Between November and December 2025, the International Labour Organization (ILO), in collaboration with the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), convened three capacity building workshops on Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) for enterprises in Pune, Gurugram, and Chennai.
The workshops brought together over 140 Tier-1 and Tier-2 automotive suppliers, associations, and industry leaders to explore how responsible business practices can strengthen India's automotive supply chains amidst evolving global due diligence requirements. Aligned with India's National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) and international frameworks such as the ILO MNE Declaration and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the workshops shed light on both the strategic business case for RBC and the concrete steps enterprises can take to integrate responsible practices into their operations and supply chains.
The series opened with the Pune workshop on 21 November 2025, with a strong call for action. In an impactful keynote speech, Mr Dinesh Vedpathak, CEO - Pillar 3, ACMA Mobility Foundation, urged suppliers to view RBC as a growth enabler rather than a burden. He expressed that the future of global automotive supply chains will be shaped by responsible and resilient Indian manufacturers - building a case for higher awareness and proactive adoption of global standards on RBC.
Building on this foundation, the Gurugram workshop, held on 3 December 2025, focussed dialogue on how meaningful workforce engagement and business competitiveness go hand-in-hand. Ms Arunima Mohanty, Head HR & ESG at Metalman, shared how integrating worker voice surveys, grievance mechanisms, and AI-assisted risk mapping reduced supply chain disruptions while improving workforce satisfaction and retention. She urged enterprises to prioritize investments that deliver "both social and commercial returns." Ms Tanu Ahuja, ESG Corporate Head at Vikas Group, described embedding RBC into core KPIs and supplier programmes, linking transparent wage audits, skills development, and incentive-based alignment with improved supplier performance and access to premium OEM contracts. Both panellists emphasized that credible grievance systems and sustained capacity building are essential to translate compliance into real benefits for workers across supply chains.
The last workshop in Chennai, held on 12 December 2025, deepened the conversation by focusing on the role of workplace culture and inclusion in ensuring long-term labour resilience. Mr Raghuvaran, Head of HR at Turbo Energy Pvt. Ltd., highlighted how structured worker engagement tools and open dialogue initiatives (such as their "Coffee with HR" initiative) have strengthened trust and productivity, noting that, "[culture] shifts when every employee feels safe to speak up". Mr Karthik Vaithiyanathan, COO and Head - Business Development at I P Rings Ltd., shared that integrating RBC deeply into operations and supply chains is now a non-negotiable in order to remain competitive, and describes his companies' targeted initiatives towards making shopfloors more safe, inclusive, and empowering for women, positioning their productive participation as an important frontier in the automotive sector's growth.
Overall, the workshops reinforced the message that advancing RBC in India's automotive sector is key to respecting workers' rights, strengthening supply chains, and ensuring global competitiveness.
The workshop was organized as part of the ILO project, "Building Responsible Value Chains in Asia through the Promotion of Decent Work in Business Operations (Phase II)," which is funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), Japan. The project aims to promote inclusive, responsible and sustainable enterprises and decent work in supply chains through capacity-building programmes for enterprises and ILO's constituents - government, employers and workers - in four Asian countries including India.
