'Indian auto industry to be a global leader by 2020'

Come 2020, the Indian automobile industry will be a leader on global stage with the likes of Tatas leading innovation with breakthrough product like Nano, according to IT and consultancy giant IBM.

'It is abundantly clear that the Indian automotive industry will have arrived as a leader on the global automotive stage by 2020,' IBM said in its study Automotive 2020 Clarity Beyond Chaos.

The study, which interviewed 125 executives of original equipment manufacturers, component suppliers and their parties in 15 countries, said India would continue to cast a long shadow on the dynamics of redistribution of work across the global automotive landscape.

'The Tata Nano showed India's ability to innovate. It has increased India's stature in the global automotive stage,' IBM Automotive Industry Vice-President Global Leader Sanjay Rishi told PTI.

India would play a significant role in rebalancing of core product development vis-a-vis application development, he added.

The study highlighted abundantly available young technical manpower as one of the primary drivers for the redistribution.

The country could be a leader in innovation toward service-based offerings, both for the domestic market as well as for the global market, it added.