The great enterprise-builder, nonagenarian V Krishnamurthy (VK), has settled down in Chennai. For close to five decades he worked from Delhi and took the public sector, notably BHEL, Maruti and SAIL, to commanding heights.
VK built BHEL, Maruti and SAIL as giant corporations. From 2004, into his 80s, he headed the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, giving a big push to the engineering industry, skill development and jobs.
I caught up with Krishnamurthy and learnt that he focuses on a number of social issues these days. He had taken charge of the venerated National College, Tiruchi, slated to celebrate its centenary in 2019. He has liberally spent his resources on improving the infrastructure, sports, curriculum and faculty. He mentioned the following as his focus areas:
• A new school to impart quality education
• A Veda Patasala with stress on Sanskrit and teaching of the Vedas
• Developing Tiruchi as centre for mathematics.
VK said that Sanskrit and Mathematics are precious Indian bequeaths with a rich tradition of excellence built through centuries. He expressed his interest in developing National College as an active centre for nurturing these.
Used imports to build indigenous capacity
Krishnamurthy built Maruti from scratch. The foundation laid was so strong that Maruti has been maintaining its pre-eminent position in passenger vehicles for 35 years and accounts for more than half the total sales of cars. I remember in the 1980s Maruti racing to build a capacity of 100,000 in just three years, nurturing hundreds of ancillary units and helping raise these to state-of-the-art levels of quality. In this process, he effectively used the liberal latitude provided to him by Indira Gandhi for importing components in large volumes and ensured the indigenisation of production with speed.
I was keen to know his views on the current state of the automobile industry.
“Several of the initiatives of the Modi government are necessary. However, there seems to be an unseemly hurry to set targets that would be difficult to achieve. For instance, the Bharat VI norms for auto emissions set for achievement by 2020 appears impractical. Industry doesn’t seem to be ready to adhere to these in time.” said VK.
The leader-extraordinaire felt that it would be challenging to gear up vendors to produce to the standards specified. “Vehicle manufacturers will be forced to resort to massive imports,” cautioned this past chairman of National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, which gave a thrust to domestic manufacture.
Hopefully, with two years now available, vehicle manufacturers would initiate action ahead.
Indiscriminate imports…
Krishnamurthy pointed to the flood of imports from China of a vast range of goods: “China is already surging ahead in electric vehicle technology. Indian vehicle manufacturers, including new entrants from outside the auto industry, may resort to massive imports from China, especially for the primary component of battery for EVs,” said VK.
The architect of BHEL expressed concern over the indiscriminate import of power plant equipment, idling indigenous capacity. I could understand the agony of one who built export of power equipment with foresight and uncanny knack: I remember BHEL-Tiruchi selling steam boilers in the late 1960s well ahead of firing its first boiler at TNEB’s Ennore plant in 1971!
The uncertainty over the continuance of coal-based thermal power and the ambitious targets set for solar energy without creating indigenous capabilities for manufacturing solar panels are matters for concern, he said.
“China has made great progress in the production of solar photovoltaic cells. The present focus on non-conventional energy has already resulted in large imports of solar panels from China,” VK pointed out.
I pointed to India importing from China laptops, mixies, grinders and fans offered free as part of the social amelioration programme of the AIADMK government. VK referred to the manufacturers of bicycles and two-wheelers already sourcing supplies in large volumes from China: “with the entry of new players with poor vendor base this will expand. There will be easy resort to imports,” rued the man who once built BHEL-SAIL-and-Maruti with such passion.
