More than 30 technology startups, collectively valued at $100 billion, are poised to go public by 2027, signalling a potential rebound in India's stock market activity, according to a report by investment bank The Rainmaker Group. Walmart-owned Flipkart, financial technology (fintech) leader PhonePe, SoftBank-backed Lenskart, Razorpay, Zetwerk, and Meesho are among the top companies preparing to go public in India.
Part-I of this three-part series dives into Delhi-NCR's SPR, Sohna, Dwarka Expressway, and Jewar Airport leading the charge.
Firodia talked about his plans for the EV-components business, and the components business at large for the group
Brazilian authorities have rescued 163 workers from conditions similar to 'slavery' at a construction site for a factory of Chinese electric vehicle company Build Your Dreams (BYD) in Camacari, Bahia.
Ola Electric has finalised its second phase of expansion, under which it will increase its plant capacity fourfold - from 1 million two-wheelers per annum to 4 million. This will also include motorcycles, said a top executive of the company. It will also build a plant with a 5 Gwh of advanced chemistry cell battery storage capacity in the same super factory located on the outskirts of Bengaluru.
Electric vehicle (EV) sales in India topped the 1 million mark in less than nine months in 2023, a milestone that took an entire year in 2022. According to data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' Vahan Dashboard, 1,037,011 EVs were registered with regional transport offices till September 19, accounting for 6.4 per cent of the total automobile sales in the country this year. The sales surge can be attributed to increased individual purchases as well as business-to-business (B2B) acquisitions by EV fleet operators, industry sources said.
'From data on enquiries, we can build what we call a data lake or a data warehouse where data is classified into various cohorts and then we use AI and ML tools to predict demand down the line.'
As Modi's government embarks on its third term, apart from ensuring these schemes boost India's green mobility, addressing bottlenecks like battery swapping and meeting PLI deadlines are likely to be the government's major tasks.
A quarter of the car sales in China are of electric vehicles; domestic brands command 81% of EV sales in the country.
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) will hold discussions with the Centre and state governments on how the production of compressed biogas (CBG), which can be used in vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG), can be expanded in the country, its majority shareholder Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) said. The demand for CNG vehicles has been rising significantly in the country. MSIL sold 145,000 CNG vehicles in the first quarter of 2024-25, marking a 28.3 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth.
India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has underscored the importance of not equating the victims and perpetrators of terror attacks, highlighting the need for global unity in combating terrorism. Speaking at Raisina Tokyo 2025, Misri expressed appreciation for Japan's support following the recent terror attack in Pahalgam, India. He also cautioned against the trend of some Western countries hyphenating India and Pakistan in the context of their recent military confrontation. Misri further outlined India's economic aspirations and its commitment to becoming a factor of stability in a turbulent world.
Vietnam-based electric vehicle maker VinFast, a rival of Tesla in the global market, has set foot in India and began work on building its Rs 16,000 crore EV manufacturing facility at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu. The company has already sought a reduction in import duties on its cars for about two years until customers get familiar with the brand and its unit in the state. The global major kicked off the construction of the first phase of its integrated EV hub, which may see Rs 4,000 crore of investment initially and will create more than 10,000 jobs.
The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday cleared the Rs 13,180 crore project by Yuzhan Technology, part of Taiwan's Foxconn Group, at Kancheepuram. The unit is reportedly expected to assemble smartphone display modules, which will be one of the first such units to cater to Apple's growing presence in the country. The unit is expected to generate at least 14,000 jobs. Of the 14 existing manufacturing units in the Apple supply chain, seven are based in Tamil Nadu.
The charging infrastructure expansion includes the setup of over 600 DC charging stations by 2030 (including company-owned and company-operated ones) in addition to partnerships with over 10,200 charging points, collaborating with operators like Shell, Charge Zone, and Statiq.
"There were discussions and the ministry had received suggestions that petrol-diesel vehicles should be banned. I would like to clarify that the government does not intend to ban petrol and diesel vehicles. We are not going to do anything like that," Gadkari said, addressing a gathering at the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) annual convention, 2019.
Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has visited the manufacturing facility of US-based electric vehicle major Tesla at Fremont, California and said that the company would be doubling its auto components imports from India. The minister is in the US on a four-day visit. The world's largest electric car producer Tesla Inc's chief Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York and after the meeting Musk had said that he planned to visit India in 2024.
India is sceptical that Tesla might import into the country cars made in China. Tesla executives were in India last month and appear to have proposed a factory in the country. But do not be surprised if that does not happen in a hurry.
Automobile manufacturers, new and old, as well as ancillary suppliers are set to spend a combined Rs 70,630 crore over the next five years on either entering the electric vehicle segment or stepping up their presence in it. Data culled from announcements made by firms shows India, the world's fifth largest automobile market, is poised to receive one of the biggest capex pushes ever to fuel the transition from internal combustion engines to electric motors and batteries as part of a green drive. The EV push, egged on by the government's emphasis on electric mobility to meet its net zero targets, is expected to yield at least 25 electric vehicles - new ones as well as electrified versions of existing vehicles running on internal combustion engines.
