'Designed in India' - not so much

Swapnil (my co-founder at Ather Energy) today pointed out an interesting article in one of the blogs promoting electric vehicles. It's an interview of an the head of an electric vehicle company in India who's talking about the current EV scene in the country.

The interview starts off well, and the head (very surprisingly) correctly identifies the problems with EVs in India - poor performance, quality and battery issues. Even the specs that he postulates and the price point that he identifies are bang on.

He follows it with a description of what they are building and how that is perfect. At this point we cannot agree more - because we are building something pretty similar. And then comes the kicker - he showcases the product: it's an imported unit from the Washington.

While, I am sure that, that company has its heart in the correct place and for all I know, they might also be building something similar - this however, is a much deeper problem that runs through a lot of Indian companies. Apple proudly says "Designed in California" "Assembled in China". For IP intensive companies the real money and innovation lies in controlling the design. Manufacturing in today's world is cheap and can be done pretty much everywhere. But, a lot of Indian companies end up directly importing the designs and the dependent technology too.

In the auto sector the next two decades are going to be phenomenal. The IC engine is on it's way out and various alternatives are going to slug it out in research labs followed by the design studios and eventually in the market place. This can be India's chance to catch up in technology and Indian companies should not miss it. A lot of the companies that we have been meeting with or interacting with, seem to believe that such kind of design work is not meant for us and hence still needs to be imported. We are much better than that and in addition also have a very mature auto industry in the country.

If the established industry won't step in, then start-ups should. One can never have enough me-too utility apps and e-commerce platforms - indeed they are already playing a massive transformative role in our lives. But maybe it's time that founders focused on building the 'next big thing' in manufacturing and started some good old fashioned brick and mortar industries. Maybe it's time for an industrial revolution in the start-up land.