Despite worsening political ties between China and India, a Chinese automaker is making a large investment in the subcontinent. Great Wall Motors, or GWM, China's largest maker of sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, has signed a memorandum of understanding to invest $1 billion to upgrade an auto plant in India's western province of Maharashtra. The plant, a former General Motors (GM) facility located near the city of Pune and is expected to generate jobs for 3,000 people. "This would be a highly automated plant in Talegaon [a town near Pune] with advanced robotics technology integrated in many of the production processes," said Parker Shi, managing director of GWM India. GWM becomes the second large Chinese automaker to enter the Indian market after MG Motor, a unit of SAIC Motor Corp., did so last year.