Bosch Chairman V K Viswanathan resigns as part of succession planning

Auto component major Bosch Ltd on Friday said its Chairman V K Viswanathan has resigned as part of succession planning.

In a regulatory filing, the company said Viswanathan, who is a non-executive director, conveyed his decision to resign from the board of directors with effect from August 23, 2019 after almost two decades of association with the board.

The development comes at a time when the company is undertaking temporary closure of its two plants and restructuring and redeployment of employees in the midst of slowdown in the automobile industry.

Earlier this month, the auto components major had announced that it would temporarily stop production for a total of 13 days across its two plants at Gangaikondan in Tamil Nadu and Nashik in Maharashtra.

Bosch Ltd Managing Director Soumitra Bhattacharya said the India auto industry was going a paradigm shift making the outlook of the industry extremely challenging, impacting structures, including surplus manpower.

There would be "manpower adjustments" although "every opportunity will be extended for re-skilling and redeployment to align with adjustment of portfolios and competencies," he added.