The MG Motor India management is focused on scaling up and launching smaller cars to play the long game in the country, says Pavan Lall.
Zippy and comfortable, the Mini Convertible is a perfect car for short jaunts, but this isn't the ride you'd choose to take your entire family to the airport or pick for a long family excursion, says Pavan Lall.
Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini are some marquee badges that have introduced track cars to excite hard-core customers who want to push their cars to the limit, says Pavan Lall.
Don't expect the synthetic stones to surpass natural ones anytime soon because the world's biggest miners of diamonds aren't looking to get into man-made diamonds.
It has get-up-and-go and is possessed of immense agility, observes Pavan Lall.
However, it has an auditory feature that throws up a soft but audible whirring sound like a spaceship while driving as well as a different tone on the outside to let bystanders know a car is on its way, says Pavan Lall.
The car is built in a manner that stands tall and rugged on the city streets, without ever being uncomfortable, says Pavan Lall.
'If journalism is the first draft of history, then photojournalism is the first draft of its evidence,' Raghu Rai, arguably India's finest living photojournalist, tells Pavan Lall.
Despite recent developments that have accelerated the impending extradition of fugitive diamantaire Nirav Modi, who has been in custody in London's Wandsworth Prison for over two years, the last month has seen his uncle Mehul Choksi dominate the headlines instead with his circus-like exhibition in the Caribbean that has involved red herrings such as a "girlfriend", to whom his wife seemed to have no objection, and possibly concocted stories of being kidnapped and manhandled. Choksi was widely regarded as Modi's Svengali in Mumbai when he returned from Belgium to expand his business. He had fled to Antigua well before news around how Modi finagled thousands of crores from Punjab National Bank (PNB) and other institutions through a series of allegedly coordinated and fraudulent actions involving letters of undertaking, or LoUs.
'It says, we are not just an overseas player -- we are Kia India and here for good'
Given how everything has played out, Mehul Choksi, now 62, achieved all that he wanted but for all the wrong reasons, says Pavan Lall.
Maruti is not an online outlier, of course; other heavyweights have rolled out similar services. But as an analyst pointed out, Maruti's all-India roll-out has significant impact given that it accounts for over half of all cars sold, reports, reports Pavan Lall.
'Our strategy is intact and our important pillars for India -- the SUV roll-out and the focus on the cost of ownership of a car -- remain in focus'
The new car market is estimated at around 30,000 units a year in sales in a good year, whereas the used car market for luxury vehicles is estimated at around 60,000 cars annually.
What will it take for Tesla to plug and play in India? Sector pundits say it's a mix of strategy, getting the price right, timing, the right talent, and above all, patience.
While the latest, fourth-generation Swift makes no pretence of being a performance car or the last word in luxury, what it does stand for is amply evident, notes Pavan Lall.
While domestic market growth is important, the sales trajectory in the international markets, which account for 45 per cent of the revenues, will be a key rerating trigger, say analysts.
Near-term prospects hinge on the progress of the second wave of Covid-19. A lockdown will dent prospects as 60 per cent of revenues come from the dine-in segment.
The gains came on expectations that the company will post strong growth given its presence in application to peer services and the fast-growing communication platform as a service segment.
Given the expectations of growth in the packaged foods segment, the company seeks to become a Rs 1-trillion FMCG business by FY30.