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• Original Article
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• Published: 30 December 2020

Sustainability in the automotive industry, importance of and impact on automobile interior – insights from an empirical survey

• Wanja Wellbrock 1 ,
• Daniela Ludin 1 ,
• Linda Röhrle 1 &
• Wolfgang Gerstlberger 2  

International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility volume  5 , Article number:  10 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

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Sustainability is currently one of the main issues in all media and in society as a whole and is increasingly discussed in science from different sides and areas. Especially for the automotive industry, sustainability becomes more and more important due to corporate scandals in the past and topics such as electric motors, lightweight construction and CO2 emission reduction are key issues. Although the focus is primarily on other components, the interior cannot be neglected either in terms of sustainability. Interior is the most frequently seen part of the car by the driver. Therefore, e.g. the use of natural fibres especially for premium brands can only be considered in connection with highest standards regarding practical and aesthetical aspects. Consequently, the following research question arises: How do the three pillars of sustainability (economical, ecological and social issues) influence interior development at premium brand manufacturers and how do customers accept sustainable solutions? The focus of the paper is exclusively on premium brands due to the higher spread of sustainability effects compared to volume brands. A quantitative study is carried out to determine the expectations on the customer side regarding more sustainability in the automotive industry in general and in the interior sector in particular and to derive corresponding challenges and potentials for original equipment manufacturers.

Introduction

Sustainability is regarded as the keyword of the twenty-first century and the importance of the topic is not yet sufficiently widespread (Mittelstaedt, Shultz II, Kilbourne, & Peterson, 2014 ). The associated topic of resource conservation, which has been important since the eighteenth century, is now more relevant than ever. Above all, the automotive industry, which is the most important branch of industry in terms of turnover and the growth engine for Germany, has to deal more intensively with sustainable development and the associated effects and challenges. Automotive manufacturers are under pressure to comply with both political guidelines and internal specifications, as well as with constantly changing individual customer wishes (Thun & Hoenig, 2011 ; Wallentowitz & Leyers, 2014 ).

For the automotive industry, topics such as electric motors and the associated optimization areas, lightweight construction and CO 2 emission reduction are key issues. Nevertheless, the car’s interior cannot be ignored. After all, the interior is the part of a car most frequently seen by the driver and must therefore be practical, aesthetically pleasing and at the same time weight saving. The use of natural fibres as alternative materials in the interior plays an important role and is a further step towards greater sustainability (Pischinger & Seiffert, 2016 ).

Consequently, the following central research question arises: How is the new development of the interior by premium brand manufacturers influenced by the three pillars of sustainability (economical, ecological and social issues) and what are the challenges for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers? The contribution focuses exclusively on the German premium manufacturers Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, since sustainability at these companies is already more integrated into the manufacturing process.

Based on a literature review on sustainability in the automotive industry, previous efforts to increase sustainability in the interior sector will be elaborated on. Subsequently, an empirical study is used to determine the expectations on the customer side regarding more sustainability in the automotive industry in general and in the interior sector in particular and to derive corresponding challenges and potentials for OEMs and suppliers.

Sustainability in the automotive industry

Long-term success in the automotive industry is primarily achieved through consistent innovation strategies, strong branding, global efficiency in the value chain and qualified and motivated employees. Research and development can be argued as the key to long-term success - after all, no other industry invests more than the automotive industry in this area. Currently, the automotive industry is arguably witnessing the greatest phase of upheaval in its history. Mega trends such as emission reduction, lightweight construction, automated driving, connectivity and mobility services have changed the landscape for good. In line with these trends, the supplier industry is also adapting and undergoing fundamental changes (Dannenberg, 2017 ; Koers, 2014 ; Pischinger & Seiffert, 2016 ).

The topic of sustainability in the automotive industry is also gaining more momentum in the scientific community. Nunes and Bennett, for example, carry out a fundamental comparison of environmental initiatives of automobile manufacturers, conclude that these are often still very vague, and require further concretization. Another criticism is that the focus is primarily on the ecological dimension (Nunes & Benett, 2010 ). Azevedo et al. develop a theoretical framework for analysing the influence of green and lean SCM practices on the sustainable development of automobile manufacturers. Ecological (e.g. CO 2 emissions), social (e.g. supplier screening) and economic (e.g. operating costs) aspects are considered as performance indicators (Avezedo, Carvaho, Duarte, & Cruz-Machado, 2012 ). Azevedo and Barros complement this with an analysis of a sustainable business model for the automotive industry that integrates all three dimensions of sustainability. This contribution also shows that there has been a clear improvement in sustainability performance in the automotive supply chain over the last decade (Avezedo & Barros, 2017 ). Sinha et al. emphasize that sustainability management in the automotive industry is only possible through a holistic process approach starting with the conception and continuing right up to the series production of the product. In addition to these rather conceptual contributions, several authors consider concrete materials about their sustainability potential for the automotive industry (Sinha et al., 2015 ). Kumar and Das consider, for example, the suitability of bio composites especially in the field of dashboards (Kumar & Das, 2016 ), whereas Dunne et al. focus primarily on the suitability of natural fibres (Dunne, Desai, Sadiku, & Jayaramudu, 2016 ). Hetterich et al. consider the specific attitude of motorists towards sustainable materials in the interior sector. The focus here is on the willingness of customers to actually pay more for renewable raw materials (Hetterich, Bonnemeier, Pritzke, & Georgiadis, 2012 ).

In sum, the issue of sustainability in the automotive industry may well be gathering momentum and scientific focus, but the interior design sector in particular has been largely neglected. A few papers focus on the topic of sustainable interior, but mostly with a strict technological view (e.g. Bergenwall, Chen, & White, 2012 ; Jasiński, James, & Kerry, 2016 ; Mayyas, Qattawi, Omar, & Shan, 2012 ; Mcauley, 2003 ; Sopher, 2008 ; You, Ryu, Oh, Yun, & Kim, 2006 ). Some others analyse the potential of sustainability as a customer requirement, but misses the focus on automotive interior (e.g. Biju, Shalij, & Prabhushankar, 2015 ; Hetterich et al., 2012 ; Moisescu, 2018 ; Panuju, Ambarwati, & Susila, 2020 ). The article attempts to close this gap.

Sustainability in the interior of automobiles

The widespread innovation efforts in the field of electric mobility and autonomous driving also offer the potential to rethink and redesign the car’s interior. The vehicle interior has to be transformed into an increasingly attractive living space. This can be achieved, for example, through attractive surfaces made of sustainable materials. The interior plays an increasingly important role in purchasing decisions. It arouses emotions, offers comfort, safety and functionality and radiates brand identity as a fusion (Laukart & Vorberg, 2016 ; Pein, Laukart, Feldmann, & Krause, 2006 ).

The interior of a vehicle can be divided into six assemblies: the cockpit, the seats, the door and side trim, the headliner, the luggage compartment and the floor trim. The developments in this area is a balancing act between the pressure to innovate and the need to keep costs down. (Dölle, 2013 ).

Characteristics of natural fibre materials

Already in 2005, more than 30,000 tons of natural fibres were used in the automotive industry in Europe (Sullins, 2013 ). In 2015, the figure was already 50,000 tons, of which ten to 20% were European hemp fibres. Hemp belongs to the category of baste fibres, which are most frequently used in automotive components. Hemp, kenaf and flax are suitable alternatives to glass fibres because they are less expensive, have a lower density, a high strength and are more environmentally friendly. The use of natural fibres can result in cost savings of ten to 30% compared to glass fibers. Due to its strength, it can be used as a reinforcement for vehicle interior parts such as door panels. In addition, kenaf, which is cultivated mainly in China and Thailand, has one of the best CO 2 absorption rates in the plant world (Adekomaya, Jamiru, & Sadiku, 2016 ; Dunne et al., 2016 ; Suddell, 2008 ; Sullins, 2013 ; Verma, Gope, & Shandilya, 2012 ).

Another advantage is that the natural fibre-reinforced plastic does not splinter and can break without creating sharp edges. Its low weight and high load-bearing capacity are an advantage for lightweight construction and safety requirements and have a positive influence on crash management. Due to the positive cost performance ratio and the other advantages described, composite materials based on natural fibres have been used for several years for thermoplastics, thermosets and elastomers in automotive interiors. Well-known examples of this are doors made of flax or sisal fibres and polymeric binders such as polypropylene (thermoplastic) or polyurethane (Bjurenstedt & Lärneklint, 2004 ; Hull & Clyne, 1996 ; Laukart & Vorberg, 2016 ).

When selecting alternative materials, great care should be taken. For one, fibres from natural sources are not always more environmentally friendly than conventional fibres. Large amounts of water, pesticides, chemicals and energy are needed to prepare and dye the fabric during cotton degradation and processing. In addition, natural fibre reinforced plastics are neither as strong nor durable as metal or synthetic fibres, so they need to be replaced more frequently, resulting in increased energy consumption in the long term.

Whereas natural fibres were previously concealed behind a thick film lamination, they are now becoming more and more visually perceptible and are increasingly finding their way into the premium interior as a design element. At the same time, suppliers and vehicle manufacturers are in equal demand to conduct even more intensive research in the field of natural fibre-reinforced plastics and to bring technologies to series maturity that make it possible to further increase the proportion of natural fibres in vehicle interiors (Dunne et al., 2016 ).

Sustainability measures in the interior

The new hybrid materials and vehicle concepts pose a challenge for manufacturers and suppliers. The lightweight construction required for this should continue to offer the best surfaces in the interior since the appearance conveys a direct impression of quality, which is especially important for premium brands (Dunne et al., 2016 ; Hassan, Zulkifli, Ghazali, & Azhari, 2017 ; Karus & Kaup, 2002 ; Puglia, Biagiotti, & Kenny, 2005 ). Therefore, corresponding solutions with bio-composite materials are of great importance, as, for example, the supplier Dräxlmaier shows with his Kenaf door trim for the BMW i3 electric vehicle. The component is made exclusively of natural fibre-reinforced polypropylene with functional elements (Bröker & Ostner, 2017 ; Gelowicz, Günnel, Hammer, & Otto, 2017 ).

The use of natural fibre materials as a design element that underlines the sustainable character of a vehicle was not an option until now. They had not previously met the requirements of OEMs for a high-quality appearance and the technical process conditions of the manufacturers made it difficult to use the materials. After a long development period, the supplier Dräxlmaier and the manufacturer BMW have now joined forces to bring the innovation of visible natural fibres in the interior to series maturity. Requirements for design elements and weight reduction have been met and, at the same time, the materials are ecologically compatible. The “Fast Fibre Forming” developed by Dräxlmaier makes it possible to implement the “Visible Nature”. Panels are made of kenaf fibres and coated with a wafer-thin transparent plastic film. The purity of the plant material used ensures a particularly high-quality surface appearance compared to other natural raw material sources such as hemp or flax (Bröker & Ostner, 2017 ).

In the BMW i3, the visible door beams and the instrument panel cover are also made of the fibres of the tropical mallow plant Kenaf. The reasons for the selection are that Kenaf has a high degree of fineness and purity of the fibres compared to flax and hemp, which is essential for a high-quality surface. This is an elementary prerequisite because the design philosophy of BMW i vehicles combines a consistent focus on sustainability, which becomes visible and tangible in the interior, with simultaneous fulfilment of the OEM’s premium claim (Schmiedel, Barfuss, Nickel, & Pfeufer, 2014 ).

A further example is presented by Johnson Controls for the new BMW 3 Series with wood fibre components that not only relieve the burden on the environment but also reduce weight by 20% compared to solutions previously used (Focus, 2012 ).

The use of renewable and natural raw materials as a sustainable alternative to plastics is in direct harmony with the needs of the young generation. Yanfeng Automotive Interiors, for example, deliberately presents the recyclable, artistically designed natural fibre middle parts of the door panel in a natural look. According to Han Hendriks, Chief Technology Officer at Yanfeng, there is currently a shift towards more personalisation and individualisation. Drivers want to be sustainable and at the same time be safe and in touch with the spirit of the times (Yanfeng, 2017 ).

The supplier International Automotive Components (IAC) optimizes component designs for OEMs. A new product is the “Fibre Frame” technology. The natural fibre semi-finished product “EcoMatHot” replaces the classic material sheet steel in the mounting frame of the vehicle roof lining with panoramic or sliding roofs. The material consists of 70% renewable raw materials. A weight reduction of up to 50% is possible (Industrie, 2017 ).

In the future, it is expected that the use of renewable raw materials and recycled materials will continue to gain in importance. Visible components made of renewable materials will be found more frequently in the interior of the cars of tomorrow. In this context, the natural materials must be designed haptically and optically so that they can no longer appear only in laminated or mixed form with plastics (Focus, 2012 ).

Empirical study on customer expectations regarding sustainability aspects in interior design of cars

Based on the information from the previous chapters an empirical large-volume study is conducted to investigate the expectations and potentials that customers see in sustainability elements, particularly in the interior sector. The empirical survey focuses exclusively on customers of premium brands (Audi, BWM, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche), since sustainability measures are already more widespread in this area and customers have even higher expectations with regard to design and equipment (Skala-Gast, 2012 ).

Structure of the empirical study

The empirical study is based on an online survey with purposively selected persons from the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences, the University of Stuttgart and the company Valeo Schalter und Sensoren in Bietigheim-Bissingen. The survey was conducted via Survey monkey. All persons with a minimum age of 18 years were contacted through the official university or company mailing lists and send on to the questionnaire’s homepage. Therefore, the participants were mainly students and employees of the above mentioned Universities and companies. The age limit has been set the minimum age to drive a car in Germany. One hundred forty-one participants fulfilled the desired characteristics, which can be divided in 100 male and 41 female test persons. With regard to premium brands, Audi and Mercedes-Benz each dominated with 34%, BMW followed with 25% and Porsche with almost 7 % of the participants.

The questionnaire consists of 23 questions developed by the authors, divided into three sections: “general sustainability”, “specific sustainability in the automotive industry and the interior” and “future expectations”.

Empirical results

The participants of the study recognize the fundamental importance of sustainability. With the exception of two persons, all respondents attach fundamental importance to sustainability in different areas of life. For 81% the focus is on nutrition, followed by energy supply (66%) and living (63%). The area of mobility follows a little behind with 47% (see Fig.  1 ). This shows that a fundamental need for sustainability exists, but mobility is not the most important area.

Areas of life with high importance of sustainability. Source: Own illustration

Regarding the question of which factors are decisive when buying a car, quality, price, performance and design are on the first ranks. Sustainability plays an important or even very important role for only 34% of the respondents, which is the lowest value of all factors (see Fig.  2 ). This result shows that sustainability is discussed regularly in the automotive industry, but at the same time, it has only a limited influence on customers’ purchasing decisions, especially in the premium segment.

Aspects decisive for the purchase of a passenger car. Source: Own illustration

The willingness to accept additional costs for sustainable materials in the car is also very indifferent. Almost half of the respondents (47.5%) are not prepared to accept higher costs for sustainability aspects in the car. This is quite a high number and shows the problem of automotive manufacturers to transfer additional costs to the customers.

Looking at the single modules of an automobile, power unit (41%) and electronics (38%) receive the highest relevance for sustainability from the customer’s point of view. For almost 35%, sustainability is important in all areas of the automobile, whereas 30% highlight especially the interior sector (see Fig.  3 ). This result demonstrates that although the customer focuses on the sustainability of the interior, at first glance the drive system and electronics in particular have a higher sustainability potential from the customer’s point of view. The further investigations now relate exclusively to the interior.

Modules of an automobile with high relevance for sustainability. Source: Own illustration

A majority of 74% of the respondents agree that the OEM should place more emphasis on the selection of sustainable and natural materials in the interior. Only 7 % reject this, which represents a clear message to the OEM.

In order to control the customers’ design perception of natural materials in the interior, a picture of an untreated door panel was shown to the participants (see Fig.  4 ). The reaction to whether the test persons could imagine this in their automobile was very positive. 71% of the respondents could imagine such a door, if properties as haptics, appearance and economy are retained. Only 9 % of the respondents could not imagine such a door.

Untreated door panel with natural materials. Source: Dräxlmaier, 2018

Looking at additional aspects, which should be fulfilled by sustainable and natural materials in the interior, quality (74%) and safety (71%) receive the highest percentages, followed by smell and optics (60%), haptics (57%) and comfort (55%). At the end of the scale, individuality only receives 18%, which is surprisingly low compared to the wide variety of variants in the automotive industry (see Fig.  5 ).

Aspects that should be fulfilled by sustainable and natural materials in the interior. Source: Own illustration

Looking at the individual types of material, it turns out that customers would like to see more sustainable implementations in the interior, particularly for plastics (67%), textiles (52%), leather (45%) and wood (40%) (see Fig.  6 ). Especially for the first three materials, sustainable solutions are already available, as described in the previous chapter.

Materials with a high sustainability potential. Source: Own illustration

Regarding the variety of natural alternative materials, biomat-plastic (54%) and recycled material (52%) receive the highest percentages of people evaluating it as relevant or even very relevant for the interior sector. Overall, all known alternative materials such as ligneous, hemp, kenaf or sisal are well accepted by customers and the percentages for irrelevance are usually much lower for all materials (see Fig.  7 ).

Relevance of natural alternative materials in automobiles. Source: Own illustration

As an optional question, the participants were asked to decide which material they prefer for which interior component. The blue words are the result of the majority customer decision (see Fig.  8 ). The results show that the materials selected for the centre console, door trim and decorative elements are already sustainable. Other natural materials such as recycled material or natural rubber also achieve a high level of approval for individual interior components, although they do not yet represent a majority opinion.

Interior components with corresponding materials. Source: Barnes-Clay, 2012

The question whether natural materials should be more noticeable in interior design compared to conventional materials also produced a mixed response. 34% of all participants highlight that natural materials should be noticeable, whereas the same percentage disagree with this statement (see Fig.  9 ). Therefore, a meaningful picture cannot be derived.

Assessment of the perceptibility of natural materials in the interior. Source: Own illustration

The participants also answered the question whether the usage of natural materials in the interior is a long-term mega trend or only a short-term fashion trend. Only 51% of the respondents assume it a long-term mega trend, whereas the other half expect only a short fashion trend without long-lasting influence on the automotive industry. Therefore, this question can also be said to paint a much-divided picture.

The final topic is the future relevance of sustainable materials in the interior. Nearly 75% of the respondents rate the future relevance as very high or at least high, thus prophesizing an increase in meaning and relevance in the coming years (see Fig.  10 ).

Future importance of natural materials for the interior ( n  = 141). Source: Own illustration

Overall, it can certainly be seen that the issue of sustainability is present in people’s awareness. A tendency towards greater openness for new, more sustainable materials among customers of premium automobiles is recognizable. The priority for customers is that sustainability is taken into account in manufacturing and production, but not to the detriment of appearance, feel, comfort or price.

