Pradip R Kamdar, President Dear friends, There is a palpable excitement as the D-Day draws near. The stage is set for FADA's biennial mega event, viz. 5th Auto Summit 2008 slated to be held on 14th & 15th January 2008 on the theme: "Auto Retail: Challenges of Sustaining Growth and Keeping Pace". The Summit has generated euphoria all around, particularly within the automobile dealer fraternity, which is quite natural given that it is an occasion once in two years when the dealers are able to meet their fellow dealers from across the country and share their experiences and the issues of concern. It also affords them an opportunity to meet their principals and interact with them. The programme of Summit spanning over two days is likely to witness engrossing deliberations on variety of subjects, including the key challenge of managing and sustaining growth, managing change, human resource management, dealership viability and host of other challenges and new business opportunities for automobile dealerships. The Auto Summit has become an important platform where manufacturers and dealers representing cross-section of industry and various segments of motor vehicles brainstorm the whole gamut of current and the emerging scenario. The discussion becomes all the more meaningful with other stakeholders, namely the Government, think-tank, allied businesses, media and transport operators participating to give their perspective. It gives me a pleasure to inform that the programme of the Summit is shaping up very well. Mr Kamal Nath, Hon'ble Union Minister of Commerce and Industry having consented to inaugurate the Summit and to deliver the inaugural address, a galaxy of speakers, including 'who is who' of automobile industry, have confirmed their participation. To my mind, we could not have had a better array of speakers. The vision, rich experience and guidance of these distinguished guests of impeccable credentials at this critical juncture will come in handy to equip us for the current and emerging challenges. The impressive list of speakers also bespeaks of the importance of automobile retail trade and service industry in the value chain. Frankly speaking, the Summit may not weave magic and deliver instant results. However, it will go a long way in building enduring relations and sensitising the manufacturers, the Government and other stakeholders on the issues and concerns of auto retail. We shall have to constantly follow up to take things to their logical culmination. I am sure, the multi-dimensional intense deliberations covering various aspects will definitely help identify challenges and opportunities for all of us in automotive business. The previous Summits provided a lot of food for thought. I am expecting the proceedings of the forthcoming Summit to be livelier, as the format of the programme has been changed to make it more interactive. We have three separate interactive sessions with Two-Wheeler, Passenger Car and Commercial Vehicle manufacturers, respectively. While media has been very much a part of the panel discussion in the previous summits to cover the customer perspective, for the first time, we have also invited transport fleet operators to be panellists at the Interface with CV manufacturers to enlist their views on road transport sector with a view to understanding the scenario in its entirety and formulating our strategies accordingly. The Summit is not all about business alone. It is also a social gathering of automobile dealer fraternity. A gala evening of entertainment programme followed by cocktails and dinner on 15th January 2008 will mark the grand finale of serious business proceedings lasting over two days. In a way, the Summit is also a vehicle for social and business networking. For my fellow dealers, this is an occasion not to be missed. I, therefore, appeal to my dealer brothers all over the country to participate overwhelmingly in this mega biennial event of FADA. The programme and registration details including delegate registration form, are published elsewhere in this issue. The brochure and the registration form have already been posted to all automobile dealers. Nevertheless, the registration form printed herein or photocopy thereof can also be used for registration. As for other activities of FADA since my last column, a Council Meeting was held recently at Mumbai wherein we coopted more members to make the Council broad-based, representative of various regions, vehicle categories, franchises and segments of the market. We also had Mr S P Shah, Mr Nikunj Sanghi and Mr Ashish M Gupta being elected as Vice President, Hony Secretary and Hony Treasurer, respectively. My congratulations to them and new members coopted on the Council. I look forward to working closely with the new Council constituted for the year 2007-08 for attaining the objectives, which FADA stands for. Adverting to the market scenario, while market is looking somewhat better than what we saw in the seven months of current financial year, the sale numbers are not what the industry and we in the trade had anticipated. However, there is a straw in the wind that we shall end up on a positive growth curve as the year draws to close. While I remain sanguine that the industry would recover to claw back to the growth path in the current financial year, albeit at a modest pace, there are some disturbing developments that may put a damper on our hopes. The dark clouds of soaring oil prices in the global market continue to loom large over the horizon. The recent data released by CSO point to the slowdown in the industrial sector and manufacturing sector, in particular, which is not something to cheer about. Although the economy grew by 8.9% in Q2 of 2007-08, moderation in the growth is visible. The situation is unlikely to improve significantly as the curbs on liquidity expansion continue to be in place. Therefore, we have to be guarded in our optimism. The Auto Summit assumes an added importance in the backdrop of current slowdown. The presence of industry leaders, Government, management consultants and other stakeholders at the Summit is expected to provide the short-term, medium-term and long-term horizon of automotive scenario. I am sure, the participants will benefit immensely from the deliberations. I am looking forward to meeting you all at the Auto Summit. Wishing you a Very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. Yours sincerely, Pradip R Kamdar