A talk on Mobility | By Dr. Tapan Sahoo

 SME - IITJ conducted a talk hosted by Mr. Abhishek Sharma (Office of SME) on Mobility.

Date of session: 24th April 2021

Speaker's Profile:

Dr. Tapan Sahoo

Executive V.P. (Engineering)

Maruti Suzuki

The speaker discussed upon the following key points:

1. How the evolution of Mobility has happened?

2. Global imperatives shaping future of mobility 

3. India Imperatives 

Evolution of Mobility 

The speaker explained the evolution taking place with a case study of "5th Avenue, New York". 

• Initially, before 1913, there were Horse Carts and hardly we could see one car. 
• The second case was on Easter Morning, 1913. Now, they could see only cars. 
• Then around 2013-15, when we see the same road, we observe that Congestion has increased much more. 

So, with this case study, the speaker explained that Urban Mobility has transformed in the last century.

Further, talking about the Global Automobile Production, he said that around 1950- 55 (US led the automobile revolution globally). Then in the 1990s, (China dominated the market). In between these years, Germany and Japan were leading the market. 

What is a Global Imperative? 

There are several societal megatrends. 

1. Climate change and environmental degradation.

2. Demographic Trend

3. Rapid Urbanization

4. Digital Technology

5. Rising Middle Class

With respect to Climate change, the speaker said that as the CO2 levels are increasing, various countries are committing:

China: 60-65 %

Europe: 40%

India: 33%

Japan: 20%

They all are trying to stick to their 'C' commitments. 

The societal megatrends are impacting  the mobility megatrends:

A: Autonomous

C: Connected 

E: Electric

S: Shared 

He further gave a lot of examples like Drone Taxi, hyperloop taxi, autonomous cars for pizza delivery.

Also in online retailing, there is delivery using drones. 

In IIT Kanpur, they had been given limited license for vaccine delivery. 

India Imperatives 

Talking about the growing economy (2009-19), GDP has increased till 2020. India has the 5th largest automobile market and is expected to double in the next 10 years.

Future Challenges: 

1. Highly aspiring consumers in India are increasing.

2. Evolving consumer requirements.

He further explained the difference in how people actually travel. In India, people use bicycles. private or public transport whereas in the UK, there is the dominance of 4 wheelers. 

He further explained that how to ensure that mobility is accessible, seamless, etc. For this, there needs to be a collaborative approach. It is challenging and it needs to be in an integrated manner.