The process of liberalization in India: Foreign direct investment and the Indian auto industry

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2005 in the subject Business economics - Economic and Social History, grade: 1,3, Hamburg University of Technology (DepartmentofTechnologyandInnovationManagement), language: English, abstract: The Indian economy continues to achieve stellar growth. The accepted opinion is that the process of economic liberalization that started in the late 1980's in India has come to fruition, and, combined with a strong resource base (mainly the strong knowledge base of trained engineers combined with innovation brought in by multinational companies), continues to drive the growth in recent years. The present work provides a brief background of the process of liberalization, both its successes and challenges. The work goes on to describe the effect of economic liberalization on the Indian automotive industry. The transformation of the automotive industry in the post-liberalization years is nothing short of dramatic. This transformation is discussed using different parameters, and some critical issues that face the industry in India are conjectured. The work may be taken as an introductory- to middle-level reading on the Indian automotive industry, and can form the basis of a detailed critical examination of important issues facing the industry today.