Tata indicated that the Indian autocomponent industry did not rise to the challenge and the Telco team had to undertake the project on its own in an era when backward integration was unaffordable. He wondered why a meaningful partnership between automobile manufactures and component makers still remained elusive.

Tata was the chief guest at the 39th annual session of ACMA held in Pune today. Expressing apprehension about the future for the Indian auto industry Tata said, "We are a very fragmented set of entrepreneurs very emotional about ourindustry and are not concerned about scale or competitiveness".

He urged the component industry to take a leaf out of the book of the electronic industry where the players forge partnerships that enable them to come out with world class products. We have to reorient ourselves and work towards such partnerships, Tata said. The component industry needs to get involved right from the designing stage, posses the right technology and have the manufacturing capability to meet the needs of the automobile industry.

While the Indian production scales may be small but the requirement of the region was large and offered a mature market and hence the need to look beyond Indian boundaries. "We should have a few MNCs of our own that could meet the needs of the Asian market," Tata said. The option was to get blown away or stand up and be counted by demonstrating ingenuity and skill.