Earlier, it was about functionality in a car, now it is about aspiration: Shashank Srivastava, Maruti Suzuki India

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, says “the transformation of Maruti Suzuki is one of the biggest achievements of the company. Of course, we have contributed hugely to the Indian manufacturing sector. We are the leaders in the automobile for the last 40 years of its existence. But it goes beyond that and this transformation actually started coming in from the time in maybe the early 90s when you had that liberalisation era. A lot of other manufacturers came in.”
On the first Maruti car ever sold to a customer
Shashank Srivastava: The first car was sold to a Sikh gentleman, Harpal Singh. And he used to work in Indian Airlines. This car was handed over to him by none other than the then Prime Minister, Ms Indira Gandhi. This was taken from that customer in 2010, restored, and we have it here. It is very emotional not just for me, but for all employees here.

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So, whenever we pass by, we remember this is the place where we started with. And in those days, India was producing only 50,000 cars in the whole year. Today, the industry is producing 10,000 cars every day. This is where we started. At that time, the auto industry was contributing just 1.2% towards national GDP. Today, it is contributing 7.5%. So, we are proud and at the same time