Driving into a Fast-Laned Growth Binod Agarwal, President Dear friends, It is heartening to note that the automotive industry has changed gears to drive into a fast-laned growth. The fact that the Indian automotive industry has been on a steady growth path for the last 3-4 years is making the world sit up and take note of India emerging as the automotive manufacturing hub and powerhouse in the global arena. This robust performance is no flash in a pan as the Indian economy as a whole continues to perform well. With strong macroeconomic fundamentals firmly in place, we can expect growth saga to continue in short term and medium term. June sales figures and, for that matter, the sales numbers for the 1st quarter of this financial year are music to our ears. Usually, the growth momentum picks up in the second half of a financial year with the advent of Navratras and long festival season. The current fiscal has witnessed booming sales from the word go. This is reflective of the intrinsic strength and maturing of Indian economy, as also of the burgeoning middle class whose life styles and aspirations have taken a quantum leap. However, international oil prices, after having stabilised for some time, have once again started shooting up. The uncertainty over global oil prices comes to haunt us time and again and has become a bugbear for the Government, industry, trade and consumers. As the economy continues to post strong performance, the consumption of petroleum products is also on the rise. Stand off with Iran, the fourth largest oil producer in the world, over its nuclear programme, has made the situation worse. The ghost of flash floods that had ravaged Mumbai last year revisited the city this year. Thankfully, the severity and extent of rainfall has been much less than last year’s. The city was barely recovering from the trauma of flash floods and the life limping back to normal, it has again been rocked by bomb blasts that have claimed over 200 lives of innocent persons travelling in the local trains. We, in FADA, strongly condemn the dastardly acts of terror and convey our hearfelt condolences to the members of bereaved families who lost their near & dear ones. My sympathies are also with the people who were injured in these terrorist attacks. I wish them a speedy recovery. I am sure, the spirited Mumbaikars will bounce back and give a befitting reply to the evil designs of terrorists, as they did in the past. I am glad to inform that FADA is taking a small delegation to the headquarters of National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) in USA as a study mission. The earlier delegation that visited NADA in 2000 came back with rich experience and a lot of new ideas. FADA Academy Training programme and Group 20 programme are two major initiatives undertaken by FADA based on the learnings from the previous NADA visit. The idea of embarking upon the third major initiative, viz. ‘Helpline’ service for FADA members was assimilated during the visit of another FADA delegation to Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF) in UK some time back. The visits also threw light on the structure and working of automobile dealerships in USA and UK. The genesis of emergence of organised used vehicle market in India can be traced to US and the UK, where used car business form an important component of an automobile dealership business activity. These study tours in the past have been quite meaningful and an enriching experience. Hopefully, the interaction and discussion with NADA officials and automobile dealer fraternity in the US during this visit too will throw up many more innovative ideas for replication in India and give us an insight into the emerging automotive scenario. I shall definitely share our experiences of this visit in the next issue of FADA Journal. With best wishes, Yours sincerely, Binod Agarwal