Introduction

The year 1996 marked the establishment of Hyundai Motor India. The Korean carmaker entered the Indian market breaking ground for their very own manufacturing plant in Chennai. And the rest they say is history.

It’s been 25 years since then and HMIL has grown leaps and bounds, becoming the second-largest carmaker in India with a 16.2 per cent market share. HMIL has grown, taking forward the nation with it, and we have witnessed a paradigm shift in various industries over the last two and half-decade. To celebrate this silver jubilee, we at CarWale decided to take a road trip to two extreme ends of the nation and learn some interesting facts about polar opposite industries that have ensued with the development of our great nation; welcome everyone to the Great India Drive.

The Beginning

The start point of the Great India Drive 5.0 was the newly instituted facility called the ‘Center of Transformation’ at Hyundai India’s corporate headquarters near Delhi. Here, Hyundai gave us a glimpse of what the Korean carmaker’s future may look like for the Indian market. Making its presence felt was the new-age and futuristic EV called Ioniq 5 which took the pride of place at the Center of Transformation.

Now speaking of transformation, Hyundai India has come a long way when you look at the brand’s humble beginnings with the Santro back in 1998. Since then, Hyundai India has grown exponentially and is now at a stage where it’s not just known as a maker of aspirational cars but also a brand with the most successful SUVs in its line-up. The newest of which is the Alcazar, and we were glad to have this premium three-row SUV on this Great India Drive to explore stories of people and growth sectors that are currently playing a big role in shaping up India.

First Stop – Bangalore and its Business

Our first destination was a 1,000km drive from Mumbai to India’s Silicon Valley. We headed towards the heart of Bangalore to a place called Electronic City. Now we all know that Bangalore has been huge in start-up and corporate cultures and a home for many multinational companies. In the last two decades, Bangalore has singlehandedly contributed to the reputation of India on the world stage as a hub of innovation in technology and services. So, we met someone who has known and been part of this transformation over the last decade. She knows the start-up culture inside out and we hoped to learn a thing or two on how small businesses are established and developed.

IT Transformation and Growth by Fulsmita

Now, it’s no secret that the 21st century is IT-driven and India is widely considered to be the knowledge powerhouse, full of young people with bright ideas. We took this Great India Drive to meet Fulsmita who has been part of the start-up culture for eight long years and is someone with many crucial things to share.

Conversation with Fulsmita

Fulsmita works with DCraft Labs where she helps start-ups grow in terms of business operation and people operation, elevating them from zero to one and from one to 10. The firm helps the developers’ community with its open-source tools. So any budding entrepreneur or start-up can participate by learning about the kind of codes a developer writes, thus providing a level of transparency. Fulsmita believes the IT community has rather seen a growth in this pandemic as it has forced people to work from home and use all sorts of IT tools. So, the lockdown did not affect the IT world as much as other conventional industries. In the last year itself, so many startups have gained unicorn status, while many others have gone IPOs. There had been an exponential boom in the IT industry as people realized the indispensable role of IT corporates in everyday life.

As for the new businesses, companies like DCraft provide young entrepreneurs with an end-to-end solution for all their startup needs, including software solutions, user loads, data management, and API along with load balancing with front- and back-end requirements.

For new entrepreneurs and startups, Fulsmita has three key giveaways:

1. Know and believe in what you are doing

2. Always work on your strengths

3. Be consumer-centric.

There you have it. The future of tech and e-commerce services belongs to young, innovative entrepreneurs. Now speaking of innovation, the Alcazar felt at home within the ingenious surroundings of Bangalore, with its modern equipment like the 360-degree parking camera, a fully digital cluster, and a host of features linked to the connected car tech. Lest we forget, the entire conversation with Fulsmita took place in the back seat of the Alcazar amidst the chaotic Bangalore traffic. Yet the Alcazar proved to be comfortable, tranquil, and relaxing for our expert guest, Fulsmita.

Next stop – Mumbai and its Music

Now that we’ve got a clearer picture of how the start-up and IT culture has evolved in India, there has been another playing field that has seen tremendous transformation in the last 25 years. For that, we took the Great India Drive back to Mumbai, the financial hub of India, accompanied by some sweet music on the Bose premium music system of the Alcazar — never a dull moment in the 1,000km journey back.

