Electronics and automobile manufacturers, contributing 3% and 7.1% to India’s GDP respectively, are at the heart of the nation’s industrial growth. Yet, their progress is often slowed by a maze of compliance requirements from evolving labour codes and plant safety regulations to environmental certifications and state-specific laws. For many players, these overlapping obligations translate into delays, operational inefficiencies, and missed opportunities to scale.
To understand how compliance challenges are shaping the future of these sectors, and how technology like AI and RPA is redefining compliance management, ELE Times spoke with Munab Ali Beik, Head of Compliance Advisory at Core Integra. With over 20 years of experience navigating regulatory frameworks and driving digital compliance transformations, he provides deep insights into the hurdles manufacturers face, the reforms needed to unlock growth, and how smart compliance practices can strengthen India’s position as a global manufacturing hub.
Excerpts from the interview:
ELE Times: What are the most complex compliance requirements currently troubling electronics and automobile manufacturers in India?
Munab Ali Beik: For electronics and automobile manufacturers, the most complex compliance challenges today revolve around evolving labour laws, contractor & supplier compliances, shop floor regulations, health and safety requirements, unions and employee welfare norms. With the introduction of upcoming new labour codes, companies must realign HR policies, wage structures, obtaining registrations and working hours while maintaining strict adherence to health and safety standards. Shop floor compliance has become increasingly demanding, requiring detailed SOPs, audits, and documentation to manage risks associated with heavy machinery. Beyond this, manufacturers face intricate requirements around plant certifications, environmental regulations, product safety standards, certifications, audits and overall labour law compliance. Studies indicate that nearly 45–50% of players’ experience delays and operational inefficiencies due to these overlapping regulatory demands, highlighting the critical need for proactive compliance management.
ELE Times: Why do almost half of manufacturers experience delays specifically due to compliance hurdles?
Munab Ali Beik: The delay is due to compliance hurdles because the regulatory landscape remains highly complex and fragmented. Frequent updates to labour laws and enterprise laws require constant adjustments, while machinery safety norms and employee welfare provisions add operational challenges. For companies operating multiple plants, the lack of uniformity across states further complicates compliance, state-specific laws, local regulatory requirements, and varying environmental norms necessitate separate processes and documentation. States have indicated that the Ease of Doing Business initiative may complicate the procedural implementations and understanding the simplified part of compliances. This patchwork of regulations, combined with limited coordination across jurisdictions, creates bottlenecks and inefficiencies, slowing operations and impacting manufacturers’ ability to scale effectively.
ELE Times: With electronics contributing 3% and automobiles 7.1% to India’s GDP, do you think regulatory overload is limiting their full growth potential?
Munab Ali Beik: Yes, absolutely. If compliance hurdles were streamlined, electronics and automobile manufacturers could devote far more resources to R&D, innovation, and building global competitiveness. These sectors have the potential to not only sustain but significantly increase their contribution to India’s GDP by boosting exports, enhancing localization, and developing advanced manufacturing ecosystems. Procedural bottlenecks currently divert focus from scaling production, investing in cutting-edge technologies, and optimizing supply chains. While India is making strides in improving ease of doing business, attracting larger foreign investments and sustaining growth requires simpler and more stable compliance frameworks. The central and state governments are set to relax certain provisions for the electronics and automobile manufacturing sectors to improve their performance. These relaxations pertain to auto-renewals, inspections, self-certifications, working hours, overtime, industrial disputes, subsidies, and promotional activities. Reducing regulatory overload would enable these industries to strengthen core operations, accelerate India’s emergence as a global manufacturing hub, and unlock untapped economic potential.
ELE Times: How can AI and RPA truly transform compliance management for manufacturing plants?
Munab Ali Beik: AI and RPA can revolutionize compliance management in manufacturing by automating repetitive tasks like payroll, attendance tracking, statutory filings, registers maintenance, returns filing, maintaining the data, Management information system and audit reporting. AI platforms provide real-time visibility, flag risks, and update changes in regulations automatically, while RPA ensures consistent workflows across HR, finance, and operations. This reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and frees management to focus on strategic priorities. Over time, digital compliance not only cuts costs, increase the efficiency, error free and improves safety monitoring but also strengthens governance and investor confidence.
ELE Times: What critical changes are required to make India a global manufacturing hub for electronics and automobiles?
Munab Ali Beik: To position India as a global manufacturing hub for electronics and automobiles, critical changes are needed in regulatory stability, ease of doing business, exemption from regulatory frameworks and policy clarity. Simplifying access to government schemes, enhancing transparency in labour laws, and streamlining compliance processes will reduce operational friction and build investor confidence. These measures will enable manufacturers to focus on innovation, scale efficiently, and compete globally, driving both domestic growth and export potential.
ELE Times: How is Core Integra evolving its AI/RPA tools to stay aligned with future compliance expectations?
Munab Ali Beik: We are continuously enhancing our AI and RPA capabilities through our compliance platform, Ctrl F, to stay ahead of evolving regulatory requirements. We leverage AI to track changing laws in real time, identify the impacts, flag risks, and automate documentation, filings, and reporting. By integrating RPA, we ensure consistency across multi-location operations, reduce manual errors, simplified the process and minimize administrative burdens. Alongside technology, we invest in R&D and advisory expertise to simplify complex regulations and provide proactive compliance updates. These innovations empower our clients to manage compliance efficiently, enhance operational oversight, and focus resources on scaling and innovation.
