1. news
6Ashley News / June 2008
JV with John Deere
for Construction Equipment
Ashok Leyland has signed
an agreement for a joint venture
with John Deere, for manufactur-
ing and marketing construction
equipment. The JV seeks to com-
mence production by early 2010
and will initially roll out Backhoes
and Four-wheel-drive loaders.
The range will subsequently be
expanded to include a full line
of construction equipment. Be-
yond India, the largest backhoe
market in the world in 2007, the
products will be exported to both
Ashok Leyland and John Deere
markets.
The 50:50 JV will bring together
Ashok Leyland’s expertise in the
automotive sector, their market-
ing and distribution strength and
John Deere’s technical know-how
and vast experience in the busi-
ness of construction equipment.
John Deere is the world’s largest
manufacturer of equipment for
agriculture and forestry and a
major equipment supplier for con-
struction, lawn and turf care.
R Seshasayee,
MD, Ashok
Leyland and
Samuel R Allen,
President,
Worldwide
Construction and
Forestry Division,
John Deere
exchange papers
in presence
of (extreme
left) Dheeraj G
Hinduja, Co-
Chairman, Ashok
Leyland and
Robert Lane,
Chairman and
CEO, John Deere.
The JV will build a manufactur-
ing facility in India and is currently
evaluating site locations.
R Seshasayee, MD-Ashok
Leyland, said: “With this JV, we
realise our foray into a new and
adjacent vertical as part of Ashok
Leyland’s diversification plans.
We see huge synergies between
this business and our existing one
of commercial vehicles, in terms
of aggregates, parts and distribu-
tion network. We are happy that in
John Deere, we have a technol-
ogy leader with an impressive
portfolio of proven and popular
products, to partner us in this
venture.”
“The total size of the market
for these equipment in India is
around 20,000-23,000 units and
growing on a CAGR of 20%”, Se-
shasayee pointed out. Though
the sector is impacted by the cur-
rent slowdown, it can still expect
robust growth with infrastructure
being the focus of central and
state governments. “It is never too
late to enter this market as long
as we have great products”, he
summed up.
Samuel R Allen, President,
Worldwide Construction and
Forestry Division, John Deere
said: “In Ashok Leyland, we
have found an ideal partner with
a shared vision. This action en-
hances John Deere’s growth of
the construction equipment busi-
ness outside of North America.
India is an important market and
Ashok Leyland is a knowledge-
able partner with strengths in
brand recognition, quality manu-
facturing, distribution and loyal
dealerships.”
Robert Lane, Chairman and
CEO, John Deere, said India
figured strongly in the business
plans of John Deere, a 171-year-
old company, which has a wide
range of products to offer for the
market. “We will specially de-
velop equipment for the Indian
market”, he said, responding to
media queries.

2. news
7 Ashley News / June 2008
Dr V Sumantran was appoint-
ed as a Director on the Board at
the Company’s Board meeting
held on October 21, 2008.
Dr Sumantran is Executive
Vice Chairman of Hinduja Au-
tomotive UK, the Holding Com-
pany, and Chairman of Nissan
Gold
for Ashley News
Ashley News has bagged the ‘Gold’ at the 48th
Annual Awards of the Association of Business
Communicators of India (ABCI). The quarterly was
selected as the best among more than 50 entries
in the ‘internal magazine (English)’ category from
across the country. The judging was for issues
brought out in 2007.
The cover story on Avia Ashok Leyland Motors
in the 1/2007 issue of Ashley News won a ‘bronze’
in the‘Features (English)’category.
A Bhandara team was de-
clared first runner-up at Lakshya,
the annual on-the-job achievers’
contest held by National Institute
of Industrial Engineering (NITIE),
Mumbai.
With ‘productivity improve-
ment in main casing machining’
as their project, N M Ramteke,
R S Mishra and R G Kauthkar
competed under the ‘operations
management’category.
