Cummins India will develop as an "ambidextrous organisation" by concentrating on its core engines business in Cummins India (CIL) and Cummins Diesel Sales and Services (CDS&S). This, while simultaneously incubating new businesses to emerge as a $1bn entity by 2003.

CIL chairman Ravi Venkatesan assured analysts on Wednesday that the new subsidiaries, set up for "an intense focus" on the specific business, are being reviewed. The review could see these subsidiaries being incorporated into the core business, said Jim M Rugg, chief financial officer (CFO) at Cummins Inc.

Mr Venkatesan said the three phase plan for nascent area business office of Cummins (I) will need more alliances with other original equipment manufacturers on the lines of the Tata Cummins (TCL). "We are in the process of finalising these with leaders in other sectors like mining, industrial equipment and power generation. We will even look at picking up equity in these. "CIL and CDS&S will also look at offering financial support to users through a combination of its own balance sheet strengths and FIs. The company has successfully implemented some projects in association with Citibank, with none of the debt coming on the books of CIL or CDS&S. Mr Rugg said the company was talking to FIs for a permanent alliance and would evaluate all options, including the balance sheet.

The first phase of the plan, he said, was to defend and extend the core business, incubate new businesses and then own and leverage customer relations. In the second phase, CIL will extend its product range. In the third phase, from ’03, it will go for small but strategic alliances, enter the fuels business, GPS monitoring and offer finance.