Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?

I have close to 5 years of experience in automotive sourcing development, and my early career focused on the development of electronic components, primarily for the Jeep brand, where I worked through the development of wiring harnesses, Tata Motors battery systems, and other products. Then the next stint in my life was at Mahindra, where for two years I was mainly working on the sourcing of sensors and the passive keyless entry systems. Here's the expertise that I have mostly for the development and sourcing of both electronics and electrical components.

Q2. Which segments within the automotive supply chain are most undervalued and scalable?

So, whatever I know in terms of supply chain, what needs more focus and can be scaled up would be:

Real-time Updates on the Shipments

We don't have real-time updates on the movement of our shipments and products across the supply chain. Let's suppose I have a product that comes from China or Germany, we don't have real-time updates on how the product is moving across the value chain, including the quality parameters and product conditions at each stage.

Let's suppose I have one vendor who's a tier one. He takes components from three other tier twos, and one of the tier twos has a supply chain issue, then my delivery to making the product could be bottlenecked by any one of the tier twos having a problem. But because there's a lack of clarity in the supply chain about the origin of products and their movement, this can be an issue. This section can be improved significantly, and it could help both the OEMs and the tier ones because it gives them more clarity, and there are fewer chances of having issues or production losses.

Q3. Which categories of automotive electronics are seeing the highest sourcing demand due to EV and ADAS growth?

Due to the requirement of ADAS, there is a requirement for 2 things that are increasing drastically. 

Sensor side

Camera

The radar system a company uses could either be a camera-based approach, because of which the number of cameras that are getting into the car is increasing, as that is the sensor side of the portfolio, which will increase in the future. 

Radar Systems

A radar, which was not used a lot in automotive applications, is gaining significant interest because the radar is another input that can be used to implement ADAS. 

LIDAR sensor

The third thing, which is also increasing, is called a LIDAR sensor. 
So, in terms of the security that each system gives, the camera-based approach is the least effective. Then comes the radar-based approach, followed by the LIDAR. These three sensors are increasing exponentially, while the ultrasonic sensors, which were used traditionally, might be in decline.

Compute Power

Due to the higher computation required for all these systems, let's suppose that five years ago, the level of computation needed for an automotive vehicle was much less. However, because all these real-time calculations and ADAS need to be implemented, this has changed.
The kind of computational power that ECU needs is increasing, so the computation level of the chips is rising.

Zonal Architecture 

There's a transition from a distributed electronic architecture to a zonal architecture wherein you don't have N number of CUs, but you have a single controller which has a beefier processor, and it also changes the way the vehicles are built because the EE architecture also controls how you lay it out on the car. 

Q4. How is localization strategy evolving for automotive electronics in response to geopolitical risks, tariffs, and PLI incentives?

Localization will play a crucial role for India in the next few years, as the PME rise scheme is now in place. There are numerous incentives that come from PLI to the manufacturer and the supplier. So there's a lot of focus on the localization of radars, cameras, and sensors, all three products, because all of these will be used heavily in the cars now, and for an automotive giant to claim these benefits of PLI, they would need to have a certain level of localization. 

The second side is the geopolitics side, so if you look at the current scenario of Trump imposing tariffs on India, then China is trying to bottleneck the situation with the rare earth magnets. So now with the geopolitical situation, how geopolitics are changing in every country is trying to leverage whatever they have. It's crucial to have an alternate supply route or a localized drought to ensure uninterrupted production.

Q5. How are ESG mandates reshaping supplier qualification criteria and localization decisions across automotive supply chains?

ESG in India was not a very big focus area in the past, but now SEBI has mandated the BRSR filings in India. So, BRSR requires companies in the top 100 list of the index to provide a sustainability report for all their suppliers, which account for 70% of their spend. So now every supplier, along with the

OEM, will have to give a BRSR filing, which will include:

• Kind of water consumption
• How are they recharging
• What kind of solar energy are they using
• How they're using the energy
• How are they managing their waste? 

So now that SEBI has got into it, and you know the environment also has to be accounted for, not just the numbers. So now there's much work that is happening in the development of any supplier, also from the side of a sustainable point of view, which was not there earlier.

Q6. Which supplier diversification strategies are proving most effective for critical components like PCBs or sensors?

It's mostly now that if you want to have a supplier partner, they should have alternate manufacturing locations in different geopolitical regions so that if one of the regions is affected, if let's suppose a component supplier for any OEM is using a source for PCBS which is in China, if he also has a source in Malaysia or Vietnam, then that makes life much easier because there'll be no disruptions. So, having supplier partners who have a diversified sourcing base is something that could be very helpful, and that's how the trend is moving, where in a single location for any source, be it a PCB or sensor, it's essential to have multiple sources.

Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?

• I'll have to see their financial track record and how they've been growing. 
• How agile are they in reacting to external stimuli, such as a sanction or restriction from another country, and how do they manage that particular risk, either by keeping inventories or otherwise?
• Are they capable of changing the design or changing the supply chain in a way that allows them to come out of it? 

These would give me an understanding because, as geopolitics will keep changing, many problems will keep happening. But if the leadership in the past has been able to come out of it, in the future, they would be able to overcome it.