Discussion of the results

While there is an agreement in business practice that sustainability is not just a short-term fashion trend, but also a permanent indicator, this is not fully backed up by the empirical results. Only 50% of the respondents agree with this statement. The cost factor, which, according to the OEM, would have to be compensated, is an obstacle for approximately 50% of the customers. This means that for every second respondent a conflict of objectives with the OEM exists.

All participants principally agree that sustainability should play an overall role in the automobile and should not be restricted to individual areas. Although the majority of respondents chose the modules power unit and electronics, the category “everywhere” follows close behind in terms of importance. Therefore, the interior as a single module has to be integrated into the overall automotive design.

The customers also highlight that all traditional criteria connected to automobiles – especially appearance, haptics, comfort, smell, quality, safety and value – must also be fulfilled in a sustainable interior. At this point, manufacturers often see a problem. Natural materials fulfil certain properties, but others sometimes not. Consequently, manufacturers need to look more closely at this issue in order to satisfy the wishes of their customers.

As seen in the empirical study, the majority of participants can imagine a centre console made of ligneous wood or a door panel made of natural fibres such as hemp or kenaf. In addition, the topic of recycling is important for the customers. Therefore, the manufacturers should begin to work on innovative solutions regarding this topic.

The majority of customers also see an increase in the importance of sustainability for the interior on the horizon. It is therefore crucial for manufacturers to be innovative, show initiative, take advantage of emerging market opportunities and to act proactively. The focus should be on achieving first mover advantages, and it is crucial for OEMs to maintain their position as technology leaders and premium manufacturers, both in Germany and beyond. Therefore, it is imperative that premium manufacturers concentrate on the existing mega-trend of sustainability (Gelowicz et al., 2017 ; Schade, Zanker, Kühn, & Hettesheimer, 2014 ; Skala-Gast, 2012 ) and especially take more efforts on sustainable automotive interior solutions. However, all against the background that costumers accept compromises in comfort, practicality and price only to a very limit extend.

Referring to previous research in this area, the paper adds new insights to the topic of customer requirements regarding automotive sustainability in general and sustainable automotive interior in detail. The main result of the paper is to provide further details on the connection between sustainability and customer comfort in the automobile industry and to confront the needs of the customers with the challenges of the companies. This made an important contribution to the research field sustainability in the automotive industry.

The automotive industry is a prime example of small steps bringing change and contributing to a more environmentally friendly world. Suppliers are working with manufacturers to find solutions for a more sustainable interior and the importance of implementing sustainability along the entire supply chain is also well known to those involved. As a result, technological progress and the refinement of processes for the development of natural fibre products make it possible to replace products that currently pollute the environment more simply and cost-effectively with more environmentally friendly products, and at the same time to produce them in a more environmentally friendly way (Dunne et al., 2016 ; Hetterich et al., 2012 ).

This article focuses exclusively on premium manufacturers and their customers. The further research project will analyse whether there are significant differences when it comes to volume manufacturers. Furthermore, no distinction has been made between age, gender and automotive brand. Another limitation is the purposive sample of the study. The participants were mainly students, which cannot be taken as an average of the population. All of these will be explored in further research activities.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

Original Equipment Manufacturers

International Automotive Manufacturers

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Prof. Dr. Wanja Wellbrock is a professor for procurement management at Heilbronn University. His main research areas are supply chain management, strategic procurement management, sustainability and big data applications in cross-company value chains. He is the author of various English- and German-language publications and project manager of several practice-oriented research projects in these areas. Prof. Dr. Wanja Wellbrock gained practical experience in management positions in the automotive and aviation industries as well as in management consulting.

Since 2015, Prof. Dr. Daniela Ludin holds the professorship for general business administration at the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences in the Faculty of Management and Sales on the Schwäbisch Hall campus. To anchor the principle of sustainability as a central moment in her courses is one of her main targets. Since 2017, Prof. Dr. Daniela Ludin is responsible for the Bachelor’s degree programm Management & Procurement Management (B.A. MBW); since 2019 also fort he Bachelor‘s degree programm Sustainable Procurement Management (B.A. NBW). Since 2015, Prof. Dr. Daniela Ludin is also a member of the Council for Sustainable Development at Heilbronn University, which she has also chaired as Sustainability Officer at Heilbronn University since 2019. Before her time at Heilbronn University, Prof. Dr. Daniela Ludin worked from 2009 to 2015 at the Rottenburg University of Applied Sciences with a professorship for law, environmental and forest policy. Her main research areas are sustainable procurement management, sustainable mobility, sustainable consumption, sustainable financial products and sustainable data management.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Gerstlberger is currently Professor of Operations Management at the Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia). Previously, he was Associate Professor for Innovation Management at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense and Endowed Professor for Innovation Management and SME Research at the International University Institute of the Technical University of Dresden. Professor Gerstlberger completed his doctorate and habilitation in the field of general business administration at the University of Kassel. In addition, he has led and carried out numerous innovation and sustainability projects for companies, the EU, associations and public administration organizations as a freelancer. His current research interests are in the areas of sustainable innovation and operations management, digitization and sustainable logistics.

Linda Röhrle finished her Bachelor degree in Management and Procurement Management at the Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences.

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Wanja Wellbrock and Linda Röhrle analyzed and interpreted the survey data. Daniela Ludin performed the general sustainability background and Wolfgang Gerstlberger the sustainability aspects regarding automotive interior. All authors were major contributors in writing the manuscript. All authors read approved the final manuscript.

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Wellbrock, W., Ludin, D., Röhrle, L. et al. Sustainability in the automotive industry, importance of and impact on automobile interior – insights from an empirical survey. Int J Corporate Soc Responsibility 5 , 10 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-020-00057-z

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-020-00057-z

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An impact study of COVID ‐19 on six different industries: Automobile, energy and power, agriculture, education, travel and tourism and consumer electronics

Janmenjoy nayak.

1 Aditya Institute of Technology and Management, Computer Science and Engineering, Srikakulam Andhra Pradesh, India

Manohar Mishra

2 Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Institute of Technical Education and Research, Siksha O Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar Odisha, India

Bighnaraj Naik

3 Department of Computer Application, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Sambalpur Odisha, India

Hanumanthu Swapnarekha

4 Department of Information Technology, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Sambalpur Odisha, India

Korhan Cengiz

5 Department of Electrical—Electronics Engineering, Trakya University, Edirne Turkey

Vimal Shanmuganathan

6 Department of Information Technology, National Engineering College, Kovilpatti Tamil Nadu, India

Associated Data

The recent outbreak of a novel coronavirus, named COVID‐19 by the World Health Organization (WHO) has pushed the global economy and humanity into a disaster. In their attempt to control this pandemic, the governments of all the countries have imposed a nationwide lockdown. Although the lockdown may have assisted in limiting the spread of the disease, it has brutally affected the country, unsettling complete value‐chains of most important industries. The impact of the COVID‐19 is devastating on the economy. Therefore, this study has reported about the impact of COVID‐19 epidemic on various industrial sectors. In this regard, the authors have chosen six different industrial sectors such as automobile, energy and power, agriculture, education, travel and tourism and consumer electronics, and so on. This study will be helpful for the policymakers and government authorities to take necessary measures, strategies and economic policies to overcome the challenges encountered in different sectors due to the present pandemic.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the city of Wuhan, South China, numbers of unidentified pneumonia cases were reported in the last week of December 2019. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has declared the unknown pneumonia as novel coronavirus pneumonia on 7 January 2020 (Lu et al.,  2020 ). Later, novel coronavirus pneumonia was renamed as SARS‐CoV‐2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (Huang et al.,  2020 ; Lai et al.,  2020 ). On 11 February 2020 the disease was declared as COVID‐19 by the World Health Organization (WHO,  2020 ). The WHO asserted the outbreak of COVID‐19 as pandemic on 11 March 2020 as the number of cases other than the China escalated more than two million in different regions of the world. The number of new cases being reported within China, where the virus first appeared, is declining sharply, while the number of new cases outside of China continues to climb. As of 22 September 2020, there have been 31,507,723 confirmed cases of COVID‐19 worldwide, with 969,812 confirmed deaths. In the United States and India, where tests are now being administered more frequently, the number of confirmed cases is rising exponentially. Figure  1 depicts the top 10 countries in the world having highest number of confirmed cases as on 3 August 2020.

Top 10 countries with highest number of confirmed cases

The outbreak of COVID‐19 pandemic, which is labelled as black swan event (Burch et al.,  2016 ), has not only caused an adverse impact on the health of the people all over the world but also effected the socio‐economic activities of the countries all over the world. To flatten the curve of pandemic, the governments of almost 162 countries have announced strict shutdown of national and international borders, travel restrictions and lockdown measures ( https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/coronavirus-travel-restrictions-border-shutdowns-country-200318091505922.html ). Therefore, the markets of the world's largest economic countries and others are operating in a fear of disruption of global financial markets. The major areas such as global supply chains, trade, agriculture industry, automotive industry, electronic industry, travel, transportation and tourism industry, and so on have been severely disrupted because of the outbreak of COVID‐19. The economy of various other sectors such as aviation industry, entertainment industry, sports industry, and so on has also been severely hampered all over the world due to lockdown. In India, first case was reported in the last week of January 2020. The number of confirmed COVID‐19 cases started escalating from the second week of March 2020. As India is a developing country, the health system will be demolished if the number of cases increases exponentially. Therefore, to inhibit the spread of the coronavirus, the government of India has announced strict 3 week lockdown form 25 March 2020. Due to the lockdown, a large number of migrant workers all over the country left with no job or income. As all the activities in the country have been interrupted rigidly, a serious disruption has encountered in the supply chain mechanism of all the sectors. This unplanned and unusual lockdown is also having serious effect on the country economy which is already on downward trajectory since the financial year of 2018–2019. Therefore, it is necessary to report the impact of this pandemic on different industrial sectors. This will be helpful for the policymakers and government authorities to take necessary measures, strategies and economic policies to overcome the challenges encountered in different sectors due to the present pandemic.

In this paper, the effect of COVID‐19 on six different major affected sectors such as automobile, power and energy, electronics, travel, tourism and transportation, agriculture and education have been emphasized. We also emphasized on the analysis of issues and challenges encountered in these sectors by projecting how the changes in the economy has occurred in these sectors due to the COVID‐19. Further, it is also specified the strategies taken by the government to provide support to the life of the migrant workers and to overcome the recession encountered in different sectors.

The rest of the paper is standardized in the following way. Section  2 illustrates the impact of COVID‐19 on the areas of the automobile industry. It also focuses on the various issues and challenges in the automobile industries and strategies taken to overcome these challenges. The consequences of COVID‐19 on Power and Energy sector and the measures taken by the policy makers to overcome the imbalance encountered in this sector has been illustrated in Section  3 . The COVID‐19 effect on the consumer electronics and in the supply chain of electronics has been described in Section  4 . Section  5 describes how the COVID‐19 impacts the public transportation, travel and tourism sector. The effect of COVID‐19 on various sectors of the agriculture and measures taken to meet the challenges encountered in the pandemic has been explained in Section  6 . The impact of COVID‐19 on sectors and sub sectors of the education system and the measures taken by the universities of different countries and Indian education system to meet the challenges occurred in education system has been presented in Section  7 . Section 8 explains about the impact of COVID‐19 on publishing sector. Section  9 explains the critical analysis of COVID‐19 effect on the economy of different sectors. It also describes the analysis of other sectors that have been affected due to the pandemic of COVID‐19. It also provides an overview of impact of COVID‐19 on the GDP (gross domestic product) of Indian economy and the unemployment problem. Finally, the conclusion of the paper has been described in Section  10 .

2. IMPACT OF COVID ‐19 IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY

The COVID‐19 epidemic has pushed the global economy and humanity into a disaster. In the attempt to control this pandemic, the governments of all the countries have imposed a nationwide lockdown. Although the lockdown may have assisted in limiting the spread of the disease, it has brutally affected the country, unsettling complete value‐chains of most important industries. The epidemic is having a foremost impact on all features of industries which includes the automobile sector, with key manufactures either completely close following the orders passed by local governments or running an organization with least staff at manufacture units to remain their personnel secure. Over the last 12–18 months, the automobile field had already undergone significant delay due to structural modification openings with the goods and services tax, axle‐load reforms, shift to shared mobility, liquidity crunch, and so on industries had faced major effect and has roughly been at a complete idle since 24 March due to the COVID‐19's lockdown. Extended truncation of customer demand due to the lockdown is observed drastically distressing auto manufacturers. The majority of the companies are starving the support of R&D (Research and development) to maintain core functions and potentially getting back the growth made on mobility technologies as well as alternate fuels.

Some research literatures have explained the consequences of the COVID‐19 on the automobile industry. Rajamohan et al. ( 2020 ) has conducted a study on how the stock market particularly the National Stock Exchange of automobile sector has been distressed due to COVID‐19. The results reveal that higher value equities have been sold at depreciation value. Moreover, lower returns have been reported for the returns of the automobile sector index. Hence, from the results it can be concluded that COVID‐19 pandemic has created a significant effect on the stock exchange of the automobile industry. A hybrid model named as SEM‐Logit model was proposed by Yan et al. ( 2020 ) to explore the consumer decision making as well as the factors affecting the purchase of automobile during pandemic. The proposed model was used to investigate the effect of social‐demographics, epidemic‐related and psychological latent variables on the purchase decision making process of the automobiles. The results reveal that pandemic has generated an adverse effect on the purchase of the automobiles. The factors such as household income, travel vulnerabilities and epidemic severity in local regions have influenced the purchase decision making process of individuals. Further, study is used to assist the policy makers in implementing significant measures to overcome the present crisis in the automobile purchase.

2.1. Area under automobile industry and the COVID‐19 impact

The impact of COVID‐19 has affected several fields and some of them are mentioned in Figure  2 .

Impact on automobile industry fields due to COVID‐19

2.1.1. Auto dealers

Auto dealers have faced major problems. There are presently 15,000 above auto dealers which include two, three, and four wheelers across India. They were not able to transport vehicles for the lockdown period. Auto dealers have informed 30–45 days of completed goods record, likely to be greatly low‐priced prior to post lockdown. In the next 6 months, it is predictable that there will be finishing off at least 8%–10% of these dealerships.

2.1.2. Auto suppliers

Auto suppliers have a high reliance on immigrant labour, whose absence is anticipated to additional delay restoration post lockdown, ensuing in a domino consequence on the complete assessment chain. Suppliers are facing the challenges of liquidity that may yield to fading market circumstances, causing extensive trouble across the whole manufacturing network.

2.1.3. Finance companies

These financial companies are likely to face the burden, since loan evasions are expected to increase, and new loans are likely to fall, given complexities in deciding customers' credit value. The impact of the COVID‐19 is expected to put tension on used‐cars, mobility solutions, and aftermarket service suppliers, whose financial support relays on violent growth projections.

2.1.4. Sales

COVID‐19 affected automobile new vehicle sales very badly especially in the month of February 2020. Like, in China new sales of vehicles have fallen by 92% in February. Also, in European countries total vehicle sales were dropped by 7.4% when compared to that of sales in last year. Also, in country like India, many automobile industries such as TVS, Mahindra have stopped their production sales due to lockdown and likewise many sectors have been affected.

2.2. Issues of the automotive sector due to COVID ‐19

The automotive sector is on the front line due to the interrupt caused by the epidemic to trade as usual and throws the financial position into indecision. A few major affected areas are home and key manufacturing hubs to foremost links in the total supply chain sectors. Distinctive emergency plans helped allowing functional effectiveness by following measures like power outages, cyber incidents, and natural disasters, and so on. The situation is mobbing fastly due to the widespread effects. The key areas of these issues include crisis handling and response, workforce, supply chain, finance and liquidity, tax and trade, and strategy.

2.2.1. Crisis management and response

Cautious circumstances planning are vital. The change in the epidemic's epicentre to North America and Europe highlights the necessity for automotive companies to stay living in their responses to the disaster. Companies not only should consider the impact of the epidemic across a variety of critical fields but also should acquire the explosive economic, strategy, and financial market terrain into account.

2.2.2. Workforce

As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Automakers and their suppliers have used more than one million people in the United States. This welfare of employees should be the major concern for corporate leaders. If the pandemic widens and a huge percentage of the employees get sick, it could severely reduce the capability of the manufacture. So, clear, apparent, and appropriate communications to workers are vital, predominantly when the number of detailed cases spikes due to enhanced access to testing.

2.2.3. Operations and supply chain

The impact of COVID‐19 on the supply chain of automotive may be considerable. Some countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea that have seriously been affected by the spread of this virus, accounted for a major share of inclusive auto manufacturing. Automakers with overall supply chains are expected to observe two tier as well as three tier dealers who are mostly affected by epidemic related disturbances. Some steps are considering enhancing lines of communication and chain visibility to identify the potential problems better in early and work on remediation plans.

2.2.4. Finance and liquidity

The quick exploitation of the COVID‐19 epidemic has corresponded with the final weeks of the initial quarter. For companies in Spain, Italy, and France which are in dominant regions has led to functional disturbances that deferred their capability to conclude financial statements. Moreover, a few automotive companies are gradually more distressed about the prospect that the financial impact of the epidemic may generate triggering actions for the recoverability of receivables, reform events, long‐lasting quality impairments, and liquidity issues. Condensed productivity of the funding team could create a substantial rise in the amount of work to be acquired through in the imminent weeks. The majority of the suppliers, as well as multinational companies, should cautiously consider their money, liquidity, and operational capital policies in light of the epidemic's impact on the world and credit markets.

2.2.5. Strategy

The epidemic of COVID‐19 along with the resultant economic ambiguity may expect reduced customer requirements in the short term, probably leading to dampened sales of a new vehicle as well as delayed payments on additional maintenance. The interruption of the automobile supply chain may entrap cash that might be utilized to present employee relief and support functions. Because of the reasons, intent cash might be inactive in the market for an extensive era of time, new strategies can be arranged to assist in alleviating the sliding impact.

Moreover, many challenges (Accenture,  2020 ) part from the above mentioned strategies have been mentioned in Table  1 .

