'Maruti Story': The chronicles of a people’s car

It is ironic that the first ever narration of the Maruti story should be released on a day when the iconic M800 is being phased out from some Indian cities.

The Maruti Story - How a Public Sector Company Put India on Wheels deals largely with the M800, India’s first “modern” car which went on to change not just our automobile industry but also the way an entire nation commuted.

Written by Maruti chairman R C Bhargava with senior journalist Seetha, the book details the journey of a successful enterprise despite having limitations associated with a public sector undertaking.

And what a success Maruti has been - it began with a production target of just 192 cars over three months in 1983 and has already reached the one million unit production mark this fiscal.

Speaking at the launch, Bhargava said though he has been associated with Maruti since its inception, he never kept a dairy, nor any record of all the events that shaped India’s largest car maker. No wonder then that compiling the book took three years and painstaking research.

Bhargava recalled that he was perhaps the only person involved in the policy framework when Maruti was being set up and is still around in the company as its chairman.

Maruti was born of a dream of late Sanjay Gandhi, who had apprenticed with Rolls-Royce Motors before coming back to India to manufacture a ‘people’s car’. The company was created at a time when there were just three companies making passenger cars in India —  Hindustan Motors in Kolkata, Premier Automobiles in Mumbai and Standard Motor Products India in Chennai. The demand for cars would far outstrip supply and in 1968, waiting list of cars was a huge 82,000 units or more than two years.

Releasing the book, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee — who was FM in late eighties too when the Maruti project was being conceptualised — recalled the excitement and wonder at the launch of this car company and its subsequent journey to its number one position today.

“Maruti has reached a new landmark - production of one million units…. I am also happy to know that the company is listed and a large number of our citizens are sharing in its growth story...India has shown that it can become a small car manufacturing hub and there is no reason why we cannot compete in any other manufactured product on a global scale.”