Dr V Sumantran joins the
Ashok Leyland Board
Ashok Leyland Powertrain Pvt.
Ltd. Previously, he was Executive
Director of Tata Motors Passenger
Car Business and Engineering
Research Centre and prior to that,
spent over 16 years at General
Motors Corporation, mostly in De-
troit and later in Europe, where
he served as Director, Advanced
Engineering, SAAB Automobile.
Dr Sumantran is a Distin-
guished Visiting Professor at the
Indian Institute of Technology,
Madras. A Fellow of the Society of
Automotive Engineers and a Fel-
low of the Indian National Acad-
emy of Engineers, Dr. Sumantran
is a doctorate in Aerospace En-
gineering and holds a Masters
degree in Management of Tech-
nology.
A high-level Chinese govern-
ment delegation from Hubei Prov-
ince, P.R.C, led by its Executive
Governor Li Xiansheng called on
the Ashok Leyland top manage-
ment in November 2008.
Visitors from Hubei, China
Vinod K Dasari, WTD, Ashok Leyland and Shu Jian, President of the
Tri-ring group, sign the MoU in the presence of senior officials from both
sides. Fourth and fifth from left are R Seshasayee, MD and Li Xiansheng,
Executive Governor of Hubei Province.
During the visit, an MoU was
signed between Ashok Leyland
and the Tri-ring group, an auto
parts conglomerate of the Hubei
province, for sourcing and exten-
sion of supply chain.
Lakshya award
for Bhandara
(Left) Thomas
T Abraham,
Editor-Ashley
News,
receives the
award.

3. news
8Ashley News / June 2008
The Defiance brand now
stands for the global capability to
deliver an enlarged range of serv-
ices: design, engineering, pro-
totyping, testing and validation,
combining the complimentary
skill-sets of Defiance Technolo-
gies and Defiance Testing & Engi-
neering. Detroit-based Defiance
Testing & Engineering, a leading
and trusted name in the domain
of testing in the US, was acquired
by Ashok Leyland in 2007. The
synergy between the two is set
to provide the thrust for the new
trajectory of growth chartered out
for the two entities.
With international majors - many
of them DTE’s global customers
- enlarging their manufacturing
footprints and increasingly seek-
ing testing support closer to hand,
plans are afoot to replicate DTE’s
testing capabilities in India, to
start with. Customers in India also
stand to gain from the superior
testing capabilities, highly skilled
manpower and problem-shooting
expertise of DTE.
Defiance Technologies of-
fers virtual engineering services
right from basic design to high
end predictive analysis, sought
by automotive and aerospace
customers for their collaborative
product development environ-
ment. Integrating geometric mod-
els, with simulations, optimization
and decision making tools, virtual
ADES morphs into‘Defiance Technologies’
Ashley Design & Engineering Services (ADES), which has been ac-
tive in the design and engineering space for the last two years, has
been re-christened‘Defiance Technologies’.
engineering reduces design time
for optimized solutions.
The re-branding aims to lev-
erage the considerable brand
value, recognition and salience
that the Defiance brand enjoys
globally and presents a unified
and enriched brand promise to
clients both in India and over-
seas.
The combined Defiance op-
erations now have a team of
qualified professionals number-
ing around 300 with core skills in
product design, validation, prod-
uct and process engineering for
automotive and other industrials
products and systems. Future
growth plans are built on planned
diversification beyond automo-
tive, into new domains such as
aerospace, off-highway equip-
ment and high-tech industries
and geographical expansion into
Europe and China.
Dr V Sumantran, Executive
Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automo-
tive Ltd., said: “As we look to the
future, Hinduja Automotive and
Ashok Leyland are fine-tuning
their strategy to build on a range
of critical technologies and com-
petencies. With these, we will
target selective global business
opportunities, where we believe
our synergy will endow us with a
unique advantage. We have rec-
ognized the crucial role played
by domain experience, encap-
sulated in design and engineer-
ing services. We are hopeful that
Defiance, with its new platform,
will accelerate our growth in this
business vertical.”