Various challenges of auto‐mobile industry

3. IMPACT ON POWER AND ENERGY INDUSTRY

The COVID‐19 pandemic has been continuously affecting the energy sectors like other aspect of life. Maintaining the continuity of power flow to different industry needs as well as satisfying the need of consumers viewpoint during the COVID‐19 crises is a severe challenge for the power and utility companies (Mylenka,  2020 ). The protection and distance protocols have forced for the reduction of worker in this sector; additionally, the necessities of strict hygiene have a direct effect on the field worker and operation. Moreover, the decreased demand has made its own technical challenges where the system engineers taking to achieve the supply voltage as well as reactive levels to duck the risk such as reactive shutdowns at distribution levels. Therefore, the power utility company should ensure some advanced strategies for the sudden decision making. So, it is essential for the utility companies and the governments to work coordinately to regulate the power supply affordably, sustainably and securely. One study shows that Power and energy industry has been harmfully impacted. In Italy 20% reduction in demand and values are being witnessed. In India, presently power demand has decreased by 25%–30% (Khanna,  2020 ).

The following are the few literatures that present how the power sector has been affected because of the present pandemic. An analysis hourly demand of electricity for the province of Ontario was performed by Abu‐Rayash and Dincer ( 2020 ) to determine the effect of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the dynamics of the energy sector. The analysis shows that in the month of April, there is a decline of 14% in the overall electricity demand of the province. Mostly, huge reductions in the daily demands of electricity was noticed on weekends. Further, the analysis of hourly electricity demands displays a clear flattening curve specifically in the peak hours of morning and evening, that is, between 7 AM to 11 AM and 5 PM to 7 PM at the time of pandemic. Moreover, the reduction in the GHG emissions by 40,000 tonnes of CO 2 e in the month of April results in the savings of $131,844. Finally, this analysis serves to devise the changes in the lifestyle options and choices in the short‐term and long‐term future electricity demands. An assessment of the power system scenarios implemented globally together with the socio‐economic and technical consequences because of lockdown have been scrutinized by Senthilkumar et al. ( 2020 ). It has been noticed from the primary analysis that because of the lockdown there was a drop in the demand of the commercial load while the demand for residential load expanded to the maximum. Further, this study examined distinct issues and challenges experienced by various utilities of the power system in India. Moreover, the actions implemented by the power sector for smooth running of the power system in India was also presented in the study. Lastly, this study presents a set of suggestions that may assist the government authorities and policymakers all over the world to cope up with the present and future unpredicted crisis in the power system. Zhong et al. ( 2020 ) have presented an analytical study on the effect of COVID‐19 pandemic on the power sector. Initially, an analysis of the electricity demand and supply has been performed due to the reduction in total electricity consumption because of the lockdown restrictions in different regions of the country. From the analysis, it has been noticed that the contribution of renewable energy has been raised against the reduction of the power generation. Further, an analysis of the challenges to be faced in the operation and control of power system has been presented due to the enhanced uncertainty of load, altered power balance and issues of voltage violation. Next, an investigation of market price performance has been carried out to cope up the challenges of the deterioration of electricity prices in major markets and financial problems. Finally, the external factors occurred due to pandemic such as diminished emissions and recovery of environmental conditions temporarily has been explained. Aruga et al. ( 2020 ) have suggested an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model to analyse the consequences of COVID‐19 pandemic on energy consumption in India during the lockdown. The proposed model was basically used to determine whether the COVID‐19 infection produces a positive impact on consumption of energy during lockdown period and whether this positive impact remains same or vary among distinct average income levels. From the analysis, it is noticed that higher income levels have a quick restore from COVID‐19 crisis when compared with poor income regions such as Eastern and North‐Eastern part. Further, this study recommends the significance of implementing special economic aid and measures for the poorer income regions to overcome the damage during COVID‐19 crisis and to restore their energy consumption levels to the levels prior to COVID‐19 crisis.

In general, the effect of the current COVID‐19 virus on the power sector can be studied through Figure  3 with the following sub‐section.

Impacted area of power and energy sector of COVID‐19

3.1. Development of new power infrastructure and energy facilities

The ‘Expanding the infrastructure’ is very common to each and every industry, and the energy industry is one of them. However, as the impact of pandemic is spread all over the world, the source of capital investment has been highly affected, and therefore, many power companies have decided to stop or reduce their capital outflow where possible. For example, DSOs (the ‘Distribution System Operator’, whose role is to transformed the power sector to make it more flexible, reduced the load on the network through penetrating new renewable sources, leverage data to increase re‐penetration) are postponing the majority of opened projects, due to a significant reduction in the purchasing of goods and services. Moreover, the less‐critical investments have been postponed. Therefore, the accomplishment of investment schedules by transmission system operators (TSOs) and DSOs is similar in jeopardy (Mylenka,  2020 ).

3.2. Default of payment

The defaulters of bill payment have been increasing with a cascaded manner. In many countries, the customers have been informed by their respective energy regulators and government authorities to prolong the payment of energy utility bills. Even if there is extensive lenience of non‐payment by end‐users, legislators did not openly describe if indulgence regarding disbursement would be approved further along with the supply‐chain'. Up to now, not a single official of the Energy Community have clearly sharp who will endure the outlays of sponsoring this debit. The waiving of interest, lockdown and prohibitions on cutting off will most likely enhance costs for DSOs. In addition to this, their profits will be reduced and, if the disaster remains, their economic position will be worsened. As a result, the negative impact of cash flow and short‐term liquidity of DSOs will be unavoidable. If the situation persists than the maintenance cost for regular operation will also be affected within a couple of months (Mylenka,  2020 ).

3.3. Impact on renewable energy sector

The renewable energy sector is currently the heart of power and energy industry. This sector has been badly affected due to the current pandemic. For example, India imports approximately 80% of its solar‐photovoltaic (SPV) cells necessity from the China. In this regards, Indian companies are facing indecisively concerning the receiving of SPV panels from China. Moreover, India imports other clean energy equipment's such as wind turbines and batteries from China and Europe. The delay in supply of these clean energy utensils ahead of the existing inventory with the productions is impacting well‐timed completion of renewable energy project give rise to in adverse situation. India single‐handedly 3000 MW of SPV and wind energy projects encounter suspensions, owing to the CIVID‐19 lockdown. Moreover, the planet's top manufacturer of rechargeable batteries was incompetent to accomplish the experiments of new‐fangled prototypes of rechargeable batteries because of the COVID‐19, and this has led to a deduction in the supply capacities of rechargeable batteries for the European market (Khanna,  2020 ).

3.4. Maintenance

Maintenance of energy and power sector is being too difficult in this pandemic situation, as the systematic maintenance deeds and field‐worker/technicians are constrained to a least, with mended and restoration being prioritized. Portable mediation crews have been started as a standby for field workers. The QoS, in spite of this, may be at danger if scheduled cares and maintenance facility are suspended for too long. However, a few documents have analysed that the availability of vital parts, tools, and equipment used for the maintenance workers are not a worry situation in the current timing, but there is a peril to network and staff safety if supplies are not restored in time.

3.5. Response of policymakers, regulators, and market participants

Role of policy‐makers and energy regulators have to ensure the energy security in this pandemic period. They need to address all the challenges associated to provide all the necessary services reliably. For instance, Europe's energy regulators have taken some exceptional actions to guarantee a secure and consistent energy supply by assuring vital amenity (e.g., gas, heating and power). In addition to this, they have taken some measures intended to ease financial needs of customers who face monetary difficulties during lock‐down (Mylenka,  2020 ). Some other countries have also taken several measures to backing the renewable energy sectors. For example, Poland's administration has formed an act named as Anti‐Crisis Shield Act, which offers the President of the Energy Regulatory Authority with the right to increase time limit for renewable energy manufacturers for initiation of trades inside the auction system.

Similarly, the DSOs have employed numerous administrative actions associated with the security of workforces, guaranteeing maintenance deeds, acquiring supplies, and so on. The safety and security of report centres is safeguarded through: (i) remote units in report centres with sufficient back‐up squads on stand‐by; (ii) limited admission to report centres and to stand‐by parts; (iii) engaging the retired staff as standby units owing to decrease the load on key staff.

4. IMPACT ON COVID ‐19 ON ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY

Like other industrial sectors, the effect of COVID‐19 on electronic industry (EI) is also analysed in this study through this section. The EI has affected in several ways like: (i) Increasing counterfeit tricking, (ii) shipping delays, (iii) consumer behaviour and (iv) environmental viewpoints. The taxonomy of EI can be explained by its types of products, such as smartphones and tablets, desktops/laptops/notebooks, televisions, cameras and camcorders, audio/video devices, gaming consoles and accessories, home appliances, and others. Other product type includes wearable electronics such as smart watches, virtual reality and augmented reality gears. The market of EI has spread into North America, Europe, Asia‐Pacific, and the rest of the World. However, the major market share in the global consumer electronics market is upheld by Asia (especially China). The companies such as Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Huawei, Hitachi, and several others are the EI based companies that shaping the market growth.

4.1. Supply delay

The manufacturers of EI's have gone through a shipment delay of at least 5 weeks from the suppliers owing to the pandemic. This data is associated by a survey carried out by IPC, a global manufacturing association. The survey also highlights the negative impacts on manufactures as a result of shipping delays from China and other leading suppliers. Although, the suppliers are giving some encouraging words regarding of decreasing of delays, ‘The delays will likely have ripple effects for the rest of the year’, said John Mitchell, IPC's president and CEO. As the virus is spread all over the world, the supply chain is going to face more and varied pressures and disruptions ( https://www.engineerlive.com/content/what-covid-19-doing-electronics-industry ).

4.2. Counterfeit trickling

Counterfeit factors have a huge negative impact to the consumer electronics sector. In last few years, the counterfeit sectors have shown an increasing curve which affects authorized producers manufacturing the genuine modules. Therefore, the necessity of proper inspections towards the verification of authentication and genuinely of electronic product is demanded for the suppliers and manufacturers of electronic modules. In this pandemic period, the counterfeit factor in electronic industry sector has activated to obtain higher profit margin. Therefore, filtering the counterfeit issue is becoming a challenging task for the industry during the COVID‐19 outbreak ( https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5013558/impact-of-covid-19-on-the-consumer-electronics ).

4.3. Consumer electronics

The impact COVID‐19 virus spreading is found to a positive for some companies for over a 12 month period and negative for several other companies. Some survey have reported that the consume electronics are likely to be the most affected industry of COVID‐19 outbreak just like industrial and automotive. These areas are likely to be influenced more than other commerce owing to their resilient engineering capability in China and supply‐chains that depend mostly on China, Europe and USA. However, the medical, defence, aerospace based electronic manufacturing units are thought to be the least impacted sectors. This is due to less dependency and the ratio of supply and demand. In the case of geographical region, the electronic market has been analysed into North America, Europe, Asia‐Pacific, and the rest of the World. Asia‐Pacific has probably contributed a major marketplace share in the global consumer electronic market. Fast development, growing disposable income of people and existence of numerous significant bazaar performers such as Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Huawei, Hitachi, and several others are influencing the market growth of the region. Out of these major companies in the consumer electronics sector to get affected due to COVID‐19 include Apple Inc., Canon Inc., GoPro Inc., Hitachi Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Nikon Corp., Panasonic Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Toshiba Corp., and several others. Apple is one crucial consumer electronics seller that has been affected. More than 90% of Apple's products are made in China and the Chinese marketplace accounts for 18% of its revenues ( https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5013558/impact-of-covid-19-on-the-consumer-electronics ).

4.4. Smartphone industry

Currently, smartphone is one of the most popular products of consumer electronics. In term of supply‐chain and demand, it is also impacted adversely due to the virus spread. Figure  4 shows a bar‐graph plotted to explain the demand of Smartphone that expected earlier and the current situation ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106020/forecast-of-annual-global-smartphone-shipment-impacted-by-covid-19/ ). A number of authorities are forecasting that the COVID‐19 outbreak will have a diverse impression on the development of 5G plans, which were commencing to gain traction in the global market. Interruptions in manufacturing and reduced demand will set back the development of affordable 5G phones, which are necessary to encourage large‐scale adoption of the technology. As demand for all smartphones decreases, 5G devices will have difficulty in finding a foothold.

Analysis of the forecast of global smartphone unit shipments from 2020 to 2021 (in millions)

However, following are few facts that show the use of smartphone during the Pandemic as a positive thought ( https://apnews.com/Business%20Wire/c2fbf35eab3849a8be2a66b1f34190e6 , https://blog.technavio.com/blog/covid-19-smartphone-industry ).

• The smartphone industry and governments are working together on COVID‐19 contact‐tracing which is a good side of the use of the consumer electronics product. Apple and Google are both strong proponents of decentralized contact‐tracing apps, which protect users' privacy by keeping as much data as possible on users' phones rather than in a government‐controlled server.
• Researchers develop smartphone‐based COVID‐19 test. Pharmaceutical company Sanofi and Silicon Valley startup Luminosities are evolving a test for the virus that can be used with any brand of smartphone. It comprises an add‐on that plugs into the phone and an app that performs the test and reports the results. The test device attaches to the phone's camera and flash and contains chemicals that glow in the dark when the virus is present.
• App uses smartphone computing power to search for coronavirus treatments.

5. IMPACT OF COVID ‐19 ON TRAVEL, TOURISM AND TRANSPORT INDUSTRY

Travel, tourism and transportation (TTT) are few most critically victimized sectors of COVID‐19. As the rickshaw puller to airlines, all have been affected simultaneously by this virus spread; the demand of TTT sector is adversely hit. However, it can be also observed that the demand of truck transport has increased to some extent owing to transport some essential goods. For example, in US the increased product (40%–60%) is moved to grocery stores and warehouses since the spread of COVID‐19 ( https://wwmt.com/news/local/covid-19-puts-truck-drivers-in-high-demand-for-transport-of-crucial-goods ).

The permutation and combination of guidelines/rules varying from social‐distancing to lockdowns/shutdowns of cities is likely to slow‐down or even entirely ban manufacture and expenditure events for an indeterminate time‐period, and thereby leading to trades in retail and hospitality sectors to close. Several countries have imposed the lockdowns in their most affected states and even closed their borders as an action to decrease the spreading of the COVID‐19 virus. Therefore, each country has seen a sharped decrease of demand of transport industry. In this section, we have presented a brief analysis of COVID‐19 breakout impact on the public transport and its consequent impact on travel and tourism sectors (Chauhan,  2020 ).

Some literature reviews on the effect of COVID‐19 infection on the travel and tourism sector has been presented. An overview of the present COVID‐19 pandemic on tourism has been projected by Gössling et al. ( 2020 ) by making an assessment of the previous pandemics and other global crisis. Initially, a rapid analysis of COVID‐19 impact on the worldwide tourism up to the end of March 2020 has been represented by considering travel restrictions and reduction in the airline services. Next, the effect of distinct regions and suggestions for the development of tourism has been discussed. Finally, to provide more feasible tourism sector in post pandemic this paper highlights some implications for future tourism. To assess the effect of travel restrictions at national and international level on the spread of pandemic, a global metapopulation disease transmission model was suggested by Chinazzi et al. ( 2020 ). The proposed model uses internationally reported cases to measure the impact of travel restrictions. It shows that the overall progression of the epidemic is delayed by only 3–5 days in the mainland of China due to travel restrictions in Wuhan. However, the case importation was declined by approximately 80% till the mid of February on the international scale due to travel restriction in Wuhan. Further, the modelling study reveals that additional travel restrictions in the mainland of China have only limited effect unless integrated with the public health interferences. Qiu et al. ( 2020 ) have described the risk correlated with the tourism activity from residents understanding in the three Chinese cities during the pandemic. A triple‐bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation model (DCCVM) was utilized to model the residents willingness to pay (WTP) in order to minimize the risk linked with tourism. Further, the findings of the study present valuable suggestions for the implementation of stimulus and restoration strategies in tourism during and after the COVID‐19 outbreak. To analyse the effect of travel restrictions on the aviation industry globally, a forecasting model has been proposed by Iacus et al. ( 2020 ). Based on the data extracted from the online booking system and online flight tracking system, the proposed model displays the analysis of changes in the activity of aviation all over the world during the pandemic of COVID‐19. To overcome the challenges occurred in aviation due to travel restriction, various strategies depending on past pandemic and recognized flight volumes have been provided. From the findings, it was observed that world GDP declined by 0.02%–0.12% and in worst case loss may be approximately 1.41%–1.67% by the end of 2020 because of the effect of COVID‐19 on aviation sector. The COVID‐19 effect also results in loss of 4.2–5 million jobs by the end of 2020. Further, this analysis may aid the policy makers in implementing appropriate policy measures to overcome the problems raised in the aviation sector due to pandemic.

5.1. Impact of COVID ‐19 on public transport

Public transport such as railway, metro, airlines, taxis and buses are acts as a carriers and distributor of disease and will harshly pretended by unremitting rules of social‐distancing. Due to the limited operation of the public transport system in the lockdown period, severe losses have been incurred in all the modes of public transport ( https://moneycontrol.com ). Following are the few instances that explain the impact on public transport:

• Indian railway will lose Rs. 6000 crore–Rs. 12,500 crore from passenger trains and Rs. 6000 crore for freight services. Similarly, the Indian aviation industry is expected to lose around 3–3.6 Billion USD during these COVID‐19 breakouts owing to grounding of all international and domestic flights.

Heat map of region‐by‐region breakdown of commercial transportation volumes from 1 February to 15 March 2020 (curtsy Geotab Data & Analytics Team,  2020 )

Analysis of commercial vehicle activity volume by country in Europe (curtsy Geotab Data & Analytics Team,  2020 )

The following are the few additional matters that integrate with the present COVID‐19 concerns of transport industry.

• The extreme rate of everyday washing of automobile and amenities have enhanced fixed costs and enforced an added economic pressure on all modes of public transport corporations at a time when there is zero income from the transport of passengers.
• Transport industry should make sure that transportation system's continuity during the virus spread considering all lockdown measures, arresting a balance between reduced operations and providing sufficient measurements for frontline workforces to be able to drill public distancing.
• Long‐term investment programmes may possibly re‐planed and re‐prioritized, in light reduced profits.
• Government must plan for the obtainability of main personal to ensure with staff with critical skill and training available throughout the pandemic to keep networks safety.

5.2. Impact on tourism

A decline of 13.5% is observed in the arrivals of tourist in Indonesia. Similarly, countries like China, Vietnam, and Thailand also experienced a dramatic decrease in the tourist arrivals (Molly Moore,  2020 ). The outbreak of respiratory lung infection known as COVID‐19 with its origin in Wuhan city of China started spreading just before the event of Chinese New Year of 2020. Consequently, the plans over the festive period have been hampered because of the increase in the number of COVID‐19 infected cases and travel restrictions. In addition, the restrictions in both the domestic and international travel have resulted in the consequent losses in the tourism sector. As the number of COVID‐19 cases is increasing in other regions of the world, the citizens of the Asia Pacific region declared to ban the flights from China.

