Bajaj plans to buy Ducati or Triumph?

[Bob]

Bajaj - India’s second largest motorcycle manufacturer - is looking to “forge a partnership or even buy” Ducati or Triumph, according to reports in India’s finance sector.

Bajaj has been looking for ways of improving its engineering and product development expertise to expand a range currently limited to a nothing larger than 220cc. They are also reported to have been in discussion with Yamaha on the subject of technology and expertise sharing for larger capacity bikes, offering engineering and manufacturing expertise for smaller machines.

The company recently lost its position as India’s largest manufacturer of two wheeled vehicles to Hero Honda.

[Chrislost]

dam!
i wouldnt buy one if they owned it!
look at the quality of toothpaste we got from those kind of countries

[Bob]

To be honest, I think they're living in Cloud-Cuckoo land if they think they can tie-up with/buy Ducati or Triumph (especially Triumph - this is Mr Bloor's baby and I think he is determined to keep it as independent as possible).

The technology etc deal with Yamaha seems more likely - they've done this kind of thing before.

[tri boy]

Interesting.
This actually could happen.(I know it totally goes against the grain but think about it).
India is going through an amazing economic and social change. Its extremely self sufficient, and passionate about growth and self improvement.
Engineering,IT,Medicine, India is known to be research leaders in these fields and others.
I believe they will continue to exceed peoples opinions of there nation, and surprise many in the next decade.
Weren't Japanese cars considered to be piles of shit, next to the American/British offerings just a decade or two ago?

[McJim]

Sounds like posturing to improve their share value.

Ducati and Triumph are looking great for the future with both companies now shifting record numbers of units.

[McJim]

Weren't Japanese cars considered to be piles of shit, next to the American/British offerings just a decade or two ago?

That's coz they WERE piles of shit - only the French are still capable of making water soluble cars now! I remember orange Datsuns - originally black but rusted in a damp breeze.

[tri boy]

I would like to see production figures for Triumph, and then compare them with the Indian domestic market figures.
900million+ people can have a huge purchasing power. Enough to sway most savvy corporate owners.
I could easily see a tie up with Triumph. The research/development alone with regards to new technology should unfold some thinking caps.
The English are buying the Enfields that India build. Why not Triumphs.
And with regards to Mr Bloors independant operation, I can name six nations that supply parts to make a "Genuine" Triumph from Hinckley. German, Italian, Japanese,British,Malay/Thai, and i'm sure theres others.

[xwhatsit]

...IT... India is known to be research leaders

Balls, India is known to be leaders in outsourcing and cheap and dirty programmers, but in terms of serious computer science research they have very little to show, despite their supposed world-class universities.

MIT (not Manukau Institute of Technology, but the real MIT) had some very interesting things to say on this matter.

Anyway, back to Bajaj.

[Cr1MiNaL]

Christlost Im surprised at you. I would have thought u would have a broader understanding of the "macroeconomic perspective" and the changes the world as we know it is going through. Im part Indian but by no means is that the reason I say that in the next 50 years India will be in the top 3 most developed countries in the world. Also it is no longer a developing country, Its well developed and has an infracture far far superior to NZ / AUZ etc... there no scope for comparision even. However i dont blame foreigners for their narrow minded approach to viewing a country of over a billion people as dusty and far too hot. These things you would expect... The economy is booming my friend and trust - u - me I wouldnt be surprised if they did go ahead with the acquisition.

[Cr1MiNaL]

Balls, India is known to be leaders in outsourcing and cheap and dirty programmers, but in terms of serious computer science research they have very little to show, despite their supposed world-class universities.

Mate ur age discounts your knowledge. Also you now stand corrected and perhaps a little wiser, India does not outsource dirty programmers, dirty programmers are outsourced to India.

[Cr1MiNaL]

Interesting.
This actually could happen.(I know it totally goes against the grain but think about it).
India is going through an amazing economic and social change. Its extremely self sufficient, and passionate about growth and self improvement.
Engineering,IT,Medicine, India is known to be research leaders in these fields and others.
I believe they will continue to exceed peoples opinions of there nation, and surprise many in the next decade.
Weren't Japanese cars considered to be piles of shit, next to the American/British offerings just a decade or two ago?

U seem like an extremely learner man, u must have travel led, good on ya.

[xwhatsit]

Mate ur age discounts your knowledge. Also you now stand corrected and perhaps a little wiser, India does not outsource dirty programmers, dirty programmers are outsourced to India.

