The restructuring of the Indian automobile industry: Indian state and Japanese capital

Abstract This paper analyzes the changing institutional context in which the restructuring of the Indian automobile industry is taking place. It explains the internationalization of the industry under the aegis of deregulation of a heavily statist economy. Economic liberalization, however, has not resulted in withdrawal of the state from the industry. Transnational corporations have not necessarily weakened domestic capital. Instead Japanese capital and technology have transformed the industry with mixed outcomes, creating both benefits of and constraints to restructuring. The reorganization of the Indian automobile industry reflects not only global forces but rather the interplay of changing institutional factors in influencing industrial restructuring in a developing economy.