Creating start-up culture to look beyond trucks: Daimler India MD&CEO

Satyakam Arya said that the commercial vehicle segment took the worst hit during the automobile slowdown in India

Commercial vehicle (CV) industry in the country has been seeing a downturn for several months in a row before the coronavirus (Covid-19) hit the operations completely. With the unprecedented pandemic situation impacting its operations for more than a month, German automobile major Daimler is looking at increased localisation, more digitisation of supply chain among others, says Satyakam Arya, MD&CEO, Daimler India in an interaction with T E Narasimhan. Edited excerpts.

Despite the government allowing manufacturing, infrastructure, and real estate projects partially, you have said the industry may see a 50-60 per cent drop. Why so?

The automotive sector in India