Today 40 years ago, the consumer revolution overtook India and its engineering industry got transformed. The Maruti 800, the people’s car was launched and the nation recalls Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, who played a quiet but hugely effective role in the background. It is also important to recall O. Suzuki and V. Krishnamurthy who made the landmark Suzuki-Maruti joint venture possible.
Krishnamurthy had earlier built BHEL and was to later turn around SAIL. One of the greatest public sector managers India has produced. He offered me a job on three different occasions but my sights, rightly or wrongly, were elsewhere. He was a most compelling personality.
40 years later, while we celebrate Maruti-Suzuki(that is now only Suzuki) and its multiple impacts, let us also pause and worry a bit from the inequality and climate change point of view that more than 50% of car sales are now of SUVs.