MARUTHI UDYOG's HISTORY

The 1970 's Around 1970, Sanjay Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi's younger son, envisioned the manufacture of an indigenous, cost-effective, low maintenance compact car for the Indian middle-class. Indira Gandhi's cabinet passed a unanimous resolution for the development and production of a "People's Car". Sanjay Gandhi's company was christened Maruti Limited. [3] The name of the car was chosen as "Maruti", after a Hindu deity named Maruti. At that time Hindustan Motors' Ambassador was the chief car, and the company had come out with a new entrant, the Premier Padmini which was slowly gaining a part of the market share dominated by the Ambassador. For the next ten years, the Indian car market had stagnated at a volume of 30,000 to 40,000 cars for the decade ending 1983. Sanjay Gandhi was awarded the exclusive contract and licence to design, develop and manufacture the "People's Car". This exclusive rights of production generated some criticism in certain quarters, which was directly targeted at Indira Gandhi. Over the next few years, the company was sidelined due to the Bangladesh Liberation War and emergency. In the early days under the powerful patronage of Sanjay Gandhi, the company was provided with free land, tax breaks and funds. Till the end of 1970s, the company had not started the production and a prototype test model was welcomed with criticism and skepticism. The company went into liquidation in 1977. The media perceived it to be another area of growing corruption. [4] Unfortunately, Maruti started to fly only after the death of Sanjay Gandhi, when Suzuki Motors joined the Government of India as a joint venture partner with 50% share.[5] After his death, Indira Gandhi decided that the project should not be allowed to die. Maruti entered into this collaboration with Suzuki Motors, The collaboration heralded a revolution in the Indian car industry by producing the Maruti 800. The car went on sale on December 14, 1983. It created a record by taking 13 months time to go from design to rolling out cars from a production line.

The 1980 's

Omni (1983) The introduction of the Maruti 800 in 1983, marked the beginning of a revolution in the Indian automobile industry. Maruti Udyog brought in the latest technology then available, more fuel-efficient cars, and brought down the prices of cars in India. This led to the creation of a huge market for all car segments as the Indian middle class grew in size. This in-turn brought in more players to this segment. A number of auxiliary car parts making units were setup as most car manufacturers realised it was more cost effective to make their car parts in India rather than import them. Maruti's most major influence was in helping the component industry in the country because of its emphasis on localization and indegenisation. As in the beginning that sector hadn't grown much, Maruti had to start a dozen joint ventures with Indian entrepreneurs. It got them foreign collaborations, that led to collaborations for other manufacturers so that over a period of time the whole component industry was able to upgrade itself and improve its quality. Leading to a major existing export potential in vehicle components. It also brought in better methods of financing that allowed more people, who given their income levels could not afford to buy a car on their own, to buy cars.[6] It still remains the leader not only in terms of market share but also in customer satisfaction surveys - it has consistently topped J. D. Power quality surveys, including 2005. [7]

The 1990 's By the year 1993 the company had sold up to 1,96,820 cars, mostly by selling its chief product the Maruti 800s. By March 1994, it produced one million vehicles, becoming the first Indian company to cross this milestone. It reached the two million mark in October, 1997 and rolled out its 4 millionth vehicle, an Alto-LX, on April 19, 2003.