indiamarkets: What is the role of Cummins in the Indian market?
Daam: Cummins came into India 1962 as Kirloskar Cummins, a JV between Kirloskar and Cummins Ltd. It became Cummins India Ltd after Cummins gained complete control over the Indian operations. In India we cater to the markets of power generation, compressor, pumps and mining. Construction is a new area for us; we were not previously into construction because not many construction equipment manufacturers were there. Now that the equipment market is opening and there is an impending boom in construction, we felt the necessity to enter this sector.

indiamarkets: What are the latest technological advancements in engines you are bringing to the Indian equipment industry?
Daam: It is only in the last two–three years that the Indian market is speaking in terms of fuel consumption, uptime, and life cycle costs. We offer technologically advanced engines that address these issues.  Most of the engines that we market in India are indigenously manufactured.

indiamarkets: How are you using Information Technology in your business as a major engine manufacturer?
Daam: We cannot afford to ignore IT and its benefits. In fact, we use IT extensively in power plant systems, which we supply.  All operations can be controlled sitting in a single control room. We are also looking forward to integrating IT with the mining solutions, which are provided by us.

The interviewer can be contacted at pradeep@indiamarkets.com