The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Automotive sector should step into direct basic research: scientist

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 29, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Automotive sector should step into direct basic research: scientist

Special Correspondent

“The sum Indian firms spent on research is small, compared with South Korea”

— Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

IN DISCUSSION: (From left) R. Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland; R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India; S. P. Hinduja, chairman, Hinduja Group; and V. Sumantran, executive vice-chairman, Hinduja Automotives, at the dedication of the Ashok Leyland Technical Centre in Chennai on Monday.

CHENNAI: India’s automotive sector should get into direct basic research, which is a step ahead of basic research, and the Centre will fund it. However, the industry has to take the initiative, R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, said on Monday

Delivering his keynote address at a function organised here for dedicating the Ashok Leyland Technical Centre, Dr. Chidambaram said that only a few sectors that boomed were investing heavily in research and development. The amount Indian firms spent on research was small, compared with South Korea. However, Ashok Leyland was a model for other companies.

“The automotive sector is booming in India for the past few years. That’s a good opportunity for direct basic research in all areas. Direct basic research is one step ahead of basic research. This will be strongly funded by the government. This is of long-term interest to the automotive industry,” he said.

If India had to sustain its economic growth, it had to advance scientifically and should facilitate a strong and continuous interaction between academic institutions and industry, he said.

Ashok Leyland Managing Director R. Seshasayee said: “We are developing an all-new, full-range truck platform “UNITRUCK” to be progressively introduced from 2010. This new range of on- and off-highway platform can create variants to meet different geographies, road, load conditions, different applications and legislative requirements.”

The UNITRUCK range will feature the NEWGEN cab initially, before a next generation of modular cabs takes its place. The modular cabs will come in multiple options of widths, lengths and feature levels.

M.S. Ananth, Director, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, unveiled a new family of 4- and 6-cylinder inline engines (codenamed ‘Neptune’) of modular capacity ranging from 4.7 litre to 8 litre. They are also Euro IV compliant.

Hinduja Group Chairman S.P. Hinduja said that in the competitive world, one had to continuously raise the standard to stay ahead of others. The Hinduja group had always been ahead of its competitors.

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