After being a KTM owner for more than half a year now, i'm not fully sold on that idea. Sure, we get KTMs for cheap and they're good on-paper with good spec equipment, but the build quality is still Bajaj. Maybe a 10% better, but it's still quintessentially Bajaj (by which i mean disappointing). Quality control is a joke.

I don't have experience of riding Japan/Europe built bikes for a substantial period but i imagine they should be a LOT better. I am all for super low duties and foreign built bikes being sold in India at reasonable prices forever. I don't see anything wrong with that. Most of the European countries are in the same bucket as well and I don't see why we are so desperate to be different from that trend.

As Sunilg said, i also don't think that the direct intention of the indian government is to bully these manufacturers into opening assembly plants here. IMO, If they really want them to manufacture in India, they should much rather give them subisidized lands, incentives, tax cuts in lieu of opening a mega factory here. This is just the easy way to milk the "rich people" some more and as a consequence bully these bike manufacturers.

Point being, even though i don't plan to buy a 800+ cc bike in the medium term, i still absolutely oppose this idea. Artificially stifling international trade like this is never justifiable.