New Delhi, Sep 3 (PTI) Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday cautioned about “black sheep” among automakers that are not making adequate efforts to increase localisation in India, asking them to review their indigenisation programmes afresh.
He said some automakers claim they are increasing indigenisation by setting up another company in India, which imports goods at nominal value and sell their cars in the domestic market.
Citing examples, he said auto firms from Japan are forging partnerships with India, building ecosystems and further indigenising and making the world’s most efficient and competitively priced cars in India.
“The world’s companies today are looking up to all of you …there are, of course, a few black sheeps also;
I will not name anybody. They need to really look up their indigenisation programme afresh,” he said at a SIAM event here.
“You may not realise it, but I’m watching surely the level of indigenisation, and for me the yardstick is very simple. I’m looking at the company-wise figure of import, the companies-wise figure of exports and thanks to artificial intelligence… I have everybody’s IEC (import export code) numbers; I can do all sorts of data analysis,” he said.
He said companies may claim to have indigenised their operations or achieved a high level of localisation, but the government can verify this by examining the company and its supplier ecosystem and linking the two IEC codes.
“And in certain things, if you’re not able to indigenise, make up for it with exports, expand your exports. And we are here to create all the enablers, whatever help you require,” Goyal said.
Complementing Maruti Suzuki India for leading passenger vehicle exports, Goyal said, “The only statistic that I can recognise and appreciate is the brilliant cars that you (industry) exported last year. Maruti Suzuki is today exporting probably half of those million units that have been exported.” Maruti Suzuki has been the leading exporter of passenger vehicles from India for five consecutive years. The company’s car shipments are now going to over 120 countries, including Europe and Japan. The auto major exported 4.47 lakh units in FY 2025-26.
In the April-June quarter, the company’s overall share in PV exports stood at 55 per cent. Six out of 8 top exported cars from India during the period were from Maruti Suzuki stable.
The company also reported a 97 per cent market share in EV shipments in the first quarter of this fiscal year. PTI RR HVA
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