Chapter 17 UNECE Agreements on Harmonization of Vehicle Standards and India: Empirical Results and Policy Implications D. Chakraborty and B. Nag 1 Introduction In India, the industrialization drive, particularly since the nineties, has been closely watched by the policymakers with one crucial long-term concern, i.e., whether the growing technology intensity in a sector may displace more workers vis-à-vis the newer employment opportunities generated. Automotive sector is a prime example of this complex interface between long-term global competitiveness concerns and domestic equity considerations. On the one hand, while the presence of the labor- intensive upstream segments generates significant employment among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in auto-clusters (Barnes, 2018), the downstream segment, i.e., assembling in the capital-intensive brands (e.g., the 2-wheeler/ 4- wheeler producing corporates), is increasingly adopting automation in line with global trends (Miglani, 2019). Given the modest competitiveness scenario, since early nineties the need to ensure FDI inflow and technology transfer in the sector was noted. It is important to under- stand how India perceived the automobile sector’s growth path in the long run. Recognizing the high employment generation capability of the automobile sector, Government of India has always accorded it with growth opportunities, yet protecting the same from possible global challenges. For instance, the FDI inflow-related poli- cies in the sector were gradually reformed since nineties. However, the restrictive framework, particularly the non-automatic import licenses on imports of automo- biles as completely built units (CBUs) and certain parts and components, and the system of granting import licenses only to local joint venture manufacturers who had D. Chakraborty (B ) Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkata, India e-mail: debashis@iift.edu B. Nag Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India e-mail: biswajit@iift.edu © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 P. Lakhanpal et al. (eds.), Trade, Investment and Economic Growth, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6973-3_17 285