Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper examines how Indian automakers and policymakers navigate the software-defined vehicle transition amid geopolitical competition over platform ecosystems. It investigates firm strategies, technology partnerships, and industrial policy under conditions of technological uncertainty.

Paper long abstract

How do developing country firms balance technological catch-up imperatives with national sovereignty goals during technological revolutions? This paper examines India's electric vehicle sector amid intensifying geopolitical competition over automotive digitalisation. Platform ecosystems controlled by US and Chinese firms—operating systems, AI compute, autonomous driving stacks—are reshaping competitive dynamics in ways that complicate traditional models of industrial development. India possesses renowned IT capabilities and established automotive manufacturing, yet struggles to develop indigenous EV competitiveness without extensive foreign partnerships. This puzzle illuminates how the technopolitics of software-defined vehicles create novel constraints for late industrialisers.

Drawing on fieldwork in India's automotive sector, I examine how automakers and policymakers navigate these pressures. Interviews with automotive executives, technology managers, and policy officials are triangulated with firm annual reports and policy documents. The empirical focus spans 2019–2025, when Production Linked Incentive schemes and data governance policies set aggressive indigenisation targets while firms like Tata Motors and Mahindra simultaneously expanded collaborations with global software platform providers.

I investigate how Indian firms respond in practice: their business strategies for the software-defined vehicle transition, their approach to technology partnerships, and their investments in indigenous capabilities versus integration with foreign ecosystems. I also analyse how policymakers design industrial policy instruments under uncertainty about which capabilities matter and which dependencies are acceptable.

The paper contributes to debates on industrial upgrading and the viability of catch-up strategies under platform capitalism. It examines whether industrial policy tools designed for previous technological eras remain effective in the 21st century’s developmental landscape.