Naveli, the 26-year-old daughter of chairman and managing director Nikhil Nanda, has been working with the country’s third-largest tractor maker for some time now.
“She is like any other individual who has to prove herself,” said Nanda, in a rare instance of speaking with the media about his daughter’s role in the company founded by his paternal grandfather in 1944.
“We are…seeing what value she can add. We talked about the youth in the farming sector, who are very different in the decision-making they do, when they make a decision to acquire or buy an asset. So, we hope she can bring that mindset to the company,” Nanda said.
Escorts is now majority owned by Kubota Corp. after the Japanese farming giant acquired a 53.5% stake for ₹9,400 crore in 2021. Nanda insisted that under the Kubota partnership, the emphasis was on institutionalizing the company, and not on operating it as a family-run business. (The Nanda family owns 14.15% of the joint company.)
“I always wanted to institutionalize this platform, and through Escorts Kubota, I am happy to say to our shareholders that today, this company is institutional,” he said in an interview.
“I did not look at protecting only the family interest. The Nanda family has not even sold one share, and we have equal participation in terms of the way we make decisions.”
Naveli, he said, also has been working on women’s empowerment through her nonprofit as well as via other social organizations. She is also the granddaughter of actor Amitabh Bachchan and the great-granddaughter of actor-director Raj Kapoor.
On the tractor and construction equipment maker’s future, Nanda said Escorts was “aligning” with the Kubota way of doing things—from implementing its production systems and processes to revamping its operations.
With Kubota’s know-how, “we no longer have to worry about what future farming technology will emerge in India because Kubota has done tremendous work in that aspect,” Nanda said.
He added that Escorts Kubota was also looking to establish a research and development (R&D) centre for farm equipment in India, with a focus on digital precision farming.
“India is going to become an R&D hub for tractor tech. We are going to do research; we want to bring in technology and products that already exist globally to India, and also jointly develop technology and products for India and for the world,” he said.
The overall agriculture mechanization level in India currently is at 47%, as per a parliamentary panel report in July. That is lower than that of other developing countries such as China (59.5%) and Brazil (75%).
The panel has urged the agriculture ministry to strive to achieve 75% in farm mechanization from the present 47% in a much shorter period than 25 years earlier.
Given that a significant part of India’s population is dependent on agriculture, increasing mechanisation in farming is expected to continue to drive both tractor sales and advancements in technology.
Towards this, Escorts Kubota is working on developing driverless or autonomous tractors. This could come handy, especially since anecdotal evidence shows many young folk from agricultural households are opting out in search of greener and easier pastures.
Also, demand for higher farm yields will trigger digitization in the sector, said Seiji Fukuoka, deputy managing director at Escorts Kubota.
“In India, technology in farm machinery will be introduced in phases: first will be mechanization, then automation, and then the sector will focus on improving farm yield,” Fukuoka said, speaking in Japanese with an interpreter assisting him.
“So, for these needs that India is going to have in the future, we want to be able to offer unique technology to the market together with Escorts. Precision farming is most suitable in India and we want to grow in that segment,” he added.
Kubota, which already sells electric tractors in Europe, is also exploring electric ride-on mowers and excavators, anticipating global demand, Fukuoka said.
Fukuoka added that growing Escorts’ exports business was key to the Escorts-Kubota partnership.
“Escorts is exporting in many countries—in America, Asia, Europe. But regarding the present lineup that Escorts has, we think that there is scope for improvement in the line itself, the suitability of the place and the service,” he said.
Kubota “has (strong distribution) channels in Europe, America, and Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries…and we have a little more experience (Kubota was founded in 1890). So, based on our experience, we are trying, and once we give the complete know-how and the channel expertise to Escorts, we believe that the exports will increase,” he said.
On potential synergies between Kubota and Escorts in the railways business, he said: “In the long history that Kubota has, they don’t have the experience of railways. We expect good growth out of (Escorts’) railway business, but within Kubota, we are not actually thinking as to what to do with this railway business. We are in a learning phase.”