China is well‐known for its economic dominance within the regions of Asia Pacific. The level of prosperity among the citizens of China has been increased because of its thriving economy. This increase in the income level of citizens has allowed the Chinese people to travel to other regions of the world frequently, particularly to the Asia Pacific region. As the domestic tourism has been increased due to the frequent travel of Chinese citizens, many countries across the Asia Pacific region started relying on the Chinese tourist to strengthen their tourism sector. Interestingly, Chinese tourism has contributed to the growth of GDP in Asia Pacific region in the year 2018. Therefore, the economies of Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand have suffered severely during COVID‐19 due to the travel restrictions on the Chinese tourism. In fact, a loss of 211 billion U.S. dollars was predicted in the economy of Asia Pacific region due to the outbreak of the pandemic. Even though the outbreak of previous infections has disrupted the tourism sector in the regions of Asia Pacific, the disruption occurred in the tourism sector due to COVID‐19 is more when compared to previous infection. This is mainly due to the fact that the tourism sector in Asia Pacific region in previous years was not dependant on the Chinese tourism as they have been in recent years.

6. IMPACT OF COVID‐19 ON AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

Over the past epidemics that the world has faced, it has been proved that pandemic and quarantine has not only affected activities of humans and economic growth but also affected agricultural activities. The impact of the COVID‐19 is devastating on the economy. When there is a spread of contagious disease, there is a rise in malnutrition and starvation. The condition degenerates as the infection grows, making group limitations progressively severe, cause labour deficiencies for the harvest or complexities for farmers in transporting goods to the market. Agriculture is one of the major significant fields in human growth. In order to survive their lives, nearly 60% of humans impart on agriculture and hence it remains central to the entire world economy (Zavatta,  2014 ). Agricultural sector affected due to a severe pandemic and varied across various divisions that form the farming value chain. The agriculture fields include firms mostly occupied in increasing crops, raising animals, and harvesting fish as well as other animals. The area of agriculture is comprised of many sectors such as horticulture, plant genetics, seed technology, pests and pathogens, engineering, veterinary, poultry, dairy, food processing, farm mechanization, irrigation, storage and refrigeration, energy and biofuels, soil and water conservation, soil science, animal feed, fertilizers and chemicals, water resources and ground water hydraulics, climate, city planning, green buildings, structural design for storage and animals, GIS and remote sensing, agricultural marketing, agricultural entrepreneurship, agricultural education and research and many more. All these sectors have a major impact due to pandemic. Similarly, some of the subsectors of agriculture that include crop farming, livestock, agroforestry, and fishing and aquaculture also had serious impact due to COVID‐19. These subsectors are mentioned in Figure  7 .

Subsectors of agriculture sector affected by COVID‐19

The issues in agriculture are majorly related to the non‐availability of labour and incapability to access markets for manufacturing due to problems in the functioning of markets and transportation. Non‐availability of labour has damaged functions in several parts. A few parts of agriculture that have the comfort of organizing tools for yielding include wheat, as well as paddy, are comparatively more protected as they frequently need not be relay on manual labour. The rising utilization of automatic producers for paddy has assisted in the current situations, even if their inter‐state progress has been strictly shortened. Yet, marketable crops are severely hit as they likely to be more reliant on immigrant labour. Thus, the scarcity of immigrant labour has resulted in a quick rise in everyday wages for yielding crops. In most of the areas, the increase is as high as 50%, making it worthless for manufacturers as costs have distorted because of deficiency of market access either by preventing transportation or closing of borders. The farming economy faced a serious burden when lockdown stopped transportation, thus by rusting the yield. The production of the farmers could not arrive to mandis, so disturbing the supply chain. Similarly, non‐availability of immigrant labours interrupted the harvest as well as post‐harvest functioning's. The epidemic has provided growth to various confronts in procurement functions as well. Landless farm labours, marginal farmers and so on has experienced many challenges. So government is working hard to give alternative returns until the financial system falls rear into its place.

6.1. Affected agricultural sectors due to COVID ‐19

The fast‐developing conditions with COVID‐19 are increasing questions throughout the globe. As distresses persist to rise about the infection, it is not only inflicting disaster on the stock market but also causing a major decline in the economy. The agricultural and food organization (FAO,  2020 ) described that impact of COVID‐19 on agriculture includes various aspects like food supply, food demand, food security, markets and farm prices, farmers' health, the farm workforce, worker safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) and other disruptions. These effects are depicted in the following Figure  8 .

Impact of COVID‐19 on agriculture

The following are the few literatures that show the impact of COVID‐19 on food supply and production. Siche ( 2020 ) has described the study and analysis of the effect of COVID‐19 on the food supply and agriculture sector. Further, the data collected from the scientific and technical records, the Food Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health organization have been used for the analysis of the impact of COVID‐19 infection on the agriculture sector. From the analysis, it is noticed that COVID‐19 infection has greatly distressed the food demand and accordingly food security because of the transport restrictions and decreased purchasing capacity. The assessment of challenges faced by the food supply chain in Canada during the crisis of COVID‐19 pandemic and the policies and industrial strategies taken by the Canada government to enhance the resilience of food supply chain has been depicted by Hobbs ( 2020 ). The impact of disruptions in the demand of food supply chain such as panic purchasing attitude of the consumer related to essential items and changes in consumption styles due to the closure of food retailing sector has been analysed. Moreover, the assessment of disruptions in the supply‐side of the food service sector such as shortage of labour and mobility restriction due to the closure of Canada‐U.S. border has also been discussed. Finally, the long‐lasting effects due to COVID‐19 on the nature of the food supply chains in Canada have been examined. The disruption occurred in the agricultural production in China due to COVID‐19 pandemic and the measures taken by the government to reduce the negative effects in agricultural production has been considered by Pu and Zhong ( 2020 ). The study reveals that lockdown policy to control the spread of infection leads to disruption in the agricultural production such as obstruction in the outflow transmit of agricultural products and hamper in the essential production input, production cycles and production capacity. Moreover, it also projects the policies taken by the China government to enhance the food supply chain and effective strategies for efficient delivering of agricultural products. Further, this study also provides suggestions to other countries particularly in developing countries to cope up with the challenges encountered in the agricultural production due to pandemic.

6.2. Impact on food supply

The majority of nations adopted preventive actions like home quarantine, travel restrictions as well as stoppage of business to decrease the infection rate. Such type of travel ban had affected the food supply with a key impact on food delivery (Poudel et al.,  2020 ). As mentioned in Figure  7 , various subsectors of agriculture have faced hard‐hit globally due to COVID‐19. The scarcity of labour as well as limited animal feed has caused a high impact on livestock agriculture in china (Zhang,  2020 ). Delivery of poultry's breeding supply has been affected due to the stoppage of travelling. Fishing activities were condensed in various parts of Asia, Africa as well as Europe because of hygienic procedures, the partial inputs supply and lack of labour (FAO,  2020a ). There is a complexity in the production of aquaculture due to the shortage of seed and feed. The delivery of dairy products have stroked hardest by the pandemic. The deficiency of agricultural inputs like seed, pesticide, and fertilizers are faced by the farmers due to overall trade disturbance. The epidemic has distressed the planting of several crops include sunflower, barley, maize, spring wheat, and so on. To defeat these whole situations, most of the organizations like government as well as non‐governments are playing a vital role to handle continuous supply chain.

The following review shows how the seafood sector has been influenced by the spread of the COVID‐19. The assessment of COVID‐19 impact on the seafood sector in United States has been presented by White et al. ( 2020 ). The most frequent impacts of COVID‐19 on seafood sector such as widespread closure of restaurants, reduced fishing season and revenue loss have been described in the study. From the assessment of data collected from the Google search trends and seafood market foot traffic, it has been depicted that the consumer need for seafood from restaurants has dropped by 30%, even though other ways of delivering seafood such as takeout has been enhanced. Furthermore, the study also reveals that the fresh seafood market has affected more when compared with frozen products by considering data from the minimal accessible landing data along with national level import and export data. Moreover, the findings observed from this study may assist the policy makers to focus support on areas of seafood sector mostly distressed due to COVID‐19.

6.3. Impact on food demand

Customer's interest and capability to acquire goods as well as services in a providing period is referred to as demand. Food demand has influenced due to a decline in profits and purchasing capability. However, the rate of the supplies relays on the nation and their strategy to manage the pandemic. Siche ( 2020 ) has stated that the essential requirements are anticipated to persist constant, even as point in cost probably will arise for high valued goods. In the current situations, the usage levels of consuming animal proteins as food reduced drastically due to the suspicion of animals as a cause of disease.

6.4. Impact on food security

The existing and accessing of an adequate quantity of healthy food in a constant manner can be considered as food security. The problem of food security has risen due to the prohibit of international trade. The rise of food security due to COVID‐19 mainly affects the deprived and the majority susceptible parts of the population. According to a study (FAO et.al,  2019 ), 820 million citizens are fronting severe hunger at present and 113 million citizens are facing acute uncertainty. More than 10 million children rely on the meals provided by their schools to complete their nutritional necessities. But because of banning schools and school meal programs, children are not receiving their meals that may decrease the capability to cope up with this pandemic (FAO,  2020b ).

6.5. Impact on markets and farm prices

As we notice raising levels of suggestions for social distancing, concerns, condensed travel, evading crowds, closures, and additional defensive practices to slow down the COVID‐19 spread, consumers will be building hard alternatives about food, eating outside, and overall expenditure. Dairy is highly featured in outside‐food, and there may be a few disturbances in foodservice deals. This scenario has an impact on markets and their prices. There has been a stoppage at ports in many countries as ships remain to be divesting with U.S. dairy as well as other farm products. Considerations about the effect of the pandemic on the widen economy are probable to include an even superior impact on the prices of dairy products.

6.6. Impact on farmers' health

All over the Midwest, as contrasted to the general employer population, farmers are comparatively older population. According to an age census in 2017, the normal age of farmers to be roughly 58, a complete 10 years older than employers in most of the other fields. Compared to other sector workers, 26% of farm workers are at the age of 65 years and above. A complete 11.7% of our major farm workers are at the age of 74 years and some are even more than that. Information from many other countries that have completed wider testing has suggested that, the impact of COVID‐19 has a higher level of seriousness for those farmers who are in their 60 years and above. The defensive and protective suggestions from the state as well as central public health specialists are critical for our agricultural population.

6.7. Preventive measures to deal with pandemic

To cope up with the challenges faced by the agricultural field due to the pandemic, some measures are needed to take to make the agricultural sector working normally. Some major measures have been taken by the Indian government to help the farmers in the agricultural fields. The home ministry has positioned some guidelines for ensuring less injure to the field of agriculture. Supply chain especially for milk, tea, plantations, and so on supposed to be restart as common while taking social distancing. Allowance of normal operations of agriculture is done by the centre in rural areas. Marine, Medical systems, pharmaceuticals, fishery procedures, and infrastructural units are supposed to be functional. Import and export are on the border of falling back to the normal stage as remaining in the mind to prevent the spread of infection. The government of India has suggested alleviation measures to guarantee a sustainable food organization in the pandemic. After announcing worldwide lockdown, the Indian finance minister confirmed 1.7 trillion packages immediately to secure the susceptible sections including farmers from any unfavourable impacts of the COVID‐19. The government has declared an advance release of INR 2000 to bank accounts under the scheme of PM‐KISAN as income support to all the farmers. Workers' wage rate has been increased by the government under the largest wage assurance scheme NREGS. To help the vulnerable population, the government has announced the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana scheme for the welfare of the poor people. Extra grain allocations to listed recipients were also declared for the coming 3 months. Support of Food and cash to individuals occupied in the informal field, frequently immigrant labourers, has also been declared for which a separate PM‐CARES (Prime Minister Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) fund has been established. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR; Guidelines,  2020 ) has concerned nationwide strategies to be followed by the farmers during the period of a pandemic. Wheat harvesting is approaching in various states by uniting producers as well as their movements within and among the states that have been allowed. Mustard, lentil, maize, chilies, and sugar and harvesting are at peak stage for progressing as well as harvesting. This guideline is mentioned in the following Table  2 .

Guidelines provided by Indian government to deal with COVID‐19

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has also declared detailed measures that deal with the weight of debt servicing due to pandemic. Conditions of agriculture as well as crop loans have been approved a suspension of 3 months up to 31 May by banking organizations with a 3% allowance on the concerned price of crop loans up‐to INR 300,000 for users with superior refund nature. Though the government has taken the proper guidelines of lockdown, taking proper measures for farming sectors, still some problems include execution leading to deficiency of workers as well as declining costs should be resolved. The functioning of the food supply should organize well. The population of the farming must be secured from COVID‐19 to the extent possible by testing and working social distancing. Farmers should have continues entrance into the market. Dairy and poultry farmers required to receive more help, since their epidemic‐linked supply as well as market access issues are vital.

7. IMPACT OF COVID‐19 ON EDUCATION SECTOR

The pandemic COVID‐19 leads to social distancing policies in more than 200 countries throughout the world. Since the coronavirus is an infectious disease, it spreads majorly by physical (social) contact. This pandemic situation of COVID‐19 affects many sectors such as agriculture, automobiles, finance, and so on. The No. of cases of COVID‐19 started raising from March 2020. Due to this rapid increase in spread, it mainly affects the education sector, especially during March. More number of people are present in educational institutions, universities, private institutes, and so on. To avoid the conflict of the spread of corona, an initiative has been taken by the government as well as private educational institutions and universities to remain shut down. Almost, 75 million children and youth have been disrupted in their education globally and that effect is being increased due to COVID‐19. Nearly education of 1.53 billion of all aged students in more than 184 countries has been affected. Many primary, secondary schools, higher education boards as well as universities have taken several steps to avoid the transmission of COVID‐19. Some of the measures taken by different universities in top COVID‐19 affected countries are mentioned in Table  3 .

Actions taken by various universities in top COVID‐19 affected countries

A few literature reviews that show how the education system has been impacted due to the pandemic COVID‐19 have been discussed here. An analysis of the consequences of COVID‐19 pandemic effect on Indian education system has been presented by Jena ( 2020 ). In this study, the measures adopted by the government of India to ensure consistent education in the country have been emphasized. Further, the positive and negative impacts of the pandemic on education system have also been highlighted. Moreover, some productive suggestions are also projected for the smooth accomplishment of educational activities at the time of the pandemic situation. The consequences of COVID‐19 pandemic on higher education institutions due to shut down of schools in Nigeria has been analysed by Jacob et al. ( 2020 ). Further, the decline of international education, interruption of academic calendars of higher education, revocation of international conferences, deficiency of work force in educational institutions, generation of gaps between teaching and learning process and reduction in the budget of higher education are considered as the areas of higher institutions affected due to the COVID‐19 pandemic. In addition, this study also suggests some measures to government such as enhancement in the budget of higher education that may enable the higher education institutions to cope up with the damage induced by the closure of schools due to COVID‐19 pandemic. An online survey from 1 May 2020 to 8 May 2020 was carried out by Kapasia et al. ( 2020 ) to determine the effect of lockdown on both undergraduate and postgraduate students of distinct colleges and universities of West Bengal in India. The survey was analysed using straightforward percentage distribution approach to determine the learning status of the study members. Further, the analysis reveals that 70% learners were actively participating in e‐learning process. The survey also shows that majority of the active learners were using android mobiles for attending the online classes. Moreover, the study also discloses that the students particularly from remote area and weaker economic sections are encountering vast challenges while involving in e‐learning process. Finally, the study suggests some measures to the government, authorities of the institution and policy makers such as uniform academic plan, proper Education Continuity Plan (ECP), adequate funding and development training for employability to establish strong education system in the state. A study that shows how the educational system has been changed throughout the world due to COVID‐19 pandemic was presented by Toquero ( 2020 ). In this study, some measures to the higher education system such as revision of the academic curriculum towards online learning, implementation of health practices by developing health management protocols and environmental strategies that can enhance the health management system in the university have been suggested to upgrade the present mode of education to the emerging technologies. Further, this study serves as research evidence to cope up with the challenges that arise due to the pandemic in the educational system.

Due to the hectic situation of COVID‐19, the education sector is badly affected. Many subsectors such as service providers, supplementary providers, educational product providers, and so on have been affected. Many charters, primary, secondary as well as virtual schools have been closed. Several educational organizations faced problems to give salaries to their employees. Many learning centres remain closed. Several services of vocational, tutorial as well as assessment were stopped. Various examinations of government have been postponed. Production, supply, and demand for different educational products were stopped and due to this reason, several employees were affected financially. Many decisions were made by several universities like Hyderabad University remains closed and stopped all the activities on 20 March 2020 and many more. The sectors of education that were affected by COVID‐19 have been depicted in Figure  9 . This effect on education has particularly hit hard in India. Many youths as well as children remain locked at their homes due to the new initiate policies of the Indian government. Not only the youth and children but also the people all over India stayed home after incorporating a new rule of lockdown.

Sectors of education affected by COVID‐19 pandemic throughout the world

The Government of India has observed the rapid increase of COVID‐19 cases throughout their country. On 22 March, honourable Prime Minister of India, Sri Narendra Modi announced Janata Curfew. Later from 25 March to 14 April, 21 days of lockdown has been announced which is called a lockdown 1.0. Later from 15 April to 3 May, the extension of lockdown for 19 days has been declared and called it as lockdown 2.0. Later, an extension of 14 days of lockdown 3.0 has been declared from 4 May to 17 May 2020. From 18 May up to 31 May and from 1 June to 30 June, the lockdown has 4.0 and 5.0 has been implemented. After lockdown 5.0, the unlocking of cities has started slowly. Although, several sectors have allowed for normal working style with a proper COVID‐19 guideline, the education institute have remained closed. However, the teaching processes are going on through online platform. Due to these lockdown and unlock period, several disruption has occurred in the educational system of India. Schools as well as universities of the public as well as the private sector of the Indian educational system remain closed. Many categories of universities such as Central, Government Deemed as well as Government Aided Universities, Private deemed to be university, Institute of National Importance, State Private University, and State Public University have been affected. The sectors of education which are badly affected due to the COVID‐19 pandemic have been depicted in Figure  10 .

List of subsectors of education affected by pandemic COVID‐19 in India

Some of the effects of COVID‐19 on several universities in India have been described in the following manner.

• On 24 February, the University of MRIIRS (Manav Rachna International Institute of Research and Studies), Faridabad continued public gathering (Students; Faridabad,  2020 ).
• Some schools throughout India remain closed while some of the schools have not declared their announcement throughout India (Economist,  2020 ).
• On 16 March 2020, postponement of all exams has been declared by the Maharashtra Government (Outbreak,  2020 ).
• On 17 March, Schools in the capital of India, New Delhi declared holidays (PTI,  2020 ). All academic activities have been closed by Pondicherry University (COVID‐19 scare: Pondicherry, 2020).
• On 20 March 2020, the University of Hyderabad remains closed and stopped all the activities. Instructions have been given to students in hostels to evacuate the hostel by going their homes (Faridabad,  2020 ) and many more.

