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Informist, Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025

 

By Rajesh Gajra

 

NEW DELHI - Uncertainties around the current regulatory framework is putting enormous pressure on not just companies but also on their supply chain as they plan and invest in energy transition and move to stringent emission norms, Srikanth Padmanabhan, former executive vice president and president-operations at Cummins Inc., said Thursday at an event organised by the Indian Foundation for Quality Management here. Cummins Inc. is the parent company of Cummins India Ltd.

 

Shifting from internal combustion engines to a more electrified world is one of the biggest transitions that engine manufacturing companies have faced in the last 25-30 years, the former Cummins official, who retired from the company a few months back, said at a session. It is going to take a generation or more before the energy transition happens, Padmanabhan said. A company like Cummins would, on one hand, want to be the last person standing on the internal combustion engine production front, but on the other hand, it will have to invest in new technologies and processes for the energy transition, he said at the event.

 

Speaking to Informist on the sidelines of the event, Padmanabhan said the transition pressure on the supply chain comes primarily from the regulatory framework which started earlier and is now being revisited. He stressed the need for regulations to be stable, long term, and consistent.

 

"The industry was in the process of implementing the US EPA 2027 regulations, but there are changes being proposed and some of these regulations are in flux," Padmanabhan told Informist. The greenhouse gas phase 3 regulations that were supposed to come might also get changed over timing and on specific clauses because of how the agencies are supposed to regulate greenhouse gases, he said.

 

The US Environmental Protection Agency's 2027 regulations were to apply stringent multi-pollutant emissions standards starting 2027, and in phases till 2032, for light-duty and medium-duty vehicles. The new rules were framed to bring about substantial reductions in tailpipe emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from these vehicles.

 

Cummins had invested significantly towards these regulations planned from 2027 to 2032, Padmanabhan said. But the industry at large now needs to figure out how the proposed changes to these regulations will impact them, he added. Cummins and other companies do not make all the investments in transition technologies and other processes all by themselves; "Suppliers are involved as well," Padmanabhan told Informist, adding that these suppliers have to decide on costs and technologies, among other things.

 

But the uncertain regulatory framework puts pressure on companies and their supply chain, the former Cummins official said. Padmanabhan said "the tariff regulatory changes with what is happening in the United States causes problems as well for the supply chain."

 

Shares of Cummin India closed at INR 4,101 on Thursday, down 0.6% on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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