Every M&M car shares a certain DNA which is rugged, with an off-roading quality and built for hard wear and tear. The XUV is all those, but also has a smoother edge for those who want city comfort now offered in competitor vehicles such as the MG Hector, Hyundai Creta, Volkswagen Tiguan and Tata's Harrier, says Pavan Lall.
The latest Hyundai i20 is an exciting car, given the overall drive experience, transmission, ride quality and tech. And while it may not be as low cost as a Maruti or come with the "heavy German steel-feel" of the Volkswagen, it does carve out a niche for itself at pole position with a combination of technology, styling, drive and ride comfort, and low cost of ownership, says Pavan Lall.
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.
'Demand in India has been outstripping supply.'
Quality-wise, and on the fun-to-drive scale, the T-Roc is in a league of its own, notes Pavan Lall.
'We are opening stores in towns that are unheard of where the attachment to jewellery is strong and accompanied by the Tata brand pull.'
Some sectors like aviation, hospitality, travel and tourism, and automobile have witnessed zero cash flow since the lockdown began.
With Mitsubishi pulling the plug on it the days of the Pajero maybe over, but nobody who ever owned one will forget it. Some even learnt life-long lessons from it, says Pavan Lall.
When a manufacturer launches the fifth generation of a product, it is given that earlier avatars hit the mark. Ditto for the new Honda City, the latest version of which also brings in sweeping changes to the carmaker's product strategy for the Indian market, says Pavan Lall.
Titan expects sales of premium-priced watch sales to grow by leaps and bounds in the future on the back of a growing disposable income among working professionals and income categories, says Pavan Lall.
'There will be two to three months of containment, and when there is normalcy, the risk is a relapse and a return to lockdowns.'
Audi's strategy seems to point to pushing technology to directly connect with consumers using digital platforms and marketing to synchromesh into one seamless experience, says Pavan Lall.
'Family businesses have to put competent people in charge who believe they can get to the top.'
'If you don't remove the glass ceiling, you won't get the best talent.'
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.
'We have never compromised on the location of properties and that won't change.'
Once a stock market darling, the jewellery chain heads for liquidation.
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.
The possibility of the slowdown affecting more players is greater if the industry doesn't get access to easier finance in the next six to eight months.
The testing rate is likely to slow down, report Pavan Lall and Sohini Das.
V Vaidyanathan, former executive director at ICICI Bank who turned entrepreneur to run Capital First, an NBFC that caters to smaller businesses, tells Pavan Lall in an exclusive interview that his new entity post the merger of Capital First and IDFC Bank which will be called IDFC First will launch by January and cater to a new India with value services.
Corporate leaders said a stable government at the Centre will help boost infrastructure spend, address agricultural distress, and encouraging employment.
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.
How the XUV300's suspension, plastics and interiors hold out in Indian conditions after a couple of years will be the litmus test for its success in the long term, but for now, this SUV delivers, says Pavan Lall.
'It's still very early. I have just been handed over the matter and therefore I haven't formed any views on it as yet,' Justice B N Srikrishna tells Pavan Lall.
The radical styling that consists of 17-inch diamond-cut wheel rims and a chrome grill that comes with a sleek coupe-inspired profile -- the kind you'd expect to see in an Acura or a Lexus sports car -- make the Civic one of the best-looking cars on the road today irrespective of price.
Making a debut in India with an SUV, Citroen's products in the next couple of years will clearly chart and define its destiny in what has become both a vibrant but also a daunting market for foreign entrants, says Pavan Lall.
'That secularism in India is at risk is alarming for someone like me. I'm born secular,' Anjolie Ela Menon, the well-known painter, tells Pavan Lall.
'With 600 horses under the hood, the M5 that comes in a four-wheel drive avatar has historically been a track car, which means it's not going to be at its spirited best on city streets.' 'But this version, which is the sixth generation, has bits and bobs that do try to make it more compatible for everyday commuting,' says Pavan Lall.
Intimate getaways offered in the form of homestays by hotels are proving to be the flavour of this extraordinary and difficult time. Not far from cities, they offer a pleasant respite from homebound lives, says Pavan Lall.
'Approach people with respect, mindful that they know their job better than you do, and that you're not superior to them just because you may be better educated or their boss.' Skoda Auto VW India MD Gurpratap S Boparai cites his management credo to Pavan Lall.
According to research by IHS Markit, for an ecosystem still grappling with infrastructure issues -- the high cost of EVs and a greater OEM (original equipment manufacturer) focus on electrifying two-wheelers and commercial vehicles first -- the share of such vehicles is expected to be 4 per cent by 2030, reports Pavan Lall.
Given how everything has played out, Mehul Choksi, now 62, achieved all that he wanted but for all the wrong reasons, says Pavan Lall.
What worked for Hyundai in India when so many other auto manufacturers have had to eat humble pie? Pavan Lall finds out.
The common denominator: They were predominantly Gujarati, mostly male, and either related by blood or very well-known to Nirav.
The six-seater is built for long journeys, especially when you don't want to waste time and would rather wrap up meetings while, say, on the road to the airport, writes Pavan Lall.
Last year, Nikhil Kamath and his brother Nithin jettisoned into a club of the country's 100 wealthiest with their net worth pegged at around Rs 24,000 crore
'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.
This car commemorates the first Jaguar XJ 1, which was launched in 1968 and was widely acknowledged at the time to be one of the best automobiles ever made
Automakers are caught in a chicken-and-egg situation: Prices have to come down if volumes are to increase, and volumes won't increase unless prices come down, notes Pavan Lall.
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