Many schools as well as colleges declared to promote students to the next higher levels without conducting any examinations due to the COVID‐19 crisis. Like, the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Pondicherry has declared that up to classes of ninth grade, all the students will be promoted to the next levels without examinations. But, for matriculation students, the exam will be conducted and dates of examination yet to be announced. Also, many measures announcements were made by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), New Delhi, and UGC (Under Graduate Commission), New Delhi, and those were mentioned in Tables  4 and ​ and5 5 .

Measures taken by UGC during lockdown in months of March, April, May, 2020

Measures taken by AICTE during lockdown in months of March, April, May, 2020

8. IMPACT OF COVID ‐19 ON PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

The sudden surge of COVID‐19 pandemic has distressed many industries and affected the lives of people across the world. While the COVID‐19 has a negative impact on the global economy, there exist some industries that are faring better than other industries during the pandemic period. In the case of the publishing industry, the COVID‐19 crisis has created a mixed impact on the economy. Due to the sudden surge of COVID‐19 pandemic, many governments across the world have declared lockdown to inhibit the spread of the pandemic. As millions of people pursued education from home, the demand for academic publishers having rich source of online publications has increased in comparison with the publishers having limited source of resources. The number of visits for online material has increased from 1.34 billion in January 2020 to 1.51billion in March 2020 ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/1112583/covid-19-impact-books-e-commerce-site-traffic-global/ ). As people are staying at home during the crisis period, they are finding the ways of enhancing their skill set or ways of entertainment by purchasing books through online or by visiting online resources. In the United States, the sales of children non‐fiction books have raised by 66% in the third week of March ( https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-escapism-book-sales-surge-covid-19/ ). Hence, the rise in the online retailers and eBooks show that there is a raise in the sales of book during the pandemic period. As the COVID‐19 has resulted in the economic deceleration across the world, the global market of the Book publishing sector has decreased from 92.8 billion dollars in 2019 to 85.9 billion dollars in 2020 ( https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/book-publishers-global-market-report-2020-30-covid-19-impact-and-recover ). Therefore, independent publishing sectors may suffer severely during the crisis period. The Figure  11 shows the impact of COVID‐19 on the Book publishers in Norway ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109852/impact-of-the-covid-19-outbreak-on-book-publishers-in-norway/ ).

Impact of COVID‐19 on book publishers

8.1. Impact on different sectors of the publishing industry

This section describes about the impact of COVID‐19 on different sectors of the publishing industry. Figure  12 represents the different sectors of the publishing industry.

Different sectors of publishing industry

8.2. Print books

Even though there is a growth in the sales of eBooks, there is a decline of 10% in the print sales due to the closure of libraries, physical book shops and educational institutions which in turn affects the authors, publishers and Book stores that depends on the print book sales.

8.3. Online retailers

The online retailers like the Bookshop.org have shown 400% increase in sales, while Amazon has shown 50% increase in sales of all print books from major publishers ( https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-escapism-book-sales-surge-covid-19/ ). Therefore, the online retailers are progressing much better than other sectors of publishing industry during the crisis.

8.4. eBooks and Audiobooks

From the last few months, significant increase has been noticed in the choice of eBooks and Audiobooks in order to maintain the hygiene issues during the pandemic. The eBook distributors and publishers have seen rise of at least double digit in the sale of books since the lockdown. When it comes to Audiobooks, the distributors have noticed a slight drop in the beginning of the lockdown. Later, listening times have been increased when listeners made the new routines and adjustments.

8.5. Academic publishers

As online learning has become the new form of teaching‐learning process, the academic publishers particularly those are having rich source of online resources are flourishing well during this pandemic period.

8.6. Physical bookstores

The small and independent business that depends on in‐person sales has suffered a lot during the crisis times. Therefore, the retailers that depend on in‐person sales have to shift towards online sales in order to survive at the time of crisis. For instance, iconic Powell's book store in Portland has removed 85% of its staff during the pandemic. When the store moved to online sales has again rehired 100 employees ( https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-escapism-book-sales-surge-covid-19/ ).

8.7. Book fairs

Book fairs have been greatly affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic. All the international book fairs have been cancelled due to the pandemic.

8.8. Scholarly journals

The advancement in Internet technology has brought rapid changes in the communication of scholarly journals. At the time of pandemics, the rapid dissemination of related scientific technology plays a vital role to handle the crisis. The factors affecting the dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge through scholarly journals are the duration of the publication process. From the author's perspective, the duration of the publication process can be reduced by the use of preprint servers. When considering from the publisher's view, the rapid dissemination of scholarly articles can be enhanced by modifying the editorial policies and procedures. Therefore, the modifications in the policies and procedures of editorial attract the reviewers which results in the fast dissemination of scientific knowledge at the time of crisis.

8.9. Supply chain

When it comes to the production sector, the supply chain shortage has created a negative impact on the publishing sector which results in the decrease of demand for the publishers and retailers.

8.10. Trends introduced in publishing industry during pandemic

Due to pandemic some significant changes have been introduced in the publishing industry to meet the needs of the readers. As large number of uncontrolled piracy eBooks and publishers are available, digital platforms provided special discounts and free subscriptions to attract the readers. Another significant trend in the publishing industry is the release of eBook first followed by the release of print editions. To meet the needs of the reader, digital platforms have released some books prior to the proposed release date by observing the readers behaviour. The production of short reads and books related to cooking, Children activity and Home learning has been increased based on the consumption of books during pandemic.

9. CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A systematic analysis of the various articles published on the impact of COVID‐19 on different sectors has been carried out. This section represents an analysis of the impact of supply chain shortage in different countries of the automobile industry and a comparative analysis of domestic sale of passenger vehicles in India before COVID and after reporting COVID, usage of different sources of energy during the period January 2020 to June 2020 to overcome the imbalances occurred in the power load, impact of supply delay in various sector of global electronics industry, % change in the international tourist arrivals in 2019 and Q1 2020, impact on global revenue of travels and tourism sector in 2019 and Q1 of 2020, % drop in the market arrivals of major food items, procurement and sale of milk during the lockdown period in India, no of affected learners throughout the world and country wide closure of educational institutions to show the impact of COVID‐19 on automobile, power and energy, electronics, travel and tourism, agriculture and education system. In addition to the above‐mentioned sectors, an analysis of other sectors affected due to COVID‐19 in India has also been presented. Further an analysis of GDP growth rate in India and unemployment rate has been performed to show the impact of COVID‐19 on the economy of India. This analysis may help the policy makers in taking necessary actions to overcome the challenges encountered in various sectors.

9.1. Analysis on automobile industry

Automobile industry is one of the crucial industries responsible for the economic growth and prosperity of the country. For instance, in Europe the turnover of the automobile industry surpasses 7% of its GDP, in United States the turnover is 3%–3.5% of the total GDP and in China the turnover is 10%. The surge of COVID‐19 pandemic has kept the automobile industry under great pressure because of the demand and supply factors. The automobile industry is facing a demand shock with unpredictable recovery timeline due to lockdown policies. The global auto production is mainly dependent on the exports of the automobile parts and accessories from China. Figure  11 depicts the impact of supply shortage in China affecting the assembly of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in North America, Europe and Asia. From the Figure  13 , it can be observed that USA is most exposed to disruption of China exports of automobile parts and accessories, that is, 11.7 billion U.S. dollars. After USA, Japan experienced 3.2 billion U.S. dollars of China's export disruption. While Mexico, Germany and South Korea experienced a disruption of 2, 1.7 and 1.2 billion U.S. dollars of China's exports.

Impact of China supply shortage on global auto production

The overall effect of production stoppage as a result of collapsing demand has major impact on the production rate of global automobile industry. The global auto production is estimated to decline by 16% in academic year 2020 due to COVID‐19 pandemic ( https://www.accenture.com/_acnmedia/PDF-121/Accenture-COVID-19-Impact-Automotive-Industry.pdf ).

The automobile industry in India, which is the fourth largest industry in the world is facing significant decline as continuous lockdown has affected the production and consumer demands. The following Table  6 illustrates the domestic sales of passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two‐wheeler vehicles before COVID‐19 began and in the month of March after COVID‐19 cases reported in India. In the month of March, sale of passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two‐wheeler vehicles has been declined by 51%, 88% and 40%, respectively, according to the data stated by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM; https://www.counterpointresearch.com/weekly-updates-covid-19-impact-global-automotive-industry/ ). The production in the last week of March and sales in the month of March are almost zero due to nationwide lockdown.

Comparison of domestic sales of passenger vehicles before COVID‐19 began and after COVID‐19 cases reported

By implementing actions in three timelines such as (i) a fast reaction to the present crisis by focussing on the protection of the people, (ii) reformation of new strategic policies to arise as strong industry after the critical situation, (iii) adjustment to new financial phenomenon by reconstructing current activities of the industry may assist the automobile industry in handling the disruption arise due to the supply shortage of vehicle parts and accessories.

9.2. Analysis on power and energy industry

Due to COVID‐19 pandemic, the energy demand pattern in India has been declined sharply. The decline occurred mainly because of the inactivity in the transactions of business, industries, agriculture and other commercial sectors due to continuous lockdown. In industry and commercial sectors, there is a sharp decline in the load demands while in domestic sector and hospital services the load demands have been enhanced slightly. These variations in the energy demand patterns not only created financial stress on the power sector but also imposed lot of socioeconomic and technical challenges to the power sector. During the lockdown in India, the electricity mix has been switched to the renewable source because of the declined energy demand, less operating cost and priority basis access to the grid by means of regulations. Figure  14 represents the electricity mix in India from January 2020 to September 2020 ( https://www.iea.org/reports/covid-19-impact-on-electricity ). After the implementation of first lockdown phase, the breach between coal and renewables has been reduced significantly. From the first lockdown phase onwards, the share of the coal remained consistently below 70% in the power mix. In the last week of May, the share of renewables has been increased as the levels of energy demands were recovered with rising temperatures.

Power mix in India from January 2020 to September 2020

According to the data stated by India's Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO), there was a total demand of 18 kWh billion units during the first weeks of the lockdown phase while the demand was 23 kWh billion units before 1 week of the lockdown. It indicates a decline of roughly 21.7% energy demand in the first weeks of the lockdown phase. Moreover, the average clearing price has reduced from IR2.15 to IR1.95 per kilowatt hour. To meet the challenges faced by power system, the Indian government has approved a fiscal assistance package for the power distribution companies by granting moratorium of 3 months. Moreover, they have also cutdown the security payment amount to half for power purchases in the future.

9.3. Analysis on electronics industry

The global electronics industry has experienced dual affect due to the outbreak of COVID‐19. Due to the lack of workforce and slowdown of logistics, there is a halt in the production of electronic parts all over the world. In addition, the non‐functioning of e‐commerce companies across the world due to lockdown has adversely affected the electronics industry. In addition to this, COVID‐19 has also interrupted the supply chain of significant electronic brands all over the world. China is the world's largest producer and supplier of electronic inputs to several zones of the world. The halt in the production of electronic parts in China due to lockdown has impacted the production of finished goods in U.S. and European countries which results in gap between demand and supply of the electronic parts. Figure  15 represents the impact of supply delays on global electronic industry as of March 2020 ( https://www.statista.com/statistics/1106093/electronics-industries-impacted-by-supply-chain-delays-due-to-covid-19-worldwide ). Form the figure it can be observed that 40% of the consumer sector has been impacted due to the supply delay, lack of workforce and shutdown of e‐commerce companies. Next highly affected sector is the industrial sector, that is, 24%. Nineteen percentage of the automotive sector is impacted by the supply delay of electronic products. The impact of supply delay of electronic products on Defence/Government, Aerospace and Medical is 4%, 4% and 3%, respectively. These sectors are less impacted when compared with consumers, industrial and automotive industry. The overall impact of supply delay on all other sectors is 6% only.

Impact of supply delay on the global electronic industry as of March 2020

9.4. Analysis on transport, travel and tourism

Tourism and travel contributes a significant share of the GDP globally and is considered as the backbone of many country's national income. The loss induced in tourism also impacts the economy of other sectors that produces goods and services to the tourism sector. According to UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), national income of the country will decline by $2–$3 million if there is loss of $1 million in the revenue of international tourism. Due to the lockdown policies, travel restrictions and closure of international and national airports and borders, there is a drop of 57% in the tourist arrivals in the month of March according to data stated by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Figure  16 depicts the change in International tourist arrivals in 2019 and first Quarter of 2020. Even though Asia and Pacific shows the highest effect in absolute and relative terms, the effect is somewhat high in volumes in Europe.

% Change in international tourist arrivals in 2019 and Q1 2020

Figure  17 represents impact of COVID‐19 on the global revenue of travel and tourism sector in the academic year 2019 and Q1 of 2020 ( https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1103426/covid-19-revenue-travel-tourism-industry-forecast ). The global revenue from travel and tourism sector is estimated as 447.4 billion U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2020 as per the mobility market outlook on COVID‐19. It shows a decline of 34.7% from the revenue generated in the academic year 2019. Moreover, the estimated revenue is also lesser than the original revenue forecasted from travel and tourism sector. This is mainly due to the lockdown of national and international border and the travel restriction policies imposed because of the COVID‐19 pandemic.

Analysis of COVID‐19 impact on the global revenue of travel and tourism sector in 2019 and Q1 2020

9.5. Analysis on agriculture industry

In India, the agriculture sector is considered as the main pillar of the economy. This sector not only provides the needs of food consumption but also places itself in the world as the top exporter of agricultural products. In recent period, this sector is also facing the interruption in the agriculture and supply chains due to the COVID‐19 outbreak. Due to the lockdown, some disruptions occurred in the harvesting activities especially in the northwest region of India where wheat and pulses are harvested. This is mainly because of the unavailability of migrant labour. In addition, some interruptions have also occurred in the supply chains mainly due to the transportation problems. Figure  18 represents the drop in arrivals of major food items in the week of 1–6 April 2020 when compared with the week of 1–6 March 2020. It represents a decline of 15%–76% in the arrivals of major food items according to the data collected by BloombergQuint from Agmarknet ( https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/in-charts-the-emerging-economic-impact-of-a-nationwide-lockdow ). In the first week of April 2020, the total arrivals of major food items such as cereals, vegetables and fruits fell to 3.09 lakh tonnes when compared to the total arrivals in the first week of March 2020.

Percentage drop in the market arrivals of major food items due to disruption in supply chain

Moreover, the sales of milk products have been decreased. This is because of the stoppage of hotels, restaurants, sweet shops and tea shops due to lockdown. Figure  19 represents the procurement and sale of milk from March to May 2020. According to the data stated by National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), the procurement of milk in the first 2 weeks of March 2020 is 534.2 lakh litres per day. The procurement has been dropped to 508.3 lakh litres per day by the second week of April 2020. In the last 2 weeks of May 2020, it has been dropped to 503.9 lakh litres per day. The sale of milk in the first 2 weeks of the March 2020, is 386.9 lakh litres per day. The sales have been dropped to 324.1 lakh litres per day by the second week of April 2020. From the middle of the April 2020, the sales have been increased and reached to 347.5 lakh litres per day by the end of May 2020.

Procurement and Sale of Milk during the lockdown, that is from March 2020 to May 2020

9.6. Analysis on education system

Due to the impact of COVID‐19, governments of several countries across the World have temporarily shut down educational institutions to prevent the spread of the infection. Figure  20 depicts the number of affected learners across the world due to the closure of schools from the period February 2020 to July 2020 (UNESCO, 2020) ( https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse ). Form the figure, it can be observed that more no. of learners affected in March 2020 and April 2020 because as large number of countries have been affected due to COVID‐19 in this period. In the month of February 2020, it was less as only few countries were affected. Form May 2020 onwards, there is decrease in the number of learners affected as the schools have been reopened due to decline in the number of cases in few countries.

Number of affected learners world wide

Figure  21 represents the country wide closure of schools during the period of February 2020 to July 2020 (UNESCO, 2020). Initially, in the month of February 2020, only few countries announced closure of educational institutions. As number of countries impacted because of COVID‐19 in the month of March 2020 and April 2020, large numbers of countries have announced the closure of educational institutions during this period. Form the month of May 2020 onwards, the number of cases started decreasing in few countries. Therefore, these countries announced the reopening of educational institutions from the month of May 2020, onwards.

Country wide closure of educational institutions

9.7. Analysis on COVID ‐19 in other sectors

The index of eight core industries in India such as coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, steel, cement, electricity and fertilizers that have 40% weight in the IIP (index of industrial production) also encountered continuous drop in economy. Figure  22 represents the percentage drop in the eight core sectors of India in the month of May 2020 and June 2020. The eight core industries dropped to 22% in the month of May 2020, while it is 15% in June 2020. There is also decline of 33% in the month of April. According to the data stated by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the cumulative growth of eight core industries was −24.6% in the year 2020–2021 during the period April to June 2020 ( https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/eight-core-industries-output-contracts-15-per-cent-in-june/articleshow/77283914.cms ).

% Drop in core sectors of India in May2020 and June 2020

9.8. Overall impact of COVID ‐19 on the GDP and unemployment in India

Figure  23 displays the growth of GDP in India in the Year 2019–2020 ( https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/gdp-growth-slows-to-3-1-in-q4-core-sector-output-contracts-38-1-in-april/articleshow/76090944.cms ). From the figure, it can be observed that economy in India slowed down to 3.1% in the January–March Quarter. This is mainly due to the lockdown restrictions and closure of national and international borders which caused disruption in the supply chain of different sectors that contribute to the growth of Indian economy. The Indian economy in Q1, Q2 and Q3 of 2019–2020 stood at 5.2, 4.4, and 4.1, respectively. As lockdown continues, economists assumed that the financial year that begin in the month of April, 2020 will witness the worst contradiction in the economy.

GDP growth in India

Figure  24 represents the spike in unemployment rate due to the lockdown. The unplanned lockdown announced by the government of India to inhibit the dissemination of virus on 25 March 2020 has kept millions of migrant workers with no job. Also, the disruption in different sectors left many citizens without job in private sectors. From the figure, it can be observed that there is a spike in the unemployment rate in the last week of March 2020 and stayed near to the same levels in the first week of April as per the data collected by the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) ( https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/in-charts-the-emerging-economic-impact-of-a-nationwide-lockdown ) . To overcome the spike in unemployment rate, the Indian government has announced policies in order to save the life of citizens.

Unemployment rate in India

9.9. Analysis of the previous review literatures

The analysis of previous literatures on the COVID‐19 effect on the economy of the various sectors in different regions of the world has been represented in Table  7 .