P Parthasarathy, COO, Defi-
ance Technologies, said “Since
inception two years ago, from a
focus on the auto sector, we have
diversified our skills to encompass
new verticals such as aerospace
and high-tech industries. Now, by
combining the service offerings of
Defiance Testing & Engineering
and Defiance Technologies, our
operations now encompass a full
spectrum of virtual engineering
and physical testing to benefit
our existing and potential clients
across a wide geography.”
Peter Dodd, Vice President
& General Manager, Defiance
Testing & Engineering, said
“Amalgamation of mechanical
design services is an excellent
strategic decision to scale up the
business. DTE has deep domain
competence, gained over three
decades, serving customers in
Europe and North America. Now,
through Defiance Technologies,
DTE has the opportunity to bring
our extensive experience and
expertise to the Indian market.
There is a lot in store for the global
customers.”
Peter Dodd,
VP & GM, DTE
P Parthasarathy,
COO, Defiance,
Technologies

4. Ashley News / December 20089
news
Ashok Leyland is part of a
unique private-public partnership
initiative that has opened a holis-
tic health centre in Hosur.
‘Arogya Health Centre’ is set
up in association with the State
Government (Tamil Nadu State
AIDS Control Society), a Chari-
table Trust (AIDS Prevention and
Control Society run by Voluntary
Health Services) and an NGO
(Rural Inter-Disciplinary Socie-
ty). Located on NH4, it aims to
provide holistic healthcare to the
drivers and migrant workers in
the region where the spotlight is
on HIV/AIDS.
To achieve the centre’s primary
objective of encouraging drivers
and migrant workers to shed their
inhibitions and use the clinic for
their well-being, this facility will
be offered free to them while
the local population can access it
by paying a nominal fee. Manned
by a professional medical team -
doctor, counselor, paramedical
staff and four outreach workers
– round-the-clock, the clinic will
provide basic treatment to pa-
tients, counsel and educate them
Zen QC from Hosur I was ad-
judged ‘Excellent’ at the Inter-
national Convention on Quality
Circles held in Bangladesh in
October 2008.
In a contest that saw 150
teams participating, from across
nine countries, Zen scored 94%
and made it to the highest grade.
Their winning project was on
‘modification of operating pedal
arrangement in Mark III G45
FES’.
At the same contest, Drive QC
from Ennore won ‘Extraordinary
award’ and WIN QC from Hosur
II A won‘good’award.
Health Centre at Hosur
about healthcare and refer them
to specialists where necessary.
The Centre targets to cover 1.5
lakh drivers and migrant workers
in the first year of its operation.
“Good health is often not a
priority for many economically
marginalized people, whose work
situations expose them to several
health hazards. Ashok Leyland is
happy to be involved in this initia-
tive, which will serve the health
needs of the underserved”, said J
N Amrolia, ED-C&AB, inuagurat-
ing the centre.
V K Shanmugam, Collector
of Krishnagiri District, in a mes-
sage said: “To change mindsets
is a huge challenge which can-
not be undertaken by a single
organization no matter how ear-
nest they are in their endeavor
to effect a change. Simple as it
may sound, the task has several
layers of complexity which need
sensitive handling, empathy and
uncomplicated solutions.”
Also present at the inaugura-
tion was Dr N S Murali, Honor-
ary Secretary, Voluntary Health
Services.
‘Excellent’says ICQCC
Zen QC
Drive QC
Win QC
Red Cross at
NDTC
Indian Red Cross Society sta-
tioned a mobile lab at the Namakkal
Driver Training Centre premises as
part of‘World AIDS day’to offer free
HIV test for drivers.
U Sagayam, District Collector,
Namakkal inaugurated the ses-
sion. 40 drivers who were under-
going training at DTC were the
beneficiaries.