JCB (India) commissioned the world's largest backhoe loader plant at Ballabgarh near Delhi recently. Inaugurated by JCB chairman Sir Anthony Bamford, the newly extended US$60 million (Rs 300 crore) backhoe loader factory - the largest of its kind in the world - is actually a combination of JCB's old plant...

Volkswagen has commenced opera-tions at its greenfield Chakan plant near Pune. Inaugurated by theGovernor of Maharashtra, S C Jamir, and Prof Dr Jochem Heizmann, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft, with responsibility for 'Group Production', in the presence...

A modern body shop flaunts a high degree of automation. Robots and their associates rule the place. Working unrelentingly, they lift and arrange panels, mount them on fixtures, wait for them to be clamped down, and then weld them together to make an assembly. It is a process that looks both artistic...

Economic meltdown, inflation (and now deflation), cut in consumer spending, interest rates, cancellation of orders, unpredictability brought on by the general elections - all this and more has certainly dimmed the lights on the otherwise shining auto sector of Pune...