Analysis of the previous literature reviews

Form the above analysis, it is observed that either an analysis of particular sector or overview of different sectors affected due to COVID‐19 has been presented. In most of the studies not specified what are the strategies to be taken by the government and policy makers to cope up with disruption occurred in economy has not been specified. By taking inspiration from this fact, in this paper we provided an in‐detail description and critical analysis of the impact of COVID‐19 on six different industries and its subsectors and also specified the necessary strategies need to be adopted by these industries and measures and policies provided by the government of countries to cope up with disruption encountered in the economy of these countries.

10. CONCLUSION

The COVID‐19 pandemic that encountered in the late December 2019 in Wuhan city of South China, started spreading rapidly from the month of March 2020 in different regions of the world. This COVID‐19 Crisis has not only distressed the health of the people all over the world but also created disruption in the social and economic activities of the people throughout the world. When the number of cases started increasing exponentially in different regions of the world, then the government authorities of different countries has announced strict lockdown measures, travel restrictions and shutdown of national and international borders to prevent the spread of the disease. Due to these lockdown policies, a great disruption occurred in the supply chain of different countries which in turn impacted the economy of the country. In this paper, we presented a detailed explanation of the impact of COVID‐19 on six different industries such as automobile, power and energy, electronics, travel, tourism and transportation, agriculture and education and its sub sectors which occurred mainly due to the disruption in the supply chains and transportation. Further we have also specified the strategies to be implemented by these industries and measures and policies provided by the government of concerned countries to cope up with the disruption occurred in the economy of the nation. Moreover, we also presented a systematic analysis of how disruption in different industries affected the economy of the countries in graphical representation. Furthermore, an overall analysis of how lockdown affected the GDP growth and unemployment rate in India has also been presented. Finally, this research assists the researchers, policy makers and Government authorities in developing and implementing effective strategies such as immediate relief plan, broad socioeconomic plan for each sector to overcome the disruptions occurred due to the crisis. The review of disruption in other sectors and analysis of the measures and policies taken by policy makers and government authorities to cope up with economy can be considered as further scope of this paper.

Biographies

Janmenjoy Nayak is working as an Associate Professor, Aditya Institute of Technology and Management (AITAM), (An Autonomous Institution) Tekkali, K Kotturu, AP‐532201, India. He has published more than 120 research papers in various reputed peer reviewed Referred Journals, International Conferences and Book Chapters. Being two times Gold Medallist in Computer Science in his career, he has been awarded with INSPIRE Research Fellowship from Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India (both as JRF and SRF level) and Best researcher award from Jawaharlal Nehru University of Technology, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh for the AY: 2018‐19 and many more awards to his credit. He has Edited 11 Books and 8 Special Issues in various topics including Data Science, Machine Learning, and Soft Computing with reputed International Publishers like Springer, Elsevier, Inderscience etc. His area of interest includes data mining, nature inspired algorithms and soft computing.

Manohar Mishra is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics & Electrical Engineering Department, under the Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Siksha “O” Anusandhan University, Bhubaneswar. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, M.Tech. in Power Electronics and Drives and B.Tech. in Electrical engineering in 2017, 2012 and 2008, respectively. He has published more than 40 research papers in various reputed peer reviewed International Journals, Conferences and Book Chapters. He has served as reviewers for various reputed Journal publishers such as Springer, IEEE, Elsevier and Inderscience. At present, he has more than 10 years of teaching experience in the field of Electrical Engineering. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Bighnaraj Naik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Application, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (Formerly UCE Burla), Odisha, India. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering, M.Tech. in Computer Science and Engineering and B.E. in information technology in 2016, 2009 and 2006, respectively. He has published more than 120 research papers in various reputed peer reviewed Journals, Conferences and Book Chapters. He has edited more than 10 books from various publishers such as Elsevier, Springer and IGI Global. At present, he has more than ten years of teaching experience in the field of Computer Science and IT. He is a member of IEEE. His area of interest includes Data Mining, Computational Intelligence, and its applications. He has been serving as Guest Editor of various journal special issues from Elsevier, Springer and Inderscience.

Hanumanthu Swapnarekha is working as an Assistant Professor, Aditya Institute of Technology and Management (AITAM), (An Autonomous Institution) Tekkali, K Kotturu, AP‐532201, India. She has more than ten years of teaching experience in the field of Computer Science. Her area of interest includes IoT, Data Mining, Soft Computing, etc.

Korhan Cengiz received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical‐Electronics Engineering from Kadir Has University (Turkey) in 2016. He is currently a lecturer doctor in the Department of Electrical‐Electronics Engineering at Trakya University (Turkey). His research interests include energy efficient routing protocols, wireless sensor networks, wireless communications, software defined networking, indoor positioning.

Vimal Shanmuganathan is working in Department of Information Technology, National Engineering College, Kovilpatti, Tamilnadu, India. He has around Thirteen years of teaching experience, EMC certified Data science Associate and CCNA certified professional too. He holds a Ph.D in Information and Communication Engineering from Anna University Chennai and he received Masters Degree from Anna University Coimbatore. He is a member of various professional bodies and organized various funded workshops and seminars. He has hosted two special session for IEEE sponsored conference in Osaka, Japan and Thailand. His areas of interest include Game Modelling, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive radio networks, Network security, Machine Learning and Big data Analytics. He is a Senior member in IEEE and holds membership in various professional bodies.

Nayak J, Mishra M, Naik B, Swapnarekha H, Cengiz K, Shanmuganathan V. An impact study of COVID‐19 on six different industries: Automobile, energy and power, agriculture, education, travel and tourism and consumer electronics . Expert Systems . 2022; 39 :e12677. 10.1111/exsy.12677 [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

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Innovation, Economic Development, and Intellectual Property in India and China pp 439–463 Cite as

The Growth of the Indian Automobile Industry: Analysis of the Roles of Government Policy and Other Enabling Factors

• Smita Miglani 5  
• Open Access
• First Online: 07 September 2019

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Part of the book series: ARCIALA Series on Intellectual Assets and Law in Asia ((ARCIALA))

The automobile industry is one of the most important drivers of economic growth of India and one with high participation in global value chains. The growth of this sector has been on the back of strong government support which has helped it carve a unique path among the manufacturing sectors of India. The automobiles produced in the country uniquely cater to the demands of low- and middle-income groups of population which makes this sector stand out among the other automobile-producing countries. This chapter analyzes the roles of government policy, infrastructure, and other enabling factors in the expansion of the automobile and automotive component sectors of India. In 2017, India became the world’s fourth largest automobile market, and the demand for Indian vehicles continues to grow in the domestic and international markets. To meet the future needs of customers (including the electrical vehicles) and stay ahead of competition, manufacturers are now catching up on upgradation, digitization, and automation. The chapter also analyzes India’s national policy in light of these developments.

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1 Introduction

The automobile industry is an important driver of the economic growth in India and one of the successful sectors in which the country has high participation in global value chains (GVCs). Footnote 1

This chapter analyzes the role of government policy, infrastructure, and other enabling factors in the expansion of the automobile and automotive component sectors and the direction they are likely to take for growth path in the next few years. The analysis in this chapter is organized into seven sections: The first section discusses the structure and makeup of the Indian automobile industry. The second section analyzes the growth of the sector over the past decades, while the third section discusses the role of government. The fourth section deals with other enabling factors in the growth of the industry. The fifth section analyzes initiatives in upgrading and innovation. The sixth section includes a discussion of the future scenario and the seventh section concludes.

2 Structure and Makeup of the Indian Automobile Industry

The Indian automobile industry – comprising of the automobile and the automotive components segments – is one of the key drivers of economic growth of India. Being deeply integrated with other industrial sectors, it is a major driver of the manufacturing gross domestic product (GDP), exports, and employment. This sector has grown on account of its traditional strengths in casting, forging and precision machining, fabricating (welding, grinding, and polishing) and cost advantages (on account of availability of abundant low-cost skilled labor), and significant foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows.

India was the sixth largest producer of automobiles globally with an average annual production of about 29 million vehicles in 2017–2018, of which about 4 million were exported. Footnote 2 India is the largest tractor manufacturer, second largest two-wheeler manufacturer, second largest bus manufacturer, fifth largest heavy truck manufacturer, sixth largest car manufacturer, and eighth largest commercial vehicle manufacturer. The contribution of this sector to GDP has increased from 2.77% in 1992–1993 to about 7.1% now and accounts for about 49% of manufacturing GDP (2015–2016). Footnote 3 It employs more than 29 million people (direct and indirect employment). The turnover of the automobile industry is approximately US$ 67 billion (2016–2017) Footnote 4 and that of the component industry is US$ 43.5 billion (2015–2016). Footnote 5 As per the OICA Footnote 6 statistics, the Indian industry accounted for 4.92% of vehicle production globally in 2017 (5.38% of production in the car segment and 3.48% of production in the commercial vehicle segment). Footnote 7

India is a prime destination for many multinational automobile companies with aspirations of business expansion in Asia. It attracted about US$ 14.48 billion (5.2% of total) in cumulative FDI equity inflows between 2000 and 2015. Footnote 8 The basic advantages that the country provides as an investment destination include cost-effectiveness of operations, efficient manpower, and a fast-growing dynamic market. In the past, major investments have come from Japan, Italy, and the USA followed by Mauritius and Netherlands. The industry manufactures a wide range of products to meet both domestic and international demands.

Table 1 shows the market share of different segments of the motor vehicles industry in 2015–2016. Irrespective of any policy regime, the two-wheelers segment has dominated the market share. Its share in production increased from around 54% in 1970–1971 to 80% in 1990–1991, close to 75% in the 1990s and 80% now. Footnote 9

Till the 1980s, the commercial vehicles were the second largest segment (after two-wheelers) holding around 20% share in production. After the mid-1980s, passenger vehicles emerged as the second dominant segment, increasing its share from 7% in 1985–1986 to around 15% in 2011–2012 and 14% in 2015–2016. Sales of passenger cars touched 1.2 million units in 2006 and 3 million units in 2016–2017 to maintain the second largest market share in the industry.

Production in the sector is mainly concentrated around four large auto manufacturing hubs across the country: Delhi-Gurgaon-Faridabad in the north, Mumbai-Pune-Nashik-Aurangabad in the west, Chennai- Bengaluru-Hosur in the south, and Jamshedpur-Kolkata in the east of India.

3 Growth Path of the Indian Automotive Industry

3.1 from 1950 to 1980: very slow-paced growth.

India’s indigenous passenger car industry was launched in the 1940s with the establishment of Hindustan Motors and Premier Automobiles Limited. The two companies together garnered most of the market share till the 1970s, along with Telco, Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), and Bajaj Auto. The market for automobiles was not large given the low rate of economic growth in the country at this time, and thus the industry had a very slow-paced growth till the 1980s.

Efforts to establish an integrated auto component industry were initiated in the 1950s. The industry was protected by high import tariffs, and the production was catered to the demands of local automobile manufacturers. Manufacturing was licensed, and there existed quantitative restrictions on imports of automobiles and automotive components. However, a significant demand for passenger cars was emerging as the country’s population and per capita income began to grow. The government felt the need to introduce modern, fuel-efficient, and low-cost utility cars that could also be affordable for “the common man.”

3.2 First Wave of FDI from 1981 to 1991

FDI in automotive assembly was allowed in two major waves in 1983 and in 1993. This FDI was mainly “market-seeking” in nature. Footnote 10 Government policies such as import barriers and local content requirements contributed to the influx of FDI and helped the industry to compete with international players.

In February 1981, an Indian company called the Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was incorporated as a government company with Suzuki Motor Corporation as a minor partner to make an efficient people’s car for middle-income class in the country. In October 1982, the company signed the license and joint venture agreement with Suzuki. Footnote 11 , Footnote 12 Suzuki took up 26% equity in the company and made an investment of US$ 260 million. MUL created history by rolling out its first vehicle in 13 months, the Maruti 800 in 1984. This was the first domestically produced car in the country with completely modern technology. MUL made significant strategic moves including building a very strong ancillary vendor network around it and achieved an installed capacity of one lakh unit garnering about 62% of market share in a decade. Footnote 13 In 1989, Suzuki increased its equity stake to 40% and in 1992 to 50%. Footnote 14 However, private sector participation was still restricted in the passenger car segment with only three major players – MUL, Hindustan Motors, and Premier Automobiles Limited.

India also allowed four Japanese firms – Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and Nissan – to enter the market for light commercial vehicles through joint ventures (JVs) with Indian companies and some sharing equity with state-level governments in the 1980s.

Around this time, the government also put in place a Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) for localization of components, under which domestic original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had to increase the proportion of domestic inputs used in their output over a specific period. The Indian companies went ahead to have JV collaboration with several Japanese and foreign OEMs. This enabled Indian companies to benefit from equity inflows and technology transfers. Footnote 15 This phase is widely regarded as the first wave of FDI in the sector.

3.3 Second Wave of FDI Since 1992

In the middle of 1991, the Indian Government made significant changes to its economic and industrial policies leading to the liberalization of the markets. This provided the impetus for the Indian automobile industry to flourish further. A new automobile policy was launched in 1993, facilitating the entry of global assemblers. Auto licensing was abolished in 1991, and the weighted average tariff was lowered from 87% to 20.3% in 1997. The PMP policy ended in 1992. The Indian Government introduced a memorandum of understanding (MOU) system that continued to emphasize localization of components, up to 50%, for approving financial collaboration proposals on a case-by-case basis, which was raised to 70% later. Mass emission regulatory norms for vehicles were introduced, and a national highway policy was announced in this decade.

In 1997, automatic FDI approval of JVs with a 51% majority share for the foreign partner was allowed. Liberalized policies and the attraction of a huge unsaturated market made many globally competitive automakers to enter the passenger car market. Footnote 16 The most common route of entry was through JVs with Indian firms. Some manufacturers also left the market due to increased competition. Footnote 17 Table 2 illustrates the entry of major assemblers in the Indian market and their mode of entry for the period between 1983 and 2007.

Japanese participation in the Indian automobile industry brought significant changes to the structure of the passenger car market, including utility vehicles. Gradually, established players such as Telco entered the commercial passenger car segment capitalizing on their engineering capabilities, and economies of scale, Footnote 18 and domestic players in the commercial vehicle segment started developing passenger cars on a limited scale. Indian companies such as Telco, M&M, Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles, and DCM entered into JVs with Ford, Mercedes, General Motors (GM), and Peugeot for assembly of medium-sized cars from knocked-down units. This increased the market competition and restructured pressures on existing players.

The post-1992 period is widely regarded as the second wave of FDI in the sector, which played a crucial role in bringing dynamism, diversification, and intense competition in the industry. Many companies started operating at a significant scale in the market and started operations in the midsize car segment. Indian companies such as Tata Motors introduced special purpose vehicles and platforms to enter the passenger car segment. This period saw creation of wide networks, as many companies had full technology and competence in producing state-of-the-art models of vehicles and had contractual arrangements with their component suppliers.

The role of foreign presence in the passenger vehicle segment grew much more than all the other segments of automobiles, followed by the multi-utility vehicle segment. Thus, foreign partners now hold all or a greater share of the equity in most of these cases even though most of them initially formed JV of equal sharing of equity. Footnote 19 The inability of the Indian partners to contribute toward capacity expansion allowed foreign partners to increase their stake or take total control by buying out their Indian partners. Footnote 20

In both the waves of FDI that occurred in 1983 and post-1992 period, a significant amount of FDI by the multinational corporations (MNCs) flowed into the country to build modern plants. Maruti Suzuki’s investment in the early 1980s was made possible mainly due to its willingness to invest capital. Subsequently, various MNC manufacturers have made investments of millions of US dollars in the country. Footnote 21

In the post-2000 period, Indian firms such as Maruti Suzuki slowly started moving toward building its own design and development capabilities. Tata Motors made rapid strides toward developing an advanced level of technological capability by launching the first indigenously developed Indian car, “Tata Indica” (1998). In 2002, M&M launched “Scorpio” as a sport utility vehicle (SUV) – a product of in-house design and development effort. In 2004, Tata Motors signed a JV with Daimler-Benz for manufacturing Mercedes-Benz passenger cars in India. The Mercedes-Benz India Limited plant assembled completely knocked-down units imported from abroad.

Increased competition led to restructuring and cutting of costs, enhanced quality, and improved responsiveness to demand. MNC automakers such as Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Suzuki which had established production plants in India eventually started using India as an export platform for their overseas networks. The small car segment did particularly well, and India’s potential as a global hub for manufacturing small cars began to be recognized.

Between the years 2001 and 2010, passenger vehicle sales grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.67%. Of the total sales, roughly 10% were contributed by exports. Between 2000 and 2015, the average year-on-year growth rate of export of vehicles from the country was approximately 23%. Footnote 22 The industry is known for export of mini hatchbacks and an evolving export base for midsize cars and compact SUVs. Footnote 23 As per the World Trade Organization’s World Trade Statistical Review 2017, India was the tenth largest exporter of automobile products worldwide in 2016, accounting for US$ 13 billion worth of exports. Footnote 24

3.4 Since 2001 Fully De-licensed, Free Imports and 100% FDI Allowed

In the last decade again, various trade and investment restrictions were removed to speed up momentum for large-scale production. As of today, the government encourages foreign investment and allows 100% FDI in the sector via the automatic route. The industry is fully de-licensed, and free imports of automotive components are allowed. India is the second fastest-growing market for automobiles and components globally (after China). Footnote 25

With an outward vision of component makers, and competitive pressures from international firms, the component industry had to upgrade process and product qualities and technology standards to gain and sustain capabilities. Footnote 26 Many manufacturers now adhere to the global environmental norms regarding emission/technological standards and quality certifications. The industry grew by around 20% annually in the 1990s, and the average annual growth of exports was around 15% during that period. Footnote 27 , Footnote 28 Over the years, it has been able to modernize its technology and improve quality and has developed capabilities to manufacture components for new-generation vehicles. Indian companies maintained their traditional strengths in casting, forging and precision machining, and fabricating (welding, grinding, and polishing) at technology levels matching the required scale of operations. They achieved significant success in garnering engineering capabilities and adapted to local requirements through local design. Footnote 29 High growth has taken place in engine, drive transmission, and steering parts. Engine parts, being high value-added in its nature, have been contributing most to total production. Endowed with the potential of low-cost quality products, India edges over many other developing countries in component manufacturing. Footnote 30

Table 3 provides the category-wise trends for automobile production, domestic sales, and exports (in numbers) from 2011–2012 to 2016–2017. Footnote 31 Further, using estimates from the SIAM of India, it is calculated that between 2001 and 2018, the CAGR of export of all vehicles from India was 20.02%. Footnote 32 The estimates for other parameters – production, domestic sales, and exports – as percentage of production are given under Table 4 . Comparable data for the selected categories before 1995 is not available. However, calculations have been made by other authors for earlier periods and different segments. Footnote 33

There are many reasons for the impressive growth achieved by Indian manufacturers over the last two decades. These are discussed in detail in the next section. The main strengths have been a large unsaturated domestic market for small cars (and presence of a large middle economic class), low production costs (on account of availability of low-cost labor and other inputs), and skilled engineering talent. Global affiliations and tie-ups also enabled technology upgrading and expansion of scale of production in the industry.