Indie in India by Chirayu

Where the growth of corporate has been vital to India’s development in many ways, there’s one more industry that has taken a tremendous leap towards modernity. As we say, music makes everything better and to talk about music and its development in recent years, especially Indie music, we had an exchange with Chirayu. Many of you might be familiar with a few independent songs from the 90s and current times as well. Well, Chirayu has known the Indie music scene for a decade and a half.

Conversation with Chirayu

Chirayu is a bass guitarist and is part of two Indie bands – Agni and Sharma’s and the Besharams. He has also performed with various well-known artists like Zubin Nautiyal and Tony Kakkar. Chirayu believes Indie music has forever been evolving, and the listeners are evolving as well. The kind of music made by artists in the early ‘90s and ‘00s was quite different, with a different kind of listeners. Today, with the advent of the internet in India (rather globally), Indie bands have a lot more platforms, like streaming services and music festivals. But at the same time, this has made the artists or bands busy and involved in too many things just to get by. Unlike earlier when the artists/bands used to sit down together and just create. So today, that drive to create is somewhat in peril. That said, the newer wave of musicians in the Indie scene is incredible, says Chirayu. The kind of music they are creating is unique and unheard of before, for example, synth wave.

Meanwhile, the question that arises with indie music is that it has a selective listener’s base. Compared to the mainstream, should Indie music be limited to a select few or should these Indie artists get better exposure? Chirayu believes it should be the latter, even if it dilutes that music since more people will be enjoying it but not many will be valuing it. But Chirayu believes that musicians are torn between mainstream and Indie music. He says as an artist, independent bands are for the thrills and Bollywood music is to pay your bills.

With the Covid restrictions, Indie music has been hit hard. Artists had to perform online and these lockdowns had not been kind to the entertainment industry. Although the Indie artists gained more listeners, and in some way, virtual gigs were happening, they were restricted from performing in public or even getting together to create. Thus, affecting these musicians’ work directly.

Nonetheless, Indie music is here to stay and we hope they get as much exposure and value for their music in the years to come.

Grand Finale

As we were discussing the Sports mode on the Alcazar, there’s one more offering from Hyundai India’s stable that’s endowed with the right tools to bring out the best of its sportier demeanour. It’s hot, it’s blue, it’s focused, and it’s fun. What we are talking about is the Hyundai i20 N Line. Built on the i20 Turbo, the N-Line finished in a vibrant shade of blue and with those red accents has got that boy racer-ish charm.

In our third leg of the Great India Drive, the i20 N-Line added a bit of spice and more importantly, it was bespoke. It’s not a run-of-the-mill offering, but Hyundai India appointed a bunch of people to specifically develop this car for us enthusiasts. Like it's not just a sticker job but a proper affordable performance hatch. You can sense and get a good feel of all the work that's gone into it with the way it drives. It's just unbelievable that at this point you and I could simply walk into any Hyundai showroom and buy something that's inspired by motorsports. We don't think something like this would have been possible, say, a decade ago. But now, because track events like gymkhanas, time attacks, and track days are so huge, we can enjoy cars like this i20 N-Line.

At this point, we were having way too much fun. And rightly so! The i20 N Line feels cracking from the moment you climb inside it. It all feels so modern and deeply sporty at the same time and because it’s an i20 after all, this performance hatch is a proper jack of all trades. It’s a comfortable daily driver that’s purpose-built to put a huge smile on your face every time you take it to your favourite set of roads.

Epilogue

After close to 4,000 kilometres, it was the end of the day and the end of our Great India Drive journey with the Alcazar and the i20 N-Line. In a few days, the Alcazar came down from Delhi to Mumbai, went a round trip to Bangalore, and in the end had the i20 N-Line as its companion through some twisties. And we returned home wiser than we left after spending time on the road with the Alcazar, going places, meeting interesting people, gaining new knowledge. All this has been possible with the advancement of newer sectors. Indeed our nation has advanced over the years, and Hyundai India has played a major role in it.

And if you think about it, it hasn't taken them that long to become one of the biggest carmakers in India. Imagine how things are going to be in the coming 25 years from now? Probably everything will be electric and self-driving? Probably that’s already upon us even before we are aware of it. But right now, we for one are happy to take over the steering, hit the road, and disappear into the horizon with our steady steeds and all the creature comfort we can ask for, like the Hyundai Alcazar.

Pictures by Kapil Angane and Kaustubh Gandhi