[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]When Priya Kapur took the stage at the 60th ACMA Excellence Awards & Technology Summit 2026 in New Delhi, her message was not just about corporate success. It was about conviction under pressure, strategic reinvention, and the kind of long-term thinking that transforms a struggling manufacturer into a global technology player.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Delivering her first public keynote as Non-Executive Director of Sona Comstar, Kapur used the platform to connect two parallel journeys of India’s rise in global automotive supply chains and Sona Comstar’s own dramatic turnaround.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]The central theme of her speech was that India is no longer just a low-cost manufacturing base. It is becoming central to global automotive strategy.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]India’s Shift from Execution to Engineering Power
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Speaking during the session titled “Make in India, Compete Globally: Transforming Auto Supply Chains for Global Excellence,” Kapur positioned India at a structural inflection point.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]According to her, global OEMs today are no longer optimising supply chains purely for cost. They are looking for resilience, engineering depth, and execution reliability. In that equation, India has moved from being an alternative option to becoming a core pillar.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]She highlighted how India’s auto component sector has evolved from build-to-print execution to technology-led co-development and system-level capabilities. Policy consistency and initiatives such as the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme have helped create a framework where scale and sophistication can grow together.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]The message was not celebratory. It was analytical. India’s advantage today, she suggested, lies in capability, not cost alone.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]The Brink of Insolvency
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]If India’s transformation has been gradual, Sona Comstar’s reinvention was forced and urgent. Kapur revisited FY2015, a year that has since been documented in a Harvard Business School case study titled “Unlocking Value Through Business Transformation.” At that time, the company was under severe financial stress.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]German sales had halved. A USD 120 million loan had to be serviced. Cash was tied up in inventory. Liquidity had nearly dried up. The US plant was losing nearly half a million dollars every month. Indian revenues stood at roughly Rs 3,450 million and were largely domestic. Insolvency was not a distant possibility, it was a real risk.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]It was, as she described, a moment of confronting hard truths. The company could either attempt incremental fixes or fundamentally rethink its future. The turnaround that followed was not accidental. It was structured around three decisive moves.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]First, expansion into new, technology-led products. Second, aggressive diversification into global markets, and third, early and deliberate bets on electric mobility.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]In 2015, Sona Comstar was largely a single-product company focused on differential gears. Today, it offers more than 22 advanced products across driveline systems, traction motors, sensors, and next-generation mobility technologies.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Its manufacturing and R&D footprint now spans India, the United States, Mexico, Serbia, and China. The shift was not just geographic, it was philosophical. The company repositioned itself from a component supplier to a mobility technology player.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Betting on EVs Before the Market Did
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]One of the most defining themes of Kapur’s address was the early pivot to electrification, a move she attributed to her late husband Sunjay Kapur. At a time when electric mobility was still emerging in global conversations, he chose to steer the group toward electrification. It was not a reaction to market momentum. It was a conviction call.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]That early bet has reshaped the company’s revenue mix. Battery electric vehicle revenues accounted for 36 percent of total product revenues in FY25. The company has built an order book of USD 2.8 billion, of which 77 per cent is linked to EV programmes.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Even more telling is the continued discipline in R&D spending. Sona Comstar invests around 3 per cent of its revenues in research and development, reflecting a belief that technology leadership must precede market leadership.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]The strategy has been to own technology, build intellectual property, and move up the value chain before the industry fully pivots.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]A Personal Tribute, A Strategic Philosophy
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Kapur concluded her address with a tribute to Sunjay Kapur, recalling his belief that growth requires venturing out of comfort zones and into uncertainty, not merely to survive, but to lead.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]The metaphor of 'sailing through choppy waters with purpose' captured both the company’s past and its ambition. The message was not sentimental. It reinforced a strategic philosophy that companies that endure are those willing to move before the market forces them to.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Beyond a Turnaround
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]Sona Comstar’s journey reflects a broader shift within India’s auto component sector. From contract manufacturing to co-creation, from domestic dependence to global diversification, and from mechanical legacy systems to electrified mobility technologies.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]In many ways, the company’s transformation mirrors India’s own industrial repositioning. From the brink of insolvency to a USD 2.8 billion EV-linked order book, the arc is dramatic. But as Kapur’s address made clear, the story is less about rescue and more about reinvention, driven by conviction, disciplined investment, and the willingness to think ahead of the curve.
[color=hsl(0,0%,0%)]And in an industry being reshaped by electrification, digitalisation, and geopolitical supply chain shifts, that mindset may matter more than ever. |