In the passenger car segment, there are more than 30 international quality models in the market, some of which are now being exported to MNCs’ home markets. Leading Indian manufacturers are in the process of transforming from local players to global companies. India’s domestic carmakers, viz., Tata Motors, M&M, and Ashok Leyland, have developed manufacturing facilities, significant R&D, technology development, and testing centers. Footnote 34 In addition, Indian companies have bought capacity or made alliances with other manufacturers in East Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe.

Low cost of labor and economies of scale have made India an ideal export hub for small cars. The Indian auto industry is expected to be the world’s third largest automotive market by volume by 2026. Footnote 35 Promotion of exports has been part of companies’ business strategies for better utilization of installed capacities. Footnote 36 Low cost of manufacturing and economies of scale achieved as a result of catering to overseas markets have allowed vehicle makers to become competitive and offset weak demand in the domestic market. Companies which have had partnerships with foreign players or received FDI have benefited in terms of engagement in GVCs.

4 Role of the Government

The automobile industry has in many ways been shaped by the Indian Government’s policy and nurtured in microeconomic environment it helped to create. Apart from the direct impact through fiscal policy instruments, the industry policy even influenced firm-level learning processes and shaped technological capability accumulation. Footnote 37

Since 1970, the Indian Government gradually added the automotive industry to a list of its core or “pillar” industries, recognizing it as a significant driver to achieve economic growth since it had many forward and backward linkages. Footnote 38 The industry began to be prioritized in the manufacturing sector for promotion and favorable policy support to promote productivity. In 1975, as a general industrial policy, the government permitted an automatic capacity expansion by 25% every 5 years and removed price controls. Footnote 39

The share of commercial vehicles and passenger car segment also changed in response to policy changes. Indian policy had favored the development of the commercial vehicles industry, i.e., light and heavy vehicles (for public transport of goods and passengers), as opposed to the development of passenger vehicles. Cars in particular were considered as luxury goods. Footnote 40 By the early 1980s, the government had realized the need to develop the passenger vehicle segment and took decisions like permitting increased foreign capital and overseas collaborations and reduced production licenses on manufacturing operations. In 1981, the policy of “broad-banded” licenses was announced – permitting vehicle manufacturers to produce different kinds of vehicles instead of just one kind decreed earlier. Firms were allowed greater flexibility in operations through policies such as minimum economic scale requirements, exemption from detailed Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act Footnote 41 notification procedures. The components sector was also de-licensed substantially. Footnote 42

In the 1980s, government-funded training programs and cluster building also led to changes in supplier relations, enabling vendor development and effective supply chain management. More liberal import policies were introduced in 1986 when importers of capital equipment were allotted about 50% increase in their foreign exchange quota.

In July 1991, the New Industrial Policy was introduced which removed most of the constraints relating to investment, expansion, and foreign investment in the Indian industry. The system of industrial licensing was abolished for all (except 18) industries, and the passenger car industry was de-licensed in May 1993. Foreign investment was allowed on an automatic basis in 34 industries, including the automotive industry. Liberal policies of the 1990s led to the entry of new competitors and spillover benefits, especially on the technology side, and to increased expenditure on R&D and a desire to innovate to distinguish products in the market. The time span between productions of new products shortened rapidly. The policies remained tilted in favor of the domestic industry as MNCs were still required to make specified capital investments and meet export obligations. In 2001, the government removed auto import quotas and permitted 100% FDI in the sector. Excise duties were reduced to 24% on passenger cars.

High tariffs forced the OEMs to set up parts-manufacturing plants in India. Institutional support for developing supplier capabilities led to the establishment of flexible supplier relationships which further helped the industry in building innovation capabilities as well. Footnote 43 An initiative specifically targeted in this direction was the setting up of the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) under the Automotive Mission Plan 2006–2016 (AMP 2016), Footnote 44 costing US$ 388.5 million to enable the industry achieve parity with global standards.

The Indian car industrial policy also protected the domestic market by setting up challenges for firms such as requirements for higher local content. This policy helped the development of basic capabilities in manufacturing and laid foundations of the auto component supplier industry. Footnote 45 The protection policies of the 1980s and 1990s encouraged acquisition of basic production capabilities. Footnote 46 Local content requirements or indigenization Footnote 47 of up to 70% forced OEMs and their suppliers to make significant capital investments and created a chain of world-class component suppliers. Footnote 48 , Footnote 49 The process of indigenization has also been recognized as a key regulation responsible for enhancing technological capabilities. Footnote 50 This entailed collaborative effort between local suppliers and engineers from parent company and led Indian firms toward development of technological capabilities.

Key interventions undertaken by the government under this plan have been in areas of tariff policy, infrastructure (improved and expanded road network, development of auto wagon rakes, creation of few specialized ports in the private sector), R&D (setting up of NATRIP, upgradation of existing centers), and promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles. Currently, the automobile manufacturing policy in India is being governed by the Automotive Mission Plan 2016–2026 (AMP 2026), Footnote 51 which lays down the achievements and targets of the industry by 2026.

5 Other Enabling Factors in the Growth of the Industry

Other enabling factors in the growth of the industry include domestic market demand, FDI, JVs, and corporations’ competitive strategies.

5.1 Role of Domestic Demand

A growing working population and an expanding middle-class have been the key demand drivers for automobiles in India. India has the second largest road network in the world at 4.7 million kilometers. Road development activity has gradually increased over the years with an improvement in connectivity between cities, towns, and villages in the country. The Government of India’s policy to set aside substantial investment layout for infrastructure development in every 5-year plan has included the focus on the development of country’s roads. This has given a fillip to the demand for cars and other vehicles.

India is home to the second largest population in the world. The estimated population is about 1.3 billion people. The GDP per capita has grown from approximately US$ 1432 in 2010 to US$ 1500 in 2012 and US$ 1939 in 2017. Footnote 52 Factors like increasing disposable incomes in the rural agriculture sector, presence of a large pool of skilled and semiskilled workers, and a strong educational system will continue to increase vehicle demand in future. Footnote 53 It is estimated that by 2020, migration on account of urbanization will be over 140 million. Footnote 54 India is projected to add over 68 million households to its already significant middle-class by 2030, which would drive an increased demand for automobiles. The number of registered motor vehicles per 1000 population was only 167 in 2015. Footnote 55 These facts point to a huge potential of increasing private vehicle ownership penetration in the future.

5.2 Impact of FDI

The impact of FDI can be seen in terms of output and productivity, technology, and better practices, all of which could make the industry more competitive. Footnote 56 These aspects are discussed in detail below.

5.2.1 Output and Productivity

FDI has positive impact of output and productivity growth. In the period 1947–1983, the output growth remained limited. The models of cars sold were unchanged for decades, and foreign models assembled in the country were primarily European. The number of models manufactured in the passenger car segment was 2 in 1982–1983, which rose to 8 in 1994–1995 and 28 in 2001–2002.

The most prominent spillover impact of FDI was on the component industry, whose turnover more than tripled from 1992–1993 to 2001–2002. Supplier productivity increased as foreign firms co-located suppliers (i.e., put them in a common area) and required home-country suppliers to invest in India. Competition was also provided by international MNCs which entered the sector to serve international assemblers, resulting in increased quality and reliability. This led to the establishment of a reliable component supplier industry, which encouraged more MNCs to enter the Indian market after the 1990s.

5.2.2 Technology

A significant infusion of global technology occurred with the entry of foreign firms. The first 192 cars to roll out of the Maruti Suzuki factory in December 1983 were almost entirely Japanese cars, with only tires and batteries sourced from MRF and Chloride India, respectively. Localization ambitions of Indian firms were facilitated through 40 JVs between Indian vendors and Japanese collaborators by the end of the century. Footnote 57

There were 50 greenfield investment projects Footnote 58 in the sector between 2000 and 2007. Footnote 59 In some clusters such as Pune and Chennai, global OEMs played important or even dominant roles in technology diffusion and were responsible for development of domestic innovation capability. Footnote 60

5.3 Role of JVs

As mentioned before, JVs and technical collaboration played a vital role as a source of innovation for local auto component supplier firms in India. Some important partnerships in the Indian automobile industry are listed under Table 2 .

Acquiring knowledge and skills through external collaboration is an efficient way to achieve innovation within automotive clusters. Collaborations result in frequent interactions, reflected in acquisition of knowledge, sharing, diffusing, and creation of it. Linkages among settings such as clusters result in learning through networking and interacting and are seen as important for innovative activities. Footnote 61

There are a number of examples in India which have shown that the JV collaboration has been an efficient way of achieving greater growth in the industry through benefits such as technology sharing, learning best practices, and training of workers. For instance, MUL’s first established plant was a close copy of Suzuki’s Kosai plant in Japan in terms of plant layout, equipment, the organization of production, and operating principle. Footnote 62 Also, it was the first firm to introduce a partial “just-in-time” and total quality management in India, which aimed to reduce inventory cost. MUL followed a strategy of massive investment in the program of vendor development, involving stable and close supplier relations with its first-tier suppliers (40 top suppliers), equity participation in key suppliers, and promotion of technical collaboration between its suppliers with Suzuki’s suppliers in Japan.

Other lead firms Footnote 63 of Indian origin including the TVS Group, the Rane Group, and Ashok Leyland Limited have played critical role in the development of the Chennai automobile cluster. Ashok Leyland Limited, one of the largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles, trucks, and buses in India and the world, entered into an agreement with Leyland Motors, UK, to manufacture Leyland vehicles way back in 1950. Brakes India Private Limited was founded in 1962 as a JV between TVS and Lucas Industries Limited of the UK (100% subsidiary of ZF TRW) and is the largest manufacturer of braking components and systems in India with an annual turnover of more than US$ 600 million. It exports products to 35 countries and caters to over 60% of the domestic OEM market. The Rane Group which plays a dominant role in the component segment has had critical partnerships with foreign firms like ZF TRW (USA) and NSK and Nisshinbo (Japan) for a long time. Other group firms, such as Brakes India, Sundaram-Clayton Ltd., Sundram Fasteners Ltd., and Turbo Energy Ltd., were established in the 1960s, as JVs with British firms. M&M and Bajaj Tempo also operated through JVs and developed quality products over the years. Footnote 64

5.4 Firm Strategies, Ownership, and Managerial Vision

In addition to the aforementioned reasons, an important role was played by firm strategies, ownership, and managerial vision of diversified and big business groups such as the Tata Group and M&M in building technological capabilities in the sector. Footnote 65 For instance, the ambition and vision of Tata’s head Ratan Tata to develop the first “Indian car” and then “people’s car” were the driving forces behind the development of Tata Indica and Tata Nano. The company’s diaspora connections and family-owned diversified businesses also facilitated inter-sector learning and played a significant role.

Firms like Tata Motors and M&M had global aspirations, and their business models were focused on domestic as well as markets in other countries with similar characteristics such as those in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. In 2004, Tata Motors bought the Daewoo’s truck-manufacturing unit in South Korea. In 2005, Tata acquired 21% share in Hispano Carrocera, SA, a Spanish bus-manufacturing firm. In 2005, M&M acquired Stokes Group, a leading auto component manufacturer in the UK. In 2008, M&M acquired Jaguar and Rover and established plants in Malaysia, Kenya, Bangladesh, Spain, Ukraine, and Russia to assemble knocked-down units exported to these countries. The same model extended to Australia, South Africa, Italy, and Uruguay. In 2006, M&M formed a JV with Marco Polo, a Brazilian firm to manufacture and assemble fully built buses and coaches. In November 2017, M&M opened its new manufacturing plant with an investment of US$ 230 million in Detroit, USA.

The profitability of group-affiliated firms exceeded that of other companies due to advantages such as greater access to funds, diversified and skilled labor, and other resources. These business groups or conglomerates were often able to fill the institutional gaps typically found in developing countries by building institutions for the benefit of group members. Footnote 66

6 Upgrading and Innovation

Indian lead firms have made significant efforts toward upgrading over the years, including the use of advanced modular platforms, new materials, and platform sharing in India. Footnote 67 The concept of upgrading refers to the capacity of firms to make better products, more efficiently, and move into more skilled activities. Footnote 68

The government has been encouraging R&D in this sector by offering tax cuts on such expenditure. The NATRIP project, initiated in 2005, was set up to enable the industry to adopt and implement global performance standards and provide low-cost manufacturing and product development solutions.

Among Indian companies, M&M and Ashok Leyland have made significant investment in R&D centers and technology development and testing centers and have ventured abroad. Global firms have been putting up development centers in India, either on their own or in partnership with local players (for instance, GM, DaimlerChrysler AG, Johnson Controls International Plc, Delphi and Bosch). These have helped their partners acquire the global best technologies and standards in short period of time. Several global OEMs such as Ford, GM, Hyundai, Toyota, and Volvo India Pvt. Limited (Volvo) have established technology centers in India for doing R&D in automobile design. Footnote 69 FDI in R&D and design in India has followed FDI in manufacturing. Collaborative R&D activities have opened avenues for material substitution, better vehicular design that are resource and energy efficient. Footnote 70

With upgraded R&D, the innovative capacity goes up naturally. One outcome or measure of this is their intellectual property (IP) rights. Most leading automobile companies are actively engaged in filing for their IP in the country. The recent patent deployment strategies of established players demonstrate considerable improvement in areas such as propulsion technology, telematics, vehicle safety, and security.

Statistical data published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and the Office of Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks under the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry provide estimates related to patent applications filed by the automobile industry in India. Table 5 shows the number of patents granted to some leading Indian manufacturers in India between the period January 1, 1990 and July 31, 2018. It can be seen that the number of patent grants has increased in the last 10 years. Among Indian companies, TVS Group, Tata Motors, and M&M have been among the top Indian applicants for patents. Footnote 71

The majority of Indian patent applications filed by automobile companies fall under the categories of mechanical engineering, in areas like arrangement or mounting of propulsion units, transmissions systems, instrumentation for vehicles, conjoint control of drive units, arrangements in connection with cooling, air intake, gas exhaust, or fuel supply of propulsion units in vehicles.

However, suppliers or vendors are often small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which do not have many opportunities or resources to upgrade. The major challenges faced by the indigenous component manufacturers are high cost of capital, nonavailability of skilled labor, and rising price of operational cost. Stiff competition from China and other Asian countries on the price front is also emerging. Under these pressures, converging toward international safety standards would encourage firms to adopt (and contribute to) international good practices. Adoption of automation and robotics in recent times has helped the industry to significantly improve quality, productivity, and delivery outcomes and reduce costs. Footnote 72 To meet the needs of the future (including electrification of vehicles) and stay competitive, SME manufacturers also need to rise up to the challenges of constant upgradation, digitization, and automation. However, in the process, they may require support from lead firms and the government.

7 The Future Scenario

The current policy debate in India is around the issue of achieving greater competitiveness, efficiency standards, and the need for introducing electric vehicles. The Draft National Automotive Policy 2018 formulated by the Department of Heavy Industries (Government of India) envisages increasing exports to 35–40% of the output and to make India one of the major automotive export hubs in the world. It also envisages long-term roadmap for emission standards beyond Bharat Stage VI and harmonization with the global standards by 2028. Footnote 73

With a view to promoting electric mobility in the country, the Indian Government approved the National Mission on Electric Mobility (NMEM) in 2011, and subsequently a National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 was unveiled in 2013. This Mission Plan was designed considering the fuel security and environmental pollution in the country. It aims for a cumulative fuel saving of about 9500 million liters equivalent resulting in reduction of pollution and greenhouse gas emission of 2 million tonnes with targeted market penetration of 6–7 million vehicles by 2020. As part of this mission, the Department of Heavy Industries launched a scheme called Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME-India) in April 2015. The scheme is proposed to be implemented over a period of 6 years, i.e., 2020, wherein it is intended to support the hybrid electric vehicles market development and the manufacturing ecosystem to achieve self-sustenance. The scheme has four focus areas – technology development, demand creation, pilot projects, and charging infrastructure. Under this scheme, 148,275 electric/hybrid vehicles have been given direct support by way of demand incentives amounting to approximately US$ 28 million since its launch on April 1, 2015 and till June 30, 2017. Footnote 74

Another major initiative in this area has been the launch of the New Green Urban Transport Scheme in 2017. The objective of this scheme is to promote low-carbon sustainable public transport system in urban areas. The scheme is to be executed with the help of private sector including assistance from the central and state governments under a 7-year mission with a total cost of US$ 10.76 billion. It pushes for promotion of non-motorized transport, public bike sharing, bus rapid transit systems, intelligent transport systems, and urban freight management.

With the plans of introducing electric vehicles, car manufacturers in India are gearing up to new production processes and machines. In 2017, the NITI Aayog Footnote 75 suggested that 40% of private vehicles in the country could go electric by 2030. Footnote 76 Currently, M&M is the only manufacturer of an electric car – the e20, a micro vehicle at present. Mahindra Electric, a fully owned subsidiary of M&M, has announced its EV 2.0 platform roadmap for electric vehicles.

Maruti Suzuki has revealed plans to manufacture electric vehicles at a factory in Gujarat in 2017. Other companies like Volvo are also planning to expand their plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle portfolio in India. The major reason for the push toward electric mobility has been to steer India away from its overdependence on imported oil. However, about 50% of electric cars currently built by domestic companies are imported. This includes the batteries, the main part of the vehicle. Global companies like Suzuki and Toshiba have announced plans to set up battery plants in India. However, challenges like capital investment and large-scale infrastructure development remain to be addressed. Footnote 77

8 Conclusion

With its buoyant economy, a large young population, and growing foreign direct investment, India has been an attractive investment destination for global automobile and component manufacturers since the last two decades. Its growth story has been dominated by more homegrown lead firms. However, absorption of global best practices has been slower than in China. Strategies of firms in the Chinese auto industry provided a boost to technological learning more quickly and broadly than in India. Footnote 78 Capable of end-to-end production, India has also become an assembly hub for large cars and manufacturing hub for small cars. Firms have started exporting to other countries. India-based manufacturers are engaged in global innovation networks and sourcing suitable technologies from all over the world to complement their own R&D efforts.

The AMP 2026 envisions that by the year 2026, the Indian automotive industry will be among the top three of the world in engineering, manufacture, and export of vehicles and auto components, growing in value to over 12% of India’s GDP and generating an additional 65 million jobs.

