” he said.