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Q: Lets put that question to Rajiv, do you think there is a case and argument to bring in fuel efficiency norms at this point in time?

Bajaj: Personally, I do not think so because as Mr. Khattar made the point that Indian vehicles are already more fuel efficient and again to pick up one parameter of performance and to focus on that at the exclusion of other things can be quite counter productive again. So I do not think fuel efficiency norms should be linked to any form of incentive or otherwise.

Q: We are almost coming to the end of the debate, I am going to start with the wrap up comments from you because as everybody on the panel has said the government knows what needs to be done, let us focus on twenty things that needs to be done and let us just get the implementation on its way now. To your mind what are the priorities that the government should be focusing on at this point in time and also where is it that the auto industry can actually cheapen as far as public mobility is concerned?

Sorabjee: I think my biggest grouse really is the road network, it is woefully under developed, we need to definitely have more roads specially cities like Bombay, Bangalore really have not kept pace with the growth in traffic and I think there is so much scope to do something on the roads.

As far as the regulatory environment is concerned, I think descent job is being done but the enforcement needs to be stricter. I think issues again on traffic management is something which is a major issue, which again leads to congestion and excessive pollution but what is unique about the Indian market is really that this whole issue of affordability. I think probably we have the most fuel-efficient vehicle park in the world if you take two-wheelers and all the small cars. I think in terms of fuel efficiency we are doing a pretty good job though there are no standards right now, it would be good to have standards so people know what to expect from cars and I think the other issue is safety. I think on safety we need to do a lot more and I think we need to move slowly towards European standards on safety.

Q: Efficiency, safety what would your other priorities be?

Subbu: I think that is absolutely perfect; efficiency and safety are ideally and obviously environmental efficiency along with fuel efficiency and safety.

Khattar: This has been discussed with the government from the Automobile Association. I am quite convinced that we have about 8-10 million car park today and 20% of it is over 15 years. In fact, they should not be on the road, they were the corroborator, poor safety provisions though the Finance Ministry did say that they are interested in it if in the next three years, the industry and the government could get together and both pull their resources and incentivise or phase out those vehicles which should not be on the road from turns of safety and emission. I think there will be a fairly good change in the environment part of it because they are contributing quite a lot on it.

Over one lakh people die on the road today and most of it is to do with the safety aspects besides traffic management. I think these are all integrated; all these issues need to be tackled at the same time. You pick up one and pick up two and make a big thing out of it, it will get a lot of headlines it will not solve the problem.

Narain: I will just repeat what I have started off saying, I think the small car will add to a problem because a regulatory environment is weak because the automobile industry is powerful. We do not have mandatory safety norms, we have poor fuel efficiency, we have no fuel efficiency norms mandatory, we do not have emission norms as tight as they want to be and if we are concerned about mobility in this country then let us not just talk about buses and public transport, let us get our act together on it.

Q: Are you going to give Sunita sleepless nights or are you actually going to give her a couple of nights a good sleep, are you going to listen to what she is asking you to do?

Mitra: I certainly share the concern, which she has expressed, but there are few things, which you cannot sacrifice, in an emerging economy; one of them is transportation and mobility. So if you are compromising with that, you are compromising with a very high risk. So therefore, I will not like the growth rate or anything to come down just because of this. At the same time yes, when any new product comes in, we will apply the safety standards, we will apply the emission standards; yes there are enough scope to improve the emission norms which we should get together and do between the industry and the government and the third thing is infrastructure has to be improved. But these are the focus areas of the eleventh plan but not at the cost of the growth.

Narain: Automobile industry is also the bus, so let us be very sure this is poor thinking you have to disincentivise private transport. You have to restrain the growth of private transport and incentivise public transport.

Q: We have heard people on the panel saying this is an elitist argument you have got people with two cars, three cars, you have got people driving Mercedes and BMW.

Narain: You have got a lot of people in the bus, now let us be very clear, elite, this is a socialist country which taxes a person in a bus more than it taxes a person in a car.

Khattar: Person who drives a car, the tax is not only on the road, look at the tax he is paying on the petrol 55% of the price that he pays is the tax on petro,l so do not keep on saying that they do not pay the tax.

Subbu: The taxes that the state transport pays ultimately come back to them by way of subsidies from the government because otherwise they are anyway losing so effectively there is no real tax paid.

Narain: Charge for the parking.

Q: Is the government going to disincentivise private transport?

Mitra: There are two things, we believe that incentivising or disincentivising is not the right kind of policy, it should be market driven. Secondly, you curb certain structures by which you can put the discouragement, one was the retirement of vehicles which was coming up which can be done positively which can be done negatively, you put higher tax, it is a negative thing but if you give some kind of incentive to buy a replacement, you have a positive incentive so that is how we can look at it but I can assure you public transport system is in the focus and something should happen and is going to happen.

Q: You have heard everybody on this panel now as somebody who is actually there who is going to go out and produce one of the most politically correct cars as Hormazd has been calling them through the show, your thoughts as we end this discussion.

Bajaj: I think in this whole idea of teamwork between government and industry, I think the team is less important and the work is more important. As a manufacturer, my job is to make a car that is greener to produce and use and I must do exactly that. The government must work on the system as has been articulated by various people to make things more conducive in that direction.