According to OICA statistics, the Indian industry accounted for just 5.38% of production in the cars segment and 3.48% of production in the commercial vehicle segment in 2017. It has also not created lead firms or MNCs of the scale that other more successful players like Japan, South Korea, and other western countries have created. In spite of the success of government policy in building auto supplier industry, India continues to be a net importer of auto components with its trade deficit for auto components increasing from US$ 210 million in 2004–2005 to US$ 4.4 billion in 2009–2010 and US$ 13.8 billion in 2015–2016.

The current policy debate is around the issue of how greater resource efficiency can be achieved and the need for newer materials in light of the industry’s plans to produce electric vehicles in India. Innovation in new product development is lagging behind and remains critical for the future of India to achieve competitive superiority or at least maintain its low-cost advantage. Manufacturing technologies need to be upgraded continuously. Large investments for developing new indigenous technologies that are green and compliant with recognized high efficiency standards would help India move up the value chain.

The index of the length of GVCs helps ascertain the “number of production stages” involved in the industry. This index was above 2.5 for India (in 2008), indicating fairly high level of vertical linkages including stages of production located abroad. GVC participation can be measured through exports and imports of intermediate goods. The automobile industry exports have been growing continually. In the 1990s, the average annual growth of exports was around 15%. For details, see OECD ( 2012 ), Mapping Global Value Chains. TAD/TC/WP/RD (2012) 9.

Approximate figures, based on Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Statistics. Available at http://www.siamindia.com/statistics.aspx?mpgid=8&pgidtrail=10 . For more details, see Table 3 of this chapter.

Automotive Achievement Report 2016, Department of Heavy Industries. Available at http://www.makeinindia.com/article/-/v/automotive-achievement-report

SIAM Statistics. Available at http://www.siamindia.com/statistics.aspx?mpgid=8&pgidtrail=10

Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) Statistics. Available at https://www.acma.in/industry-statistics.php

OICA is the acronym for “Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles,” the French name for International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers.

OICA statistics. Available at http://www.oica.net/category/production-statistics/2017-statistics/

For details, see FDI in automobile industry, http://dipp.nic.in/sites/default/files/Chapter6.2.v_0.pdf

Due to the size of lower middle-class population being very large in the country, the demand for two-wheelers has remained high because of its affordability and speed as a personal transport mode.

The literature on FDI identifies three most common investment motivations: resource-seeking, market-seeking, and efficiency-seeking. For details, see Dunning, John H. (1993), “Multinational enterprises and the global economy.” Workingham: Addison Wesley.

At the time there were five passenger car manufacturers in India – Maruti Udyog Ltd., Hindustan Motors Ltd., Premier Automobiles Ltd., Standard Motor Production of India Ltd., and Sipani Automobiles.

MUL was a venture of Sanjay Gandhi, son of Indira Gandhi, set up in 1971 with the mission of developing an indigenously designed affordable, cost-effective, low-maintenance, and fuel-efficient car. However, despite government support, the company had failed in its effort, and in 1980 the Government of India took over the company.

MUL dominated the domestic passenger car market (with a market share of about 83%) till around 1996–1997.

Amann, Edmund and John Cantwell (2012) (Eds.), “Innovative firms in emerging market countries,” Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom

Foreign companies typically entered the market taking local players as JV partners to gain local market knowledge and smooth out other operations.

The major multinationals that entered the Indian market in the initial years of liberalization are Daewoo, Peugeot, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Volvo, Ford, and Fiat. For details, see Krishnaveni M. and R. Vidya (2015), “Growth of Indian Automobile Industry,” International Journal of Current Research and Academic Review , 3(2), 110–118. February.

By the early 2000s, Daewoo, Fiat, PAL-Peugeot, and PAL had ceased their operations.

D’Costa, Anthony P. (1995), “The restructuring of the Indian automobile industry: Indian state and Japanese capital,” World Development , 23(3): 485–502.

Mukherjee, Avinandan and Trilochan Sastry (1996), “Recent developments and future prospects in the Indian automotive industry,” IMVP Working Paper, Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Sagar, Ambuj D., and Pankaj Chandra (2004), “Technological Change in the Indian Passenger Car Industry,” BCSIA Discussion Paper 2004–2005, Energy Technology Innovation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

For details, see FDI Statistics, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Government of India, available at http://dipp.nic.in/publications/fdi-statistics ; Ray, Saon and Smita Miglani ( 2016 ), “The role of FDI in fostering growth in the automobile sector in India,” Tech Monitor, April–June 2016, available at http://techmonitor.net/tm/images/7/75/16apr_jun_sf3.pdf

Computation using SIAM data.

Interestingly, India is evolving into one of the top global export bases of certain car models made by MNCs (e.g., Volkswagen’s Vento, Hyundai’s SUV Creta, GM’s Beat, and Ford’s EcoSport). This mix of export and local strategy is leading to better utilization in the industry. India has become a cost-competitive production base for these companies, and cars manufactured in India have found high levels of acceptance and are in demand in several markets.

WTO (2017), World Trade Statistical Review 2017, available at https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/wts2017_e/wts17_toc_e.htm

Foreign companies, which had initially just outsourced manufacturing to local players, gradually made a shift from imports to indigenous production. Slowly, they also established technology development centers to meet their global requirements for single and multiple segments in some cases. More and more Tier 1 companies relocated whole and complex systems to India rather than building basic parts of processes. Continued inflow of foreign technological know-how and competition with other Asian production centers like China helped local firms make improvements in quality, capacity, and productivity. For details, see Ray, Saon and Smita Miglani (2016), “Innovation (and upgrading) in the automobile industry: the case of India,” IC RIER Working Paper 320.

Global assemblers and large component producers set stringent operational requirements in terms of cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility for their suppliers. They also introduced new technology – more composite parts needing new capabilities to produce them. The focus of innovations was on process changes and gradually shifted from assembling units to auto component units.

For details, see Tiwari Rajnish and Cornelius Herstatt (2014), Aiming Big with Small Cars: Emergence of a Lead Market in India . (Switzerland: Springer International Publishing).

The four companies in top ten list of India’s auto component segment are Motherson Sumi, Amtek Auto, Bharat Forge, and Mahindra CIE. These companies have grown due to their focus on international acquisitions and efficient management post acquisition. For details, see Edelweiss ( 2014 ), “Auto Components: The Future Mega Trends, Mega Factors.” Edel Invest Research.

The component industry manufactures a wide range of products to meet both domestic and international demands. Domestic sales are dominated by power train, while globally it is spread across power train systems and exterior and interior systems. Indian vehicles lag their global counterparts in power train technology, safety and infotainment content, electronic stability control, ABS, front and side airbags, etc. For details, see Edelweiss ( 2014 ), “Auto Components: The Future Mega Trends, Mega Factors.” Edel Invest Research.

Following the international trend, Indian OEMs are also outsourcing modules to global component suppliers.

Ray, Saon and Smita Miglani ( 2018 ), “Upgrading in the Indian automobile sector: the role of lead firms,” ICRIER Working Paper 360, June; Tiwari Rajnish and Cornelius Herstatt (2014), “Aiming Big with Small Cars: Emergence of a Lead Market in India.” (Switzerland, Springer International Publishing); Innomantra ( 2011 ), “Patent portfolio of major Indian automobile companies: An Indicative Measure of Innovation,” Innomantra Consulting P. Limited.

The share of exports in total output has been approximately 14–15% in the last 5 years.

For instance, see Parhi, Mamta (2008), “Indian Automotive Industry: Innovation and Growth.” India, Science and Technology: 2008, S&T and Industry. NISTADS.

The largest carmaker is Maruti Suzuki India Limited with a market share close to 50%, followed by Hyundai Motor India Limited, with a share of around 17%, M&M (around 7%), Renault India Private. Limited and Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (approximately 5% each).

For details, see https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/automobile

For details, see Ray, Saon, and Smita Miglani ( 2018 ), “Upgrading in the Indian automobile sector: the role of lead firms,” ICRIER Working Paper 360, June. Innomantra ( 2011 ), “Patent portfolio of major indian automobile companies - An Indicative Measure of Innovation,” Innomantra Consulting P. Limited.

Kale, Dinar (2017). “Sources of innovation and technology capability development in the Indian automobile industry.” Institutions and Economies , 121–150.

The reason for this is that an automobile is composed of more than 10,000 parts and components; and the industry has strong backward and forward linkages with many other industries such as metallurgy, petroleum, chemistry, coal, light industry, electronics, and textiles.

D’Costa, Anthony P. (1995), “The restructuring of the Indian automobile industry: Indian state and Japanese capital,” World Development , 23(3), 485–502.

D’Costa, Anthony P. (1995), “The restructuring of the Indian automobile industry: Indian state and Japanese capital,” World Development , 23(3), 485–502; Narayana, D. ( 1989 ), “The Motor Vehicle Industry in India (Growth within a regulatory policy environment),” New Delhi and Trivandrum: Oxford& IBH Publishing Co. Private Limited; Singh, Jatinder (2014). India’s automobile industry: Growth and export potential. Journal of Applied Economics & Business Research , 4(4), 246–262; Kathuria, Sanjay ( 1996 ), “Competing through technology and manufacturing: A study of the Indian commercial vehicles industry.” Delhi: Oxford University Press

The MRTP Act was passed by the Parliament of India on 18 December 1969 and came into force from June 1, 1970. It aimed to prevent concentration of economic power to the common detriment; provide for control of monopolies and probation of monopolistic, restrictive, and unfair trade practices; and protect consumer interest. It was later revoked and replaced by Competition Act, 2002.

Kathuria, Sanjay (1996), “Competing through technology and manufacturing: A study of the Indian commercial vehicles industry.” Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Saripalle, Madhuri (2012), “Learning and Capability Acquisition: A Case Study of the Indian Automobile Industry,” Working Papers 2012–065, Madras School of Economics, Chennai, India.

The AMP 2016 was announced in 2007, as a vision document of the government and the industry for targets under all areas in the next 10 years. Available at https://dhi.nic.in/writereaddata/Content/Automotive%20Mission%20Plan%20(2006-2016).pdf

Kale, Dinar (2012). “Sources of innovation and technology capability development in the Indian automobile industry.” Institutions and Economies, 121–150.

Indigenization required modifying design to local needs, sourcing components from local suppliers, and validating all components and subsystems for Indian standards.

Maruti 800 model, the maiden output of MUL in 1984, had 97% import content initially, and only tires and batteries were sourced locally. The government set a target of 93% indigenization within 5 years, and the company started to develop local vendors from scratch. The company attracted entrepreneurs by offering them land at its complexes and supplied electricity from its own power station. In addition, Suzuki engineers helped the new manufacturers with automation and management practices such as just-in-time manufacturing. For details, see Amann, Edmund and John Cantwell. (eds.) (2012), “Innovative firms in emerging market countries.” Oxford University Press; and Kale, Dinar (2017), “Sources of innovation and technology capability development in the Indian automobile industry.” Institutions and Economies , 121–150.

By 1990, MUL had achieved around 95% local content. Tata Motors’ best-selling compact car Indica launched in 1998 also had about 95% local content. Local engineering design capabilities allowed Tata Motors and M&M to develop entirely new vehicle platforms locally.

Sagar, Ambuj D. and Pankaj Chandra (2004), “Technological Change in the Indian Passenger Car Industry,” BCSIA Discussion Paper 2004–2005, Energy Technology Innovation Project, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Automotive Mission Plan 2016–26, http://www.siamindia.com/uploads/filemanager/47AUTOMOTIVEMISSIONPLAN.pdf

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The socioeconomic impact of FDI on a given host economy is examined through wealth creation, economic development, economic growth, improvement in standard of living, improvement in productivity, and supply chain connectivity. The literature indicates that while there are many benefits of FDI, certain preconditions seem necessary in host countries to enable them to reap the benefits. These preconditions range from infrastructure, to environment, which includes the nature of human capital, domestic fixed capital formation, government spending, trade orientation of the region, and the legal environment. In the case of innovation, public infrastructure such as educational institutions and publicly funded R&D also add to the absorptive capacity.

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These refer to a completely new investment projects, not building on anything already in existence.

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Miglani, S. (2019). The Growth of the Indian Automobile Industry: Analysis of the Roles of Government Policy and Other Enabling Factors. In: Liu, KC., Racherla, U.S. (eds) Innovation, Economic Development, and Intellectual Property in India and China. ARCIALA Series on Intellectual Assets and Law in Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8102-7_19

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100 Research Topics in the Automobile Industry

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Research Topics in the Automobile Industry

The automobile industry is a collection of organizations that design, develop, market, manufacture, and sell motor vehicles. It is a significant part of the global economy. The automotive industry consists of manufacturers of light trucks, cars, heavy equipment, motorbikes, and heavy trucks.

The original equipment manufacturers also include wholesalers and automobile importers, dealers, suppliers, and distributors. Automotive companies can be classified into two, including car manufactures and car part manufacturers.

The car part manufacturers are increasing in number more than car manufacturers in the modern automobile industry, given the increasing involvement of electronic parts in manufacturing cars.

Some of the most common global automobile companies include Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mercedes, Hyundai, and Volkswagen.

Research Questions

• The impact of the China-US trade tensions on automotive original equipment manufacturers.
• The lasting economic impact of Covid-19 on the automotive industry.
• The impact of government regulation of internal combustion engines on the future of the automotive industry.
• The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the automotive industry supply chain.
• The development of hydrogen engines and the implications on the automotive industry.
• The environmental sustainability advantage of using renewable energy sources in the automobile industry.
• Are renewable energy sources alone enough to reduce the greenhouse gas emission rate of the automotive industry?
• The environmental impact of developing electric cars.
• Comparing the environmental impact of electric vehicles to fossil fuel-burning vehicles.
• What are the main trends in the development of the electro-mobility of the automotive industry?
• The affordability of electric cars.
• Why are electric cars more expensive than ICEs?
• Necessary changes to make electric cars more affordable.
• Necessary changes to make electric car production the dominant trend in the automotive industry.
• Impacts of the shortage of raw materials on the manufacturing process in the automotive industry.
• Is it the right time to invest in electric mobility?
• Comparing the transition to electric vehicles between developed and developing countries.
• Safety trends in the automotive industry.
• Compromised automotive industry safety standards in developing countries.
• Recent technological trends to reduce the impacts of traffic accidents.
• The intersection between the automotive industry and unsustainable labor practices in some developing countries.
• What role is the automotive sector playing in the development of developing countries?
• The tire industry and its involvement in unsustainable labor practices in South East Asia.
• The role of motorsport in improving road safety.
• The role of motorsport in moving the world towards a green automotive transition.
• The implication of motorsport in mass car production.
• The economic, technical, and environmental aspects of recycling automobile batteries.
• The future of automotive lithium-ion battery recycling.
• Developing automotive companies in developing countries.
• Why don’t most developing countries have leading automotive companies?
• The economic impact of the used car market between developing and developed countries.
• The role of the automotive industry in the EU economy.
• Building a customer-centric automotive industry.
• The implications of the growing Chinese automotive sector on European and American automotive industries.
• Autonomous driving technology trends of the future.
• The current feasibility of autonomous driving.
• The security implications of self-driving cars.
• Autonomous driving cars and user data privacy.
• The cybersecurity implications of self-driving cars.
• The software and hardware architecture of self-driving cars.
• The public acceptance of self-driving cars.
• Factors impacting the desirability of autonomous cars.
• The impact of self-driving cars on traffic rules.
• The ethical implications of autonomous cars.
• Utilitarianism and the role of autonomous cars on safety.
• Assessing the public
• S perception of autonomous cars.
• The socio-economic impact of self-driving cars.
• The barriers and opportunities associated with adopting electric vehicles for the future.
• How will autonomous cars change the job market?
• The future of shared mobility.
• How will self-driving cars change the future of shared mobility?
• Current progress in readiness for electric vehicles.
• What formal and informal systems can automotive companies use to improve sustainable performance?
• Current technologies pushing the automotive industry toward a sustainable future.
• Management control systems helping the automotive industry towards a sustainable future.
• Using management control systems to manage automotive companies’ CSR strategies.
• The role of CSR strategies in the automotive industry.
• The impacts of fuel prices on the automotive sector.
• The impact of fuel prices on car sales.
• Diesel engines: Their functioning and applications.
• Alternative automobile fuels.
• Propane engine-run vehicles.
• The cost implication of promoting electric car use.
• The impact of electric car production on current infrastructure.
• The role of technology in promoting and hindering driver safety.
• The use of cellular phones and their impact on driver safety.
• Employment trends in the automotive sector.
• Competition trends in the automotive industry.
• Concerns over greenhouse gas emission from motor vehicles.
• The future of shared rides.
• The role of China in leading the change to autonomous driving.
• The place of China in the global automotive industry as a consumer and producer.
• Recent changes in the global automotive industry market.
• The role of Africa in expanding the global automotive industry market.
• The future of mobility. What will it look like?
• The impact of government policies on the operations of multinational automotive companies.
• Competition in electric vehicle production.
• Efficient route planning of electric vehicles considering batteries and charging points.
• The comparative efficiency of hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.
• A comparison of the public’s perception between hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.
• The implication of increased electric vehicle adoption in Norway.
• Methods of improving electric vehicle reception in the USA.
• The application of artificial intelligence in the automotive industry.
• How will artificial intelligence improve auto vehicle insurance?
• The application of artificial intelligence in automotive manufacturing.
• Comparing the efficiency of road and railway transport.
• Strategies to reduce traffic accidents.
• Vehicle crash prediction modeling and using data to reduce crashes.
• The future of securely connected cars.
• A review of the Toyota Company.
• The development of autonomous cars from science fiction to reality.
• The dangers of artificially intelligent vehicles.
• A review of the American car industry.
• The Italian supercars industry. A review of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Alfa Romeo.
• A review of the economic impact of the British automotive industry.
• The impacts of Brexit on the European and British automotive industries.
• The way forward for the motor vehicle industry in India.
• The contribution of motor vehicles to air pollution in china.
• Comparing the appeal of foreign and local car brands on the American market.

Given the above questions, it is evident that a lot is progressing in the automotive industry. First, the automotive industry is a significant contributor to most economies. Therefore, their political and economic well being depends on the success of the motor vehicle industry

Secondly, the role of research and development is more apparent in the automotive industry. The two significant technologies developed recently include alternative fuels and autonomous cars . Alternative fuels aim at replacing internal combustion engines with more efficient and environmentally sustainable methods.

Autonomous cars aim to shift the driving experience to be less hands-on. However, each development in the automotive industry elicits a debate that is important in understanding how the industry impacts society. Check Anorexia and Bulimia research topics and Early Childhood Development .

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