The Government of India has been pondering over the setting up a dedicated body for the auto industry, considering that the sector has been growing at a brisk rate. Currently called the National Automotive Board (NAB), the body will be working towards the growth of Research and Development (R&D) for the industry and improve the requisite skill set of the professionals working in the field.
It is said that the final draft for the body is being prepared by the Department of Heavy Industry, which may announce the inception of NAB by March and start it by April 2012 itself. The NAB will act as a liaison between the government and auto industry and will stress on electric and hybrid cars in the domestic market. Members of the Department of Heavy Industry, Planning Commission, as well as scientists and industry representatives will be a part of NAB. Apart from these, representatives of government ministries like Road Transport and Highways, Science and Technology, and Environment and Forests will also be members of this body.
NAB will be government's follow up to the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP). It had been established to create new auto testing and R&D centres as well as to ramp up the current R&D units. This body had already attained its goals and created direct communication between the national government and the industry, which will improve even more with NAB.
NATRIP had helped improve three facilities, namely Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (VRDE) at Ahmednagar, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) at Pune, and International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT) at Manesar. Four Greenfield centres at Chennai, Indore, Silchar and Rae Bareilly had also been incepted by NATRIP exclusively for automotive testing, homologation and R&D.
