The second VDMA Engineering Summit was held in Bangalore on September 30, which was attended by around 110 members. India is 
the second largest market in Asia for German engineering goods. Currently, more than 525 VDMA member-companies are engaged in their own business in India.
In his welcome address at the summit, Mr. Rajesh Nath, Managing Director, VDMA India, said exports of German machinery to India touched 3.2 billion Euros in 2012, representing an increase of around seven times in the last 12 years. On the other hand, exports of Indian machinery to Germany touched a figure of around 500 million Euros, indicating an increase of five times in 12 years.
Mr. Joern Rohde, Consul General of Federal Republic of Germany in Bangalore, who was the chief guest on the occasion, reiterated the growing bonds between India and Germany and the mounting bilateral trade between the two countries which crossed 17 billion Euros in 2012.
Mr. Ulrich Ackermann, Managing Director, Foreign Trade Division within VDMA Frankfurt, elaborated how the Indo-German relationship has grown over the years.
In his keynote address on “Indian Economy – Light at the end of the Tunnel”, Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Partner, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants Pvt. Ltd., said that the Indian automotive sector has registered a steady growth over the past 125 years, indicating a reverse trend in terms of growth in Europe, especially in Germany. The Indian automotive growth has been at a CAGR of 18.5 per cent and the auto component industry at 19.6 per cent. The GDP in Germany which had been declining in the past years, showed robust growth from 2009-10 onwards after the global meltdown. Even in these difficult times, growth is stable at 1.3 per cent.
Credible India
Dr. Aulbur suggested a positive change in the slogan from “Incredible India” to “Credible India” and urged India to reaffirm its faith in foreign investors. He also called upon the multinationals in India to invest in training and improving the knowledge of Indian labour to develop it into a more skilled workforce. Further, India needs to focus more on clusters such as Bangalore for IT and the recent developments in Gujarat for the auto sector development.
Dr. Johannes Thomas Grobe, M.D., Bosch Rexroth (India) Ltd., spoke on “Optimising Production” with the recent shift of its entire plant from Ahmedabad to Sanand.
The presentation on VDMA Training Project Cleaning System (Cooperation between the German Government and VDMA) was done by Mr. Sumit Sharma, Regional Manager, VDMA India.
The final session of the summit was devoted to “Training and Education in India – Coping with the Challenges”. This panel discussion was moderated by Mr. Rajesh Nath. The participants in the discussion included Mr. R. Joshi, M.D., Festo Controls Pvt. Ltd., Mr. V.G. Sakthikumar, Whole Time Director (Operations), Schwing Stetter (India) Pvt. Ltd., Dr. Anton Reinfelder, M.D., Groz – Beckert Asia Private Ltd., Mr. D.M. Thaker, M.D., Schuler India Pvt. Ltd., and Mr. Jagadish Bhat, M.D., Man Trucks (I) Pvt. Ltd.