Moving
Along
Binod Agarwal, President
Dear friends,
It is heartening to note that Indian economy continues to
cruise along at fast clip of 9%, although there are concerns
over rising inflation level & interest rates, which may
slowdown the growth momentum. For auto industry and trade,
there is a mixed bag of news. While auto manufacturers and
other companies in general have come up with impressive
Q4 and year-end financial results including their toplines
and bottomlines, hardening interest rates have started to
bite as sales figures for the months of March and April
suggest. Volatility in international crude oil prices that
are currently hovering around $67/barrel mark after falling
below $58/barrel in the recent past, is also a cause of
worry and can throw all the plans and projections out of
gear.
RBI’s primary efforts at the moment seem to be directed
at containing inflation, which currently sitting at over
5.5% is outside the comfort band. According to a RBI survey,
business expectations for April-June 2007 have dipped as
lesser number of companies expect an increase in profit
margins, production and working capital compared with the
preceding quarter. Some of these niggling developments leading
to dip in the business confidence level are likely to spoil
the party for auto industry & trade.
Yet, I feel that we not in a hopeless situation either.
While the going may not be as good as the previous year,
the economy on the whole, led by services and manufacturing
sectors, is on a high growth trajectory. The fact that revenue
collections for the year 2006-07 have exceeded the revised
estimates should inspire confidence. The auto industry,
on its part, is standing up to the challenge of slowdown
and is gearing to beat the blues. Some of the manufacturers,
their dealers and banks have joined hands to offer vehicle
loans at lower rate of interest to soften the impact of
rising interest rates. Hopefully, going forward, we shall
be able to achieve good numbers in this fiscal as well.
A good piece of news for all of us is that India has joined
the group of 12 trillion dollar economies, piggybacking
the appreciation of rupee against dollar. While the rising
rupee has, suddenly, catapulted India to this premier league,
it will definitely make us aim higher.
As regards the activities of FADA, we were able to kick
off training courses under the FADA Academy Programme, at
two more places, namely, Kolkata and Kolhapur in April 2007.
FADA members running or associated with educational, technical
or management institutions are welcome to collaborate with
this initiative of FADA and start the training courses catering
to the manpower needs of automobile dealerships in their
respective regions. Under this collaborative arrangement,
while the local institute is supposed to enroll students
and conduct courses, FADA will pitch in with its support
by way of selection of the institute, providing the course
material and structure of training, training the faculty,
arranging visiting faculty, tying up with the local automobile
dealerships as partners for providing on-the-job training
to the candidates, and placement of candidates on their
completing the course.
Such an initiative at the local or regional level, aimed
at creating a pool of trained manpower will help tackle
the problem of acute shortage of skilled manpower facing
automobile dealerships across the country. I look forward
to your proposals in this regard.
Not just the training courses, FADA will be more than willing
to join hands with you for any initiative on your part benefiting
the automobile dealer fraternity or promoting social welfare.
Needless to mention, we have to stand up and be counted
for discharging our Corporate Social Responsibility.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Binod Agarwal |
