Indian Auto Industry at Top Gear

Automobile sales in Indian market reached record levels this festive season. Due to easily available finance, discounts and offers in new models, festival bonus and so on, Indian automobile industry reached a peak level in sales according to caretrade india .

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM)’s director general, Vishnu Matur said, “October demand was good due to the festive season. The basic fundamentals of the industry remain strong. Last month was the best ever for  new cars, motorcycles and scooters. Sales normally fall in the second half but demand is still high so we should more than meet the sales target of over 2.4 million passenger vehicles for 2009-10.”

He also added, “The record numbers are largely due to the festival season, which advances demand from November and December. There is also the positive market sentiment, the increasing purchasing power of the people and the easy liquidity in the system that is helping in keeping interest rates low.”

Finally he said, “The outlook is very positive — we are hoping to exceed the 18-20 per cent growth target for the fiscal, but the next five months are crucial. We have to watch out for the tightening of interest rates and rising raw material prices,”

New Player in India mobile phone market

Sharp Corp, a Japanese electronics maker, will start selling mobile phones in India next month, the Nikkei business daily reported on Saturday Nov 13, 2010.

India's mobile phone market is expected to grow as the nation had more than 200 million new users in the past year, while only 50% of the population use mobile phones, the newspaper said.

Sharp will be the first Japanese mobile phone maker after Sony Ericsson to enter the Indian market, the newspaper said.

Sharp will sell four types of phones, of which two have SIM cards that recognise users installed, the newspaper said, second generation phones that allow users to access to Internet.

The phones will be priced between 13,000 yen (USD 158) and 36,000 yen (USD 436), considered to be expensive, the report said.