Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion secretary Ajay Shankar told PTI, "India is emerging as a globally competitive manufacturing hub for small fuel efficient cars." Shankar, who was in London to interact with the UK-India Business Council and the India Business Forum, said, though, export-oriented small and medium enterprises have been severely hit, 'fortunately the auto-sector in India has revived.'
These automotive companies were afraid of competition and made wrong accusations on grounds of safety.
Sensex ends belowe 26,800 on domestic concerns.
Earlier in May, Ford India announced that it had dropped its plans to make electric vehicles (EVs) in India, which it intended to export, under the production-linked incentive scheme (PLI). Ford was among 20 companies that had signed a Champion OEM Incentive Scheme under the PLI project with the government in February this year. The decision comes as a blow for the 4,000-odd employees at Ford India's Maraimalai Nagar plant near Chennai and in Sanand, Gujarat. In September last year, the company had announced that it would exit the India market, which it had entered in 1995 through an on-again, off-again joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra (they split in 1998, signed a JV in 2019 and split again in December 2020), retailing petrol and diesel brands such as the EcoSport, Figo, Aspire, and Endeavour.
'We have a customer base of 70,000 in India'.
The global semiconductor shortage hit passenger vehicle sales in September, with major manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra reporting a decline in sales on Friday. Kia India and Honda Cars also reported a dip in wholesales last month as compared with the year-ago period. Carmakers like Tata Motors, Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Nissan and Skoda, however, reported an increase in passenger vehicle dispatches last month despite supply chain issues.
Palo Alto-based electric carmaker Tesla has initiated talks with the government on the modalities of setting up fully-owned retail outlets. The company needs to comply with the foreign direct investment (FDI) guidelines related to single-brand retail, including local sourcing norms, to sell directly in India. At least two other foreign majors - Apple and Ikea - were engaged in talks with the government long before the sourcing norms were eased under the single-brand retail route.
The 125-km stretch covering Sanand, Hansalpur and Vithalapur, with connected nodes at Kadi and Halol, is set to emerge as the next major automobile hub in India.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday reported 2.04 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter at Rs 1,419.6 crore on the back of higher sales. The auto major had posted a net profit of Rs 1,391.1 crore in the July-September quarter of the previous fiscal.
The United States has filed a complaint against China at the World Trade Organisation over the nearly $3 billion of antidumping and countervailing duties that Beijing levies on US automobile exports, saying that such duties abuse trade laws.
Automobile companies put in an impressive show in April.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports, is expected to increase the country's production by $520 billion in the next five years. Addressing a webinar on PLI scheme, organised by Department of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT) and NITI Aayog, through video conference, Modi said the government is continuously carrying out reforms to boost domestic manufacturing. In this year's Budget, about Rs 2 lakh crore was earmarked for the PLI scheme for the next five years and "there is an expectation that the scheme would result in increasing the production by about $520 billion in the next five years", he said. He added that there is also an expectation that the current workforce in the sectors, which will avail the benefits of the PLI scheme, will be doubled and job creation will also increase.
Automobile companies saw remarkable growth in sales in June.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Thursday said its new manufacturing facility in Haryana, the company's third in the state, would reach peak production capacity of 10 lakh units per annum in the next eight years entailing a total investment of Rs 18,000 crore. The new facility, which would come at a 800-acre site at IMT Kharkhoda in Sonipat district, will entail total investment of Rs 11,000 crore in the first phase with a production capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum. The first set of vehicles are expected to roll out from the facility in 2025.
The auto ancillary industry - one of the worst hit due to the labour exodus - will need at least three months to get its factories up and running.
The output of eight core infrastructure sectors grew marginally by 0.1 per cent in January, mainly due to growth in the production of fertiliser, steel and electricity. The core sectors had expanded by 2.2 per cent in January 2020, according to the provisional data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Friday. Coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, and cement recorded negative growth in January.
The government on Tuesday expressed concern over reports that automobile manufacturers are selling vehicles with purposefully downgraded safety standards in India and asked them to stop the 'unpardonable' practice. Speaking at a seminar on implementation of vehicle location tracking devices in order to enhance the safety on road, organised by auto industry body SIAM, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) secretary Giridhar Aramane also noted that only a few manufacturers have adopted vehicle safety ratings system and that too used only for their high-end models.
New Delhi is considering a diplomacy drive to get Sri Lanka to bring down import duty on automobiles from New Delhi.
Sales of the company's oldest and once bread-and-butter model M800 declined by 5.53 per cent at 3,124 units from same period last year, while A2 segment (comprising Alto, Wagon R, Estilo, Swift, A-Star and Ritz) witnessed a growth of 18.43 per cent at 51,437 units compared to same period last year.
'Rahul inspired Indian industry with an ethos, an ethos of being more confident, more independent, more thorough, more competitive, more generous, more public-spirited, and more national and more international all at once,' remembers Naushad Forbes.
