Gujarat pulls it off again

From the time it played knight in shining armour for the Nano project over a decade ago, Gujarat has done an encore with the Ford facility sale, reports Murali Gopalan.

- Murali Gopalan

Call it entrepreneurship or clever politics but the fact remains that Gujarat has every reason to feel pleased with its latest achievement in the automotive sphere.

The sale of the Ford facility at Sanand to Tata Motors (yes, sceptics will argue that it is still at the MoU stage but the deal is done for all practical purposes) marks another feather in its cap for the sheer speed at which the exercise was carried out.

Comparisons are odious but the fact remains that Tamil Nadu has still not managed to get a buyer for Ford's Maraimalainagar unit even while the grapevine suggests that Ola Electric remains a hot contender right now. Likewise, in the case of Maharashtra, over two years have passed since Great Wall Motors of China announced its intent to take over the General Motors facility near Pune.

Covid played the spoilsport first and then the Chinese army decided to play its own games at the Ladakh border which did little to improve relations with India. The net result is that the GM plant is still hoping for a Great Wall Motors acquisition except that this is not going to happen anytime in a hurry.

Political observers believe that this has to do with politics again. According to them, had there been a BJP government in Maharashtra, the bosses in New Delhi would have been more inclined to fast-track the issue. This argument does not hold too much water simply because there is no love lost between India and China right now.

More so when recent global initiatives clearly show that the US along with India, Australia, and Japan along with the entire ASEAN region is keen on greater cooperation with an intent to ostracise big bully China.