Motown musings

Slowdown pressures clearly weigh heavy on car sales as the festive cheer failed to add much fervour to demand in November, dampened by high interest rates and uncertain economic climate. While car market leader Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle major Mahindra & Mahindra managed to touch double-digit growth in November sales, others were not so lucky as the poor sentiment among buyers saw their volumes go down sharply year-on-year.
Talking about gainers, Maruti Suzuki had an edge from the launch of a refreshed version of its Alto800 mini. Aided by the new variant, the company's November volumes gained 10% at 90,882 units against 82,870 units in the same month last year. Mahindra has also been riding high on the back of new launches as well as low diesel prices that have ensured a steady flow of customers to its fold. The company, that recently added an entry-level SUV to its portfolio in the Quanto, sold 24,604 units at a growth of 38% against 17,813 units in the corresponding month of the previous year.
The going was not so good for other companies though and these included big names like Hyundai, the country's second-biggest car maker, and Tata Motors and Toyota. Hyundai had a near-flat month as it sold 34,751 units against 35,000 units in November last year.


Sales of medium and heavy trucks fell 30% in November, the steepest fall seen since the height of the global financial crisis in 2008-09, as slowing industrial activity, curbs on mining and delays in infrastructure projects, force buyers to postpone purchases.
The trucks segment, often touted to reflect the wheels of a nation's economy, has suffered deeply due to a stagnant economy and slumping industrial activity with truck purchases at their lowest since March of 2009, despite highest-ever discounts Rs. 40,000 to Rs. 1.75 lakh. India’s largest commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors led this decline, revealing a 40% drop for November 2012 with sales of 9,495 units compared with over 16,000 units in November 2011. Prior to this, the steepest fall in sales of medium and heavy trucks seen by Tata Motors was 43 months ago on February of 2009, when India's largest automobile firm in terms of sales revenues witnessed a decline of 48%.
Tata Motors had said that it is operating at 70-75% of capacity.
According to several vendors supplying to the top three truck-makers in India, there is an under-utilisation in capacity of around 30-35% across the sector.

Sushma backs Modi for PM's post

Gujarat CM Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial ambitions got a boost when senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said he had the capabilities for the top post.
“There is no queue in the BJP for the prime minister post,” she said after landing in Vadodara to attend an election rally. “But Narendra Modi is definitely fit for the job and there is no doubt about it,” she added.

I K Gujral dies

Former prime minister IK Gujral, who headed the second United Front government for a year, died after a brief illness. Gujral, 92, breathed his last at a private hospital in the national capital region, following a multiple-organ failure. He was admitted to the hospital on November 19, with a lung infection. He was on dialysis for over a year and suffered chest infection a few days ago. He will be cremated in nearby Delhi on Saturday.
A suave and sober politician, Inder Kumar Gujral belonged to that genre of intellectuals who made a mark in the country's foreign policy. Gujral became prime minister of a shaky coalition after the main prop of the UF government, Congress, demanded that Deve Gowda be replaced. His stint from April 1997 to May 1998 was insufficient to leave a stamp, but he managed two legacies: As prime minister, Gujral resisted signing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which helped in the next government conducting the Pokhran nuclear tests without a hitch.
His second contribution was the Gujral doctrine to foreign policy. The Gujral doctrine was a five-point roadmap which sought to build trust between India and neighbours, of solution to bilateral issues through bilateral talks and to remove immediate quid pro quos in diplomatic relationship between India and her neighbours. The doctrine had its critics, who felt that India would be surrendering intelligence assets in neighbouring countries without any surety that neighbours would keep their side of the bargain of not harbouring any anti-India activity
Born on December 4, 1919, in Jhelum, now in Pakistan, Gujral belonged to a family of freedom fighters. Educated at DAV College, Haily College of Commerce and Forman Christian College, Lahore (now in Pakistan), Gujral took active part in student politics. Gujral’s political career began with the Quit India movement in 1942, when he was jailed as a 23 year old. He moved to Delhi from Lahore, during Partition, and involved himself in Delhi’s local politics. Braving heavy odds with his perseverance, resilience and neversay-die attitude, Gujral became vice president of the New Delhi Municipal Committee in 1958. He formally joined Congress and six years later, Indira Gandhi, to whom he said he owed everything, gave him a ticket with which he entered Rajya Sabha in April 1964. This was the beginning of a long innings, both in the national politics and diplomacy.
He was part of the ‘coterie’ that helped Indira Gandhi become prime minister in 1966. In Gandhi’s government, he held several portfolios as minister for communications, parliamentary affairs and housing. He was the information and broadcasting minister when Emergency was imposed, on June 25, 1975. Since he refused to kowtow to the powers that-be and implement arbitrary press censorship, he was sent as ambassador to Moscow, a post he handled with tact and finesse. He continued even during the tenures of her two successors, Morarji Desai and Charan Singh.
In the late 1980s, he left Congress and joined the newly-formed Janata Dal. When the National Front came to power in 1989 he was made external affairs minister. It was at this time that Iraq invaded Kuwait, followed by the first Gulf war. He courted controversy when he was hugged by Saddam Hussein, during his visit to Bagdad to ensure that all expatriates in Kuwait were safe.
Gujral went into political wilderness, after the fall of the VP Singh government in late 1990 but was made the surprise choice to replace Gowda as PM by the UF government. Gujral has always been perceived as a liberal in foreign policy circles, a determined dove who maintained candle light vigils at the India-Pakistan border at Wagah as a sign of friendship between two countries, long after he ceased to be prime minister. His short lived government was mired in controversies. In 1997, when his government recommended President’s rule in Uttar Pradesh, on the insistence of SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, then president KR Narayanan refused to sign it and sent it back. Gujral’s government did not last long. The arrival of Sonia Gandhi on the political scene saw her party insisting that DMK ministers resign from the UF government, in the wake of the Jain Commission’s alleged adversarial remarks on the party’s role in Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. He contested the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from Punjab, with the support of the Shiromani Akali Dal but after the House was dissolved in 1999, Gujral retired from active politcs. In his last years, he devoted time writing on foreign policy and promoting the liberal view point. Parliament was adjourned after news of his death broke. His colleagues lost no time in pouring tributes to India’s gentlest prime minister.

