Some interesting sites in here. I didn’t know the SGPC had a website ! But it seems to be hosted on an Indian server – its so slow, it didn’t even open.
Was just looking at the business scene in Punjab these days. When I used to work as a Mechanical Engineer in India, we used to buy a lot of heavy machinery from Punjab. They were really good (in terms of price) and somehow those machines seemed to last as well. There are lots of these Punjabi/Sikh families in Maharashtra who sell heavy machinery brought from Punjab. It seemed almost like a tradition – they were not even Mech. engineers but they seemed to know a lot more than me and unlike me used to love getting their hands blackened by the oil and grease
Don’t know how things are in Punjab now…with import duties on foreign machineries coming down, they might have a challenge in the future from cheap Taiwanese and Korean makes. I think Punjab is still strong in the Mech. industry but they seem to have missed the IT bus unlike other states.
BombayKid, first of all I did not knew oyu are/were a Mech engineer..tu tou apni biraadari ka niqla:)...
Punjab used to make lot of machine tools like Lathes,Milling machines,shapers, nut and screw machines etc....I am not very sure of it how the situation right now. It is intersting to note that most of this industry was set up by Tarkhan/Lohar community of Punjab(mostly called Ramgharia Sikhs) on their own and they have been very successful in that. I agree these Lohar/Tarkhan guys have so much technical skills geneticaly programmed that I was always impressed by their knowledge of the mechanical engineering, most of them never went to professional schools ever. BTW Nawaz Sharif family is also Lohar sub caste of North India.
As for as missing the IT boat. YEs seems like that. But IT is not a one time phenomenon, it is a on goign thing and the future so people as individuals will get the chance to venture into that area in future but Punjab as a state and particularly Govt ahs failed in this regard miserably inspite of the fact that one of the first public/private computer centers opened in Chandigarh decades ago.
I believe in such matters there is a need of some political will to plan and implement these things which Punjabi leadership totally lacks.
Yes I should have actually said that I was a Mech. Engineer…but I moved over to Computer Science in grad school. I miss the fun sometimes. The people in the CS field are much too refined for me
The amazing thing I found about some of those Punjabi businessmen was that they actually started off on a really small scale and some of them came up so fast. They literally used to live in those factories (believe me its not easy with all those presses pounding
The previous congress government policy of regulating manufacturing was done away in 1990. Previously only two manufacturers were licenced to make buses - Leyland and Tata's, now after deregulation many other players have come in- Punjab has benefited quite a bit, a new company by the name of 'Sutlej' has opened they are manufacturing very good quality bus bodies. They were in North America recently and took blue print for low step buses which proved to be very popular in Delhi and other parts of India- they cannot meet the demand. I thought I will add on to the existing discussion regarding Punjab.
[This message has been edited by Rani (edited July 08, 2000).]
I don't think anyone can touch the Tatas -- not as yet. I mean the Japanese came to India with their trucks in the 80s but not one of them survived against the Tatas. There are a lot of auto parts suppliers in Punjab who were supplying to companies around Delhi and Noida. I thought that was one of the strong points of the business scene in Punjab -- the small manufacturers.
On my recent trip to India the air-conditioned coach I travelled in from Delhi to Jaipur was made by Sutlej. There are other players in the market beside Tata's.