PM Modi attends event marking 40 years of Suzuki in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Osamu Suzuki, CEO of Suzuki, celebrate Suzuki’s 40 years of partnership with the people of India at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar on Sunday. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

PM Modi congratulated Maruti Suzuki for completing 40 years of partnership, calling it a symbol of the strong partnership between India and Japan. He expressed happiness that Suzuki was working on alternatives like biofuel, ethanol blending, hybrid EV etc, and suggested the company also start projects in exploring possibilities related to compressed biogas.(CBG). (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

Recollecting his days as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Modi said he then used to say he wanted to create a “mini-Japan” in the state. “The feeling behind that (sentence) was to ensure that our guests from Japan get the feel of Japan. We made attempts to ensure that the companies of Japan and their people do not face any difficulty here (in Gujarat). We paid attention to small things,” Modi said. (Express Photo by Normal Harindran)

PM Modi virtually laid the foundation stones for two key 'electric vehicles (EV) battery manufacturing' plants of Japanese automobile giant Suzuki Motor Corporation in Hansalpur, Gujarat and Maruti Suzuki’s vehicle manufacturing facility at Kharkhoda, Haryana. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

PM Modi at the event. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

In his address to the gathering, Toshihiro Suzuki announced setting up of a new company — Suzuki R&D Center India — a wholly-owned company by Suzuki, Japan. (Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)

"We aim to strengthen our R&D competitiveness and capabilities in new fields of technologies not only for India but also for the global markets," says Mr T Suzuki, President, SMC announcing the launch of Suzuki R&D Center India.(Express Photo by Nirmal Harindran)