'This tragedy will not be the last -- you shall witness another tomorrow, perhaps another the day after, and increasingly more.'
The new scheme, promoting manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) by global majors, will give a fillip to companies like Tesla and its upstart rival Vinfast, both of whom have lobbied for lower import duties from the Centre. While Vinfast has already announced an investment of Rs 4,000 crore to set up an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Tamil Nadu, Tesla's next move will be watched carefully. Four years ago, Musk announced that his company would come to India.
Skoda Auto India, the Czech carmaker that has recently found success with its compact SUV Kylaq, says it remains committed to developing a fully localised electric vehicle (EV). The EV will be manufactured at its Chakan facility for both Indian market and exports.
Electric scooters suddenly catching fire has become a cause for concern of late.
Eicher Motors is a leader in the premium motorcycle segment, where it holds market share of over 85 per cent under the Royal Enfield (RE) brand. The company's joint venture VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) with Volvo, where it holds 54.5 per cent stake, gives it a strong footing in commercial vehicles (CVs). The company had good results in FY23 and it has a strong balance sheet and good operating margins.
India's trade deficit with China neared $100 billion in FY25, amid escalating concerns of dumping, data released by the commerce department on Wednesday showed. Chinese imports rose by 11.5 per cent to $113.45 billion, while outbound shipments to the neighbouring country saw 14.5 per cent contraction to $14.2 billion.
'Every Indian should move to an EV, and the government should not buy any fossil fuel cars. The government should become the first driver of EV adoption.'
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said if the US-based Tesla is ready to manufacture its electric vehicles in India then there is 'no problem' but the company must not import cars from China. In an interactive session at the Raisina Dialogue, Gadkari further said India is a large market and there is a huge potential for all electric vehicles. "If Elon Musk (Tesla CEO) is ready to manufacture in India then there is no problem ... Come to India, start manufacturing, India is a large market they can export from India," he said. The road transport and highways minister said his request to Musk is to come and manufacture in India.
Mobile phones and TV sets manufactured in India would become cheaper with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing cuts in Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on import of their components but smokers would have to pay more as the government has increased taxes.
The Rs 1-trillion Research Development and Innovation (RDI) fund, which was announced in the July budget for FY25, of which Rs 20,000 crore has already been allocated, will be operationalised in the next two to three months, a top official said.
The company is targeting countries like Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, and the UK which account for over 70 per cent of Europe's two-wheeler volumes.
Subsidies have been stopped for several manufacturers that are under investigation for alleged violations of local-sourcing rules.
'When compared to many of America's treaty allies in Asia, Modi 3.0 is on a much stronger footing.'
10 largecaps stocks which stand to gain from the Budget.
'The favourable rupee-dollar exchange rate, there are opportunities we can tap.'
Nearly a decade ago, the first fully electric vehicle (EV) caught fire on the road in the US. It was a model from Tesla, the world's most admired EV maker. A metal fragment punctured the underbelly of the vehicle, penetrating its battery pack, leading to a fire. Indian lawmakers and automakers have had nine years to study the incident (in fact, three Tesla Model Ss caught fire in two months in 2013) but seem to have learnt little.
Tata Group on Wednesday announced an investment of 4 billion pounds (about Rs 42,500 crore) in setting up a flagship factory to make batteries for Jaguar Land Rover as well as other manufacturers. Tata Sons, owner of JLR, chose Bridgwater in Somerset in southwest England for the gigafactory over a rival location in Spain. The gigafactory, at 40GWh, will be one of the largest in Europe and Tata's first outside of India, the conglomerate said in a statement.
The Centre on Wednesday scrapped the mandatory human safety tests for electric vehicle (EV) batteries required to qualify for incentives under various government schemes. The ministry of heavy industries, in its fresh guidelines, has made compliance with the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH's) prevailing EV battery testing standards the only requirement to get incentives under the Centre's various incentive schemes.
Two Japanese auto giants, Honda and Nissan, are moving towards a potential merger, but it remains unclear how their Indian operations will be immediately impacted.
The Punch.ev achieved the highest score point ever recorded by any vehicle to date, scoring 31.46 out of 32 for adult occupant protection and 45 out of 49 for child occupant protection.
At Prestige Polygon Towers in Chennai's Teynampet, hectic preparations are on for a mega global investors' meet under the aegis of Guidance Tamil Nadu (the state investment promotion agency) scheduled for January 2024. Asked about the key focus areas of the meet, the agency's managing director and chief executive officer, V Vishnu, said the state was betting big on electric mobility. This is no surprise, given that the state has signed electric vehicle (EV)-related memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with several companies in the recent past that may bring in investments worth around Rs 33,000 crore with the potential to create over 43,000 job opportunities.
An Indian official team is likely to visit Washington next week to iron out differences on certain issues before formally launching negotiations for the proposed India-US bilateral trade agreement (BTA), an official said. The visit, which comes within weeks of a high-level US team visiting India, indicates that the talks for the BTA are gaining momentum.
