Towards
a Sustainable Development
Jayendra Kachalia, President
Dear friends,
There has been an unprecedented growth in the population
of motor vehicles especially in the last 5 years or so.
It is a good sign inasmuch as motorisation is a barometer
of a country's prosperity and development. All the developed
economies of the world have piggybacked the automobile industry
to reach where they are today.
However, motorisation brings, in its wake, attendant hazards
and problems. Higher level of energy consumption, traffic
congestion, environment pollution and safety hazards are
a few major risks and problems associated with the motorisation.
It will be a folly to reverse the growth of automobile industry
because of its far-reaching linkages and its role as a catalyst
for upgradation of product and process technology, industrialisation
and economic growth as a whole. Also, motorisation has become
a necessity in this fast moving world, where the time and
the speed are the essence. Therefore, the remedy lies in
controlling and minimising the attendant ills.
The Government has a major role to play in addressing the
issue of energy security by creating an environment through
appropriate policy measures for stepping up the exploration
of energy sources and creation of infrastructure for efficient
management of energy resources. In a country like ours that
is currently dependent on imports for as much as 70% of
its energy requirement and where energy demand is galloping
with economic growth, rising global oil prices and energy
insecurity can put a spanner in the wheel of growth. The
Government is alive to the energy security concerns and
has taken several issues including introduction of CNG and
LPG as an automotive fuel in addition to mandating petrol
blended with 5% ethanol in some of the States and Union
Territories. The Union Budget 2005 provided for concessional
customs duty of 10% on specified parts of battery operated
vehicles. The import of CNG/LPG kits already attracts concessional
duty. Recently, the Hon'ble Prime Minister has constituted
a high powered Energy Coordination Committee (ECC) to guide
the government policy in energy sector and to formulate
a coordinated policy response cutting across ministries
so as to improve the overall energy scenario in the country
while addressing energy security concerns. Engineers worldwide
are working towards hybrid electric-fuel cell and hydrogen
cell driven vehicles not only to secure themselves against
the depleting fossil fuel resources and the rising international
oil prices, but, at the same time, also to address environmental
concerns.
Of the other major problems arising out of motorisation
are environment pollution and road safety. To tide over
this twin-problem, a holistic approach is the need of hour.
All the stakeholders - the Government, industry & trade,
NGOs and vehicle users have to play their roles and pitch
in with a concerted effort to make a dent on these hazards.
While the new vehicles being produced are increasingly safe
and environment friendly, the steps have to be taken to
ensure that in-use vehicles which constitute the bulk of
vehicles on road are well-maintained and meet the standards
of roadworthiness, safety and vehicular emission.
It is tragic that one person dies of road accident every
six minutes in India. More than 80,000 people are killed
on the Indian roads every year. Another 1.2 million people
are injured. The studies done by World Bank and certain
Insurance companies reveal that the country suffers an economic
loss of Rs. 55,000 crores due to road accidents annually.
While there is no study quantifying the damage done by environment
pollution, there is no gainsaying that we are incurring
a colossal social and economic cost due to pollution.
There must be a systematic study done to identify various
pollutants and sources of pollution so that the corrective
action could be taken accordingly. As for the pollution
from in-use vehicles, the current PUC system and fitness
regime for commercial vehicles, I am afraid, are perfunctory
and have failed to deliver the results. Since there is a
lot of scope for manipulation largely due to subjective
human judgement, need has arisen to set up automated systems
with periodic audits thereof by the specialist agencies
to keep the equipment well-maintained and properly calibrated.
Delhi Government has taken a lead by installing, recently,
two modern testing lanes, with the support of technical
agencies, for the testing & certification of transport vehicles.
Our compliments to the Delhi Government. I hope that other
States will follow suit and come up with the modern, automated
facilities to make the I&C meaningful.
With respect to the periodic inspection & certification
of non-transport vehicles, although a draft notification
mandating inspection and certification of in-use vehicles
was issued some time back, the final notification has not
seen the light of the day. I do realise that it is a Herculean
task and a number of issues need to be addressed before
the system can be introduced. We, the automobile dealers,
are committed to contribute our mite in this task, as responsible
corporate citizens of the country. The state-of-the-art
automobile workshops today are well equipped to undertake
this responsibility. Moreover, the enormity of task necessitates
the involvement of non-government agencies, as the Government
alone may not be able to handle it.
Adverting to the automobile market, although FY05-06 started
on a somewhat quiet note, the market is expected to pick
up in coming months. Vehicle sales are gradually moving
up the curve. Commercial vehicle segment that turned in
a lacklustre performance in the first 2 months of the year
is regaining momentum and coming back on the positive growth
track. Other segments of the industry are also doing reasonably
well. We are not witnessing the runaway growth recorded
in the previous year, though.
The recent report of NCAER paints a rosy picture of rapid
rise in the number of households in middle and upper income
categories. The report holds out a promise for automotive
industry & trade and projects a robust demand for big-ticket
items like passenger cars and motorcycles. According to
the reports, passenger car demand will touch 3-million mark
in the year 2009-10. The report reinforces my comfort level
and optimism that we are going to achieve a decent growth
in the vehicle sales in the year 2005-06 as well. We are
also witnessing a good spread of rains this year, which
should translate into good agricultural production and more
demand for motor vehicles. However, we should also not lose
sight of the fact that floods have ravaged many parts of
the country. Let us hope that the floods and uneven coverage
of rains will not play spoilsport in an otherwise upbeat
expectations.
As regards FADA's activities, you will be happy to know
that FADA-ICICI Bank-HPCL Gold Credit Card shall be issued
to the FADA members by the end of this month. The card is
a life-time credit card made available free by ICICI Bank
and comes with a host of benefits.
We are also progressing well in our pilot project under
which FADA in association with other reputed institutions
will conduct certificate/diploma courses at Mumbai and Pune,
to begin with, to meet the manpower requirements of automobile
dealerships. If the pilot is successful, the programme will
be replicated all over the country.
Look forward to your suggestions and comments.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Jayendra Kachalia |