Somewhere in Hyderabad....

GDP growth slows....

The economy slowed in the July-September quarter due to sluggish farm sector performance and anaemic manufacturing growth, fuelling expectations of an interest rate cut and calls for implementing economic reforms to boost growth.
Data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed growth slowed to 5.3% in the July-September quarter compared to 6.7% expansion in the same year-ago period. It marked the slowest pace of expansion in three years and was below the 5.5% growth in the previous April-June quarter. Growth in the first half of 2012-13 stood at 5.4% compared to 7.3% in the year ago period. The finance ministry said the data was below its expectations. It attributed the sluggish growth in the farm and allied sectors to the lower than normal rainfall during June-July.
There were no surprises in the data as economists and financial market players had factored in slowing growth in July-September. This quarter witnessed a sharp slide in industrial growth, exports, investments and patchy rains hurt crops.
Real private consumption slowed to 3.7% year-on-year while the investment rate showed a minor uptick. But government consumption continues to be the biggest driver. India remains in the midst of a twin slowdown: private consumption and investment.
Driven by coal and petroleum refinery, eight core sector industries registered 8-month high growth of 6.5% in October, a trend that is in contrast to fall in country’s overall economic growth in July-September period.
Core sector industries had grown by a mere 0.4% in the same month last year.
Petroleum refinery products and coal production grew by 20.3% and 10.9%, respectively in the month under review. Steel output grew by 5.9%. Fertiliser and cement output increased by 2% and 6.8%, respectively.

Somewhere in Mumbai....

Yeddy quits the BJP

Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa (BSY), under whose leadership the BJP came to power for the first time in southern India, bade a tearful goodbye to his party, citing “torture” by some national and state leaders of the saffron outfit.
Yeddyurappa submitted his resignation as MLA in Bangalore and also as a primary member of the BJP, which he served for 40 years before embracing his new regional party, the Karnataka Janatha Party (KJP). BSY will take over as KJP chief on December 9.
Before resigning, he went to the Radha Krishna temple in Bangalore and then attended a huge gathering, turning emotional while giving his “goodbye” speech.
He said, “With great pain in my heart I am leaving the BJP ... The party had given me many opportunities... from municipal councillor to chief minister.”
Yeddyurappa attacked BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, saying he made several promises, none of which were honoured by him or “your party”.
“Many ministers and BJP MLAs are with me, but I have requested them not to come out yet. I only made Jagadish Shettar chief minister and I don’t want his government to collapse at this juncture,” he said.