by kavan mukhtyar the indian automotive industry started its globalisation journey with the setting up of maruti suzuki in the mid1980s for the next more than 30 years innovation has mostly flown from japan korea europe and us to the india based automotive oem and component industry this happened through various channels including subsidiaries joint ventures technology licensing and alliances as competition intensified companies realised that to have sustainable success they need vehicles designed specifically for india vehicles that are affordable yet have the right styling spacious and feature rich with modern technology although value conscious indian customers are discerning and buy vehicles that are perceived as aspirational advt this customer trend combined with the robust engineering talent and lower product development cost has triggered new models being developed specifically for the indian market in the recent past automotive oems have seen tremendous success with their india developed models they soon realised these models could be worldbeaters and not just appealing to the indian market this was the start of reverse innovation india developed vehicles and technology flowing to the world market the make in india mission has brought sharp focus on innovation as indias differentiator further emphasis on proactively building the innovation ecosystem is necessary india needs to enhance its automotive industryspecific innovation strategy and operating model investments need to be sought in upgrading the innovation capability of the entire value chain with special focus on the tier 2 3 auto component companies access to innovation capital can be a key catalyst reverse innovation is now a trickle india has a golden opportunity to transform this trickle to a wave by nurturing and harnessing the innovation ecosystem india can then pull investments through its automotive innovation capabilities and growing domestic market make in india automotive has a huge potential to be a super success which can be driven by a singleminded focus on reverse innovation the author is partner management consulting pwc published on feb 18 2016 at 1033 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights analysis download etauto app get realtime updates save your favourite articles scan to download app maruti suzuki innovation maruti suzuki india limited auto component industry reverse engineering make in india homenewsindustryopinion reverse innovation is the key to success for make in india initiative