 "Rajiv Bajaj")
Peeved at the hurdles being faced by his company to launch its quadricycle in India, industrialist Rajiv Bajaj on Thursday said stifling of innovation by regulatory agencies will turn Made In India into Mad In India, taking potshots at the Centre’s flagship manufacturing initiative.
Stating the quadricycle is being sold across countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America, the managing director of Bajaj Auto wondered why a vehicle, which is cleaner, fuel-efficient, safer and whose benefits are as “obvious as daylight”, is facing troubles.
With the adverse impact of demonetisation continuing to hamper two-wheeler sales, Rajiv said the idea of demonetisation itself was “wrong” and it is incorrect to blame only the execution side of it.
“If the solution or the idea is right, it will go like a hot knife through butter. If the idea (demonetisation) is not working, don’t blame execution I think your idea itself is wrong,” he said at the annual Nasscom leadership forum in Mumbai.
The ban on 86 per cent of the total currency worth Rs 15.55 lakh crore in circulation impacted economic activity across sectors with the consumption-driven ones being the most affected. Notably, the two-wheeler sales are yet to recover from the impact of demonetisation and industry data releases over the past two months have been showing a slump.
Bajaj Auto recently said the company’s total domestic sales in January dipped 16 per cent to 135,188 units from 161,870 units sold during the same period last year.
Based on data provided by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, two-wheeler sales stood at 1,243,251 units in November, compared with 1,320,552 units during the corresponding month last year.
Rajiv said individualisation and uniqueness is important to stand out. “We are able to deliver 22 per cent earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), which is double the industry standards, which means there is something unique. Something that is good for Infosys may not be good for Tata Consultancy Services, especially in recent times.”
With additional inputs from PTI
