Dear Behram Dhabhar,
Your sentiments about PAL are understandable - you worked there for many years. However, IMHO, a company like PAL and the people who ran it deserve no sympathy. The Company started manufacturing cars less than a decade after Toyota commenced auto production. Can you compare the two today? Forget Toyota, can you compare PAL with Tata Motors that commenced auto production a full decade after PAL did and operated in the same license-permit raj? The only reason Premier managed to sell its cars was the absence of competition. Its CVs didn't do well in the market because there WAS competition from Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors whose CVs were much better. PAL's Dodge trucks and buses were notorious for frequent breakdowns and were shunned by SRTCs and transporters alike.
It's amusing to learn PAL even had an R&D centre. What new products did the R&D centre invent or come out with? I suspect the company must have been getting some tax or other benefit for opening one. That's the reason a lot of Indian companies opened these so-called R&D centres.
My apologies if I've hurt your sentiments. May be there are other sides to the story that I'm ignorant of. If you are in the know, please do let us know.
Best wishes,
Mahendra Singh |