Following on the heels of the American auto majors (GM, Ford and Chrysler), the Indian auto industry has fallen on hard times, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Of course, we are thrilled because we are big supporters of public transportation.
Here’s an excerpt from the WSJ piece (subscription required):
India’s local car sales in October had their biggest percentage decline in more than three years as higher rates on loans and increased fuel costs crimped demand for vehicles from Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co.
Sales in the past month slid 6.6% to 98,900 cars from 105,877 a year earlier, according to data issued Monday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. It was the biggest drop in monthly car sales since an 11% fall in July 2005.
Some big-name foreign auto makers were hard-hit, with Ford’s sales in India falling 50% and Honda’s plunging 75%. The overall decline in October sales was the third monthly decrease — after drops of 1.7% in July and 4.4% in August — in the current fiscal year to March 31, 2009.
Greater investment in public transportation is the key to solving many of the problems bedevilling us like pollution, purchase of oil from despots, road rage and increasing debt of the middle class.
Hooray, Indian Car Business Slumps added by SearchIndia.com on
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I hope Tata Nano should not benefit from this Slump as they are very low priced.
Motorists in bangalore are already learning the art of driving on Footpath. Tata Nano’s tag line would be “Make your own roads” !!
Its good for a country like India, where the transport infrastructure is highly inadequate for the growth of automobile population. People in Indian cities are becoming highly passionate about ruthless driving and messing up the traffic. I think this slump will help a bit in reducing traffic congestion.
Though I got a car, I prefer to go to office by my bike so that I can contribute to less traffic conjestion and save fuel as well. In place like chennai you can go to a place by bike in 1/3 of the time you get to go in a car. Car is meaningless here. And surprisingly there are places where you can go faster in cycle than bike too.
I think tata nano could not be prized as it was told under current circumstances… if they have to still stick to the price .. may be they will reduce a wheel..
then it becomes auto nano 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
God, we hope Tata Nano becomes Flop Nano.
Hey, Joe.. is telecommuting a viable option in India.. That’s a good option to save gas and congestion.
I would think that is not very reliable.. frequent power-cuts.. I don’t know about the internet speed.. does it vary a lot?
It is also a welcome relief from the 1-2 hour commute each way consuming poisonous gases along the way. Downside is that you can’t kiss the boss’s ass as much from home.. If you are the boss, then physical presence goes a long way in establishing good rapport.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: is telecommuting a viable option in India..
We don’t know about the situation in Joe’s location.
But in India’s Silicon Valley, Karnataka, telecommuting seems impossible. The power shortage situation has gone from very bad to disastrous.
Here’s an article from today’s Times of India on how grim the power picture is in Karnataka: No solution, keep candles lit for weeks
Hello, readers…We’d like to know the average broadband Internet speeds to in Bangalore and Chennai, the monthly pricing and how often does it go down? If it goes down, how long does the service provider take to fix it? Is there a monthly cap on usage?
Here, we get unlimited 10Mbps-15Mbps for $33 a month (i.e if you sign up for a $99 per month Comcast package of TV/Internet/Phone. Verizon has similar packages).
I had BSNL broadband for my home PC in bangalore . The speed decent.
Broadband internet speed : 2Mbps
Download Limit per month : 1GB
The phone and internet was clubbed into one bill. I remember paying 2000Rs per month ( in 2007) .
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks for the info.
$50 for a phone & LIMITED Internet (1GB) is not a good deal.
Guess, you can’t watch even a single movie online with a 1GB limit via something like Netflix’ streaming Instant Play service (which of course is currently not available in India).
Trey : is telecommuting a viable option in India
As rightly said by SI, power inadequacy is a major problem here in india so telecommuting is out of context. You can understand why India is desperate about the nuke deal and planning to spend around 250 billion for power from nuke from US.
S.I: We’d like to know the average broadband Internet speeds to in Bangalore and Chennai, the monthly pricing and how often does it go down
I got a 2G limit, 2Mbps speed + 175 (2 min) call for 550 bucks from BSNL.. you can watch youtube in fair speed but what is the use your 2G limit will go in few days and you end up paying .8 Rs per MB…
Internet in US was amazing, it was cheap and fast and most of the plans were unlimited… here in india you dont have much of unlimited plans.. more over higher quality services like 8Mbps are not available to individuals as we have in US.. they are only for govt services and large scale business institutions and educational institutes…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks for the info.
Looks like the ISPs are ripping off Indian consumers.
Must be very frustrating for you guys. 🙁