Exploring ground realities and opportunities to drive Responsible Business Conduct in India’s Automobile Sector

PUNE, India (ILO News): The International Labour Organization (ILO), with the support of the Employers’ Federation of India, conducted a site visit to enterprises in Pune to gain first-hand insights into the ground realities, challenges, and opportunities in promoting Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) within India's thriving automobile sector, on 18-19 March 2025.

During the visit, the delegation engaged in focused discussions with Tata AutoComp Systems, its subsidiaries and suppliers to understand the complexities and dynamics of supply chains in the automobile industry, a sector critical to India’s economy. Mr Sudipta Marjit, Group CHRO & Head Business Excellence, Ms Savita Sawant, Lead – DEI, L&D, Cadre and CSR, and Ms Ragini Pasumarthi, Lead – Corporate Sustainability, BE & OSM, among other officials, provided an overview of the company’s RBC related initiatives during the meeting held at the headquarters of Tata AutoComp Systems.

The delegation also visited the factories of Tata AutoComp Gotion Green Energy Solutions, Tata Ficosa Automotive Systems, and SL Polycoat to gain deeper insights into situations on shopfloors.

Through these engagements, the delegation explored ground realities for businesses to ensure fair labour practices, while navigating global competition in the labour market in the midst of digital and green transitions that affect how RBC can be translated and embedded within business activities. Simultaneously, they underscored significant opportunities to promote RBC for decent work, through fostering diversity and inclusion in workplace and enhancing collaboration for capacity building on RBC across supply chains.

The ILO project "Building Responsible Value Chains in Asia through the Promotion of Decent Work in Business Operations (Phase II)", funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan, seeks to promote decent work and responsible business practices across supply chains in four Asian countries. It aims to enhance enterprises' compliance with national laws and respect for the principles of international labour standards while fostering dialogue and collaboration among governments, employers', and workers' organizations to create an enabling environment for sustainable and responsible business operations. The visit to Pune marked another step forward in the project’s support to empowering businesses to integrate RBC into the automobile sector, one of key target sectors of the project.