Diagnoses

Abstract

The central issue in the Maruti case is to suggest how government and industry can cooperate to shape our industrial environment for international competitiveness, Ghosh feels that as current conditions are not conducive for producing low priced cars for the world market, Maruti's potential is limited to providing a demonstration model of the new industrial management. Krishna Kumar highlights two unusual aspects of such management, viz. a competitive strategy based on value chain specialization and a manufacturing strategy based on JIT. Vittal, however, advocates that production in this scale intensive industry should be expanded with government support to convert the prevailing seller's market into a buyer's market. In this connection, Ramachandran's proposal for a concerted effort to indigenize parts supply and cut costs continuously using JIT principles may be significant. Finally, Khandwalla (like Ghosh) envisages a catalytic role for Maruti, one which emphasizes the scope rather than scale of operation. He proposes a consortium approach to Third World automotive development.