Just making sure we're on the same wavelength here -- but I was talking about in-house software projects being outsourced to India for reasons of economy.

Unfortunately, whilst the quality of IT graduates in India is more than adequate -- and probably far better than equivalent NZ institutions, their so-called Computer Science degrees are nothing more than a basic Software Engineering degree, so any chance of outsourcing CS-style work is typically a lost cause. One cannot use SE graduates in CS positions. The quality of these so-called CS faculties can be seen by the amount of research produced. MIT, Caltech, Berkeley -- and indeed Auckland -- have nothing to fear in terms of competition for serious research.

Outsourcing itself is a different issue. It's just a result of globalisation, really, and although it may threaten my job security I'm not too worried. Outsourcing, due to its nature, is best suited to highly autonomous jobs which don't required too much specialised internal knowledge. Software engineering is not very well suited to this, and although there are economic benefits to companies who do outsource, more and more issues are beginning to crop up as the projects mature. Any sort of maintenance of software projects is very, very difficult, due to the usual problems of sharing institutionalised code between organisations.

Quality control can be very difficult; not necessarily a reflection on the skills of the programmers, but the simple fact you cannot have somebody in the room making sure that not only does the code do the job, but also is written in a maintainable, clean manner. It doesn't help matters when you have vast numbers of `quick-and-dirty' software houses just out to make a quick buck, with no thought for on-going quality. CS, being as specialised as it is, will be near impossible to outsource successfully, so I feel fairly secure.

[tri boy]

xer, I can only trust that your knowledge of the software industry is far more superior than mine.(wouldn't be hard).
However, I do keep a weather eye on international trading and commerce in my own disorganised way. And the tens of millions of dollars that are pouring into Indian sectors every quarter from diverse financial groups/mega corporates tells me that this stable and mature economy is heading for great things.
I wont comment further on the financial/political issues anymore, as it is off topic.
But I can say from experience, that Indian engineering is thousands of years old,
(just look at there historical and modern achievements), and as there infrastructure in this field is tidied up, very few nations will be able to compete in scale, and quality. I look forward to there future achievements.
Like there ceramic,written and structural art and culture, it will be very impressive.

[xwhatsit]

xer, I can only trust that your knowledge of the software industry is far more superior than mine.(wouldn't be hard).
However, I do keep a weather eye on international trading and commerce in my own disorganised way. And the tens of millions of dollars that are pouring into Indian sectors every quarter from diverse financial groups/mega corporates tells me that this stable and mature economy is heading for great things.
I wont comment further on the financial/political issues anymore, as it is off topic.
But I can say from experience, that Indian engineering is thousands of years old,
(just look at there historical and modern achievements), and as there infrastructure in this field is tidied up, very few nations will be able to compete in scale, and quality. I look forward to there future achievements.
Like there ceramic,written and structural art and culture, it will be very impressive.

I have no worries about future economic success for India.

In fact it's interesting to draw parallels with China. Great emphasis placed on education, so large numbers of well-educated workers available for low wages; long history of, like you say, historical and modern achievements, etc etc. However the product is still not up to scratch. China persists in targeting the low-end manufacturing/development market for cheap products, and India is doing likewise with the IT outsourcing market.

I can say with some confidence that before India is taken seriously for whole-spectrum IT subcontracting -- not just low-end code-monkeying and those god-awful customer support lines -- it will need to revamp its education for this field. Tertiary institutes seem to be producing research and graduates in only a handful of fields in IT-type stuff -- fields that are relevant to what the economy is making money off, but there's no room to grow upwards.

Anyway we've drifted far, far away from the original topic Poor old Bajaj. Not even bikers pay attention to them

[Cr1MiNaL]

.....India is doing likewise with the IT outsourcing market.

I can say with some confidence that before India is taken seriously for whole-spectrum IT subcontracting -- not just low-end code-monkeying and those god-awful customer support lines -- it will need to revamp its education for this field. Tertiary institutes seem to be producing research and graduates in only a handful of fields in IT-type stuff -- fields that are relevant to what the economy is making money off, but there's no room to grow upwards.

Au contraire... In the IT sector no country is taken more seriously than India. Not only because of the cheap labor but also because of the quality and efficiency of work. Huge multinationals like GE Money, ANZ, KPMG, Deloitte and the likes all outsource and trust the work done there. Hence india IS already taken seriously as opposed to waht u stated above. As for growing upwards I could throw numbers here $$ salary figure wise that would baffle you. Id suggest u google "ISB" Indian School of Business and c what past grads get paid, would really open up ur eyes.