'We don't need to hinge India-UK relations on shared hostility toward China,' observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met over 40 CEOs across broad swathes of industry, ranging from makers of mobile devices, auto components, food products to telecom networking equipment and pharmaceuticals. The agenda: To discuss how to make India an integral part of the global supply chain. The focus of the discussion would be the much touted yet not so well understood production-linked incentive scheme (PLI), the centrepiece of the government's drive to massively boost the manufacturing sector. To do so, the government has created a war chest of over Rs 197,000 crore to be paid out as incentives to over 14 industries in five years. There are three objectives to the scheme, two explicitly stated, one implied.
That resulted in a 50-basis point improvement in operating profit margins on a sequential basis.
The country's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Thursday launched a new version of its multi-purpose vehicle XL6 as it gears up to bring a slew of new products this fiscal and take the challenges of prevailing uncertainties head-on. The new XL6 is powered by a 1.5-litre petrol engine with a peak power of 75.8 kW. It is available in manual and automatic transmission options, priced between Rs 11.29 lakh and Rs 14.55 lakh (ex-showroom). Speaking at the launch, newly appointed Maruti Suzuki India managing director and CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said, "With the uncertainties prevailing today, the business realities are continuously evolving.
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation's biggest oil firm, on Tuesday reported a 31.4 per cent drop in the fourth quarter net profit as record refining margins were wiped away by a margin squeeze in petrochemicals and losses on auto fuel sales. Standalone net profit of Rs 6,021.88 crore, or Rs 6.56 a share, in January-March, compared with Rs 8,781.30 crore, or Rs 9.56 per share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a stock exchange filing. Sequentially, the profit was higher than Rs 5,860.80 crore in the previous quarter.
Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra on Tuesday said it plans to launch 16 electric vehicles (EVs) by 2027 across SUV and light commercial vehicle categories to strengthen its leadership position in India's electric mobility segment. The company, which has set a cumulative revenue growth target of 15-20 per cent by 2025, is keeping its options open to either bring in private equity investors or carve out its EV business into a separate entity to drive its growth. M&M, which has already announced plans to invest Rs 3,000 crore in EVs, is also considering a new brand name for the electric SUVs that it will launch by 2027.
Recently, world headlines buzzed with Elon Musk's announcement that he was shelving his audacious bid for social media platform Twitter. Away from the media spotlight, questions are being asked about the maverick billionaire's plans in India, too. A few days ago, a Reuters report said Musk's flagship Tesla had put on hold its plan to launch electric cars in India.
India is back on the diplomatic table pushing oil producing countries to raise production in a bid to cool down runaway oil prices. Brent crude oil prices traded above $90 a barrel, on Thursday, for the first time since 2014. Brent is the most popular marker for crude oil trade. It is used as a benchmark for two-thirds of the world's internationally traded crude oil.
After a very weak December quarter and a poor year-to-date fiscal year volumes-when sales plunged to the lowest in nine years, the signs in the first 15 days of January haven't been encouraging either. "Though the severity of the current wave is not as high as the previous one, it has hit the sentiments hard impacting conversion of enquiries into sales," said Vinkesh Gulati, president, Federation of Automobile Dealers Association (FADA).
'When 99.9 per cent of the most vulnerable are above 65, I see no logic in this sweeping lockdown in a country in which 94 per cent are below 65.' 'The most sensible thing to do would be to recalibrate this unnecessary lockdown as soon as possible.'
Exasperated by frequent labour strikes, the Tamil Nadu government has decided to give public utility status to Auto components makers. A move that has left labour unions fuming since, now, they won't be able to go on strike without issuing a notice of six weeks in advance.
Between August and September Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman toured the length and breadth of India meeting traders, experts and entrepreneurs to gauge the pulse of the nation, reports Ruchika Chitravanshi.
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said he has asked US-based Tesla several times to manufacture its iconic electric vehicles in India, while assuring that all support will be provided by the government to the company. Addressing 'India Today Conclave 2021', Gadkari further said electric cars manufactured by Tata Motors are not less good than electric cars manufactured by Tesla. "I have told Tesla that don't sell electric cars in India which your company has manufactured in China.
Work is underway in identifying global companies in sectors ranging from electronics, auto components and medical equipment to shift part of their existing or incremental manufacturing to India.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a statewide curfew for 15 days from 8 am on April 14 to contain the rapid spread of the coronavirus in its second wave. With Section 144 being imposed across the state, Thackeray essential services have been exempted from the restrictions. The curfew will be in place till 7 am on May 1.
On a standalone basis, the company reported a net loss of Rs 249.4 crore for the first quarter ended June 30. Net sales declined to Rs 3,679 crore in the first quarter as against Rs 18,738.8 crore in the year-ago period.
Rising prices of international coal - both coking and thermal - used in the making of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, respectively, are expected to have an impact on margins of metals companies in July-September quarter (Q2) as steel companies may see margins getting eroded, while the base firms could stand to benefit, said brokerages.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 71 points at 26,710 and the 50-share Nifty lost 38 points to close at 8,030.
Poor governance and mediocre short-sighted politics are destroying the paradise that Goa was as its environment, water table, culture and way of life is drastically threatened by tourism and migration, points out Ramesh Menon.