History
The first car ran on India's roads in 1899. Until the 1930s, cars were imported directly, but in very small numbers.
An embryonic automotive industry emerged in India in the 1940s. Mahindra & Mahindra was established by two brothers in 1945, and began assembly of Jeep CJ-3A utility vehicles. Following the independence, in 1947, the Government of India and the private sector launched efforts to create an automotive component manufacturing industry to supply to the automobile industry. However, the growth was relatively slow in the 1950s and 1960s due to nationalisation and the license raj which hampered the Indian private sector. Total restrictions for import of vehicles was set and after 1970 the automotive industry started to grow, but the growth was mainly driven by tractors, commercial vehicles and scooters. Cars were still a major luxury. Eventually multinational automakers, such as, though not limited to, Suzuki and Toyota of Japan and Hyundai of South Korea, were allowed to invest in the Indian market ultimately leading to the establishment of an automotive industry in India. A number of foreign firms also initiated joint ventures with Indian companies.
As of 18 March 2013 global brands such as Proton Holdings, PSA Group, and Geely Holding Group are shelving plans for India due to the global economic crisis.
Read more about this topic: Two Wheelers In India
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“We are told that men protect us; that they are generous, even chivalric in their protection. Gentlemen, if your protectors were women, and they took all your property and your children, and paid you half as much for your work, though as well or better done than your own, would you think much of the chivalry which permitted you to sit in street-cars and picked up your pocket- handkerchief?”
—Mary B. Clay, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 3, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)