In India, the demise of automobiles manufacturing tycoon Osamu Suzuki in Hamamatsu, Japan on December 25, didn’t receive the media attention that it should have. With typical ingratitude, the Indian public has forgotten the massive contribution made by him towards revolutionising the country’s moribund motor cars manufacturing industry dominated for half a century by the Ambassador, a replica of the 1950s British Morris and the Premier Padmini, a replica of the mid-1950s Italian Fiat. By the 1970s, the technology of these gas- guzzling cars was completely outdated. It was famously said of the Ambassador that the only component of the car that didn’t make a noise was the horn.
Under intense middle class pressure after the OPEC petroleum price hikes of 1973 and 1979 made the gas-guzzling Ambassador and Premier Padmini unaffordable, a proposal to revive the Maruti small car project initiated by Sanjay Gandhi during the Emergency was forwarded when Indira Gandhi returned to power at the Centre in 1980, following the ignominious collapse of the Janata Party coalition government. The late V. Krishnamurthy — the greatest ever public sector enterprises chieftain (BHEL, SAIL) — was despatched to negotiate with Suzuki and returned with an agreement in record time.
Maruti-Suzuki India Ltd began production in 1982 in Gurgaon, Haryana as a public sector majority shareholding (55 percent) joint venture company with R.C. Bhargava, a Central government bureaucrat as chairman. Only 20 years later did the government sell its equity at a vast profit to Suzuki. Today MIL is India’s largest and most valuable cars manufacturing company (annual revenue: Rs.146,000 crore) and exports India-made motor cars to 100 countries.
In Japan, Suzuki Motors is an also-ran automotives manufacturing company dwarfed by Toyota and Honda. But Osamu Suzuki outflanked them by venturing abroad to developing countries (including India) and establishing 35 Suzuki Motors plants in 23 countries. And his modus operandi: to closely cooperate with governments to establish strong viable business enterprises. That’s not crony capitalism, but good business sense. Rahul Gandhi and sidekick Jairam Ramesh who are always trashing government-business cooperation, please note.
