Heena Sharma Blog

Automaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) said on Wednesday it saw a "huge danger" of job losses in the ailing domestic auto sector, as it sought government intervention, including tax reductions to revive demand. A lending crisis among the country's shadow banks, which fund nearly 55-60% of commercial vehicles and 30% of passenger cars, has led to automakers, including M&M and its rivals Maruti Suzuki India Ltd and Tata Motors Ltd, to either cut production or temporarily close plants. M&M said in a statement it was only able to maintain margins due to falling commodity prices and the government must reduce the goods and services tax (GST) rate to spur demand. A slump in sales is also triggering massive job cuts in the sector that employs 35 million people directly and indirectly. Reuters reported on Tuesday that initial estimates suggest automakers, parts manufacturers and dealers have laid off about 350,000 workers since April. "Now jo

Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Tuesday said he would ban plastic bottles from corporate boardrooms, after a Twitter user pointed them out in a photo of a meeting shared by him. Mahindra replied to a woman who pointed out the plastic bottles at a boardroom meeting in the picture. "I think the boardroom should have steel bottles instead of plastic bottles," she tweeted. "Plastic bottles will be banished. We were all embarrassed to see them that day," Mahindra responded. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) Friday said it has launched a new entry level variant of its SUV XUV500 priced at Rs 12.22 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). The new variant would be available across the country at company dealerships with immediate effect, M&M said in a statement. "The launch of the W3 version makes the vehicle much more accessible to a wider range of customers," M&M Chief of Sales and Marketing, Automotive Division Veejay Ram Nakra said. The W3 trim comes with six-speed manual transmission and features like projector headlamps, dual-front airbags, anti-lock braking system with electronic brakeforce distribution and disc brakes on all four wheels. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

With major cities in India facing pollution issues and the national capital almost choking on toxic air, Mahindra & Mahindra is keen to introduce an electric ' kick ' scooters as a last-mile mobility solution. The group is looking at leveraging the strength and experience of San Francisco-based shared electric mobility firm Scoot Networks , in which it is a major investor, for a multi-modal approach of shared mobility to tackle pollution and congestion problems in the major cities of India. The electric skate-scooter will be offered as a one-person mobility solution that can be hired at low rates in order to navigate short distances across crowded streets. Anand Mahindra along with other executives of the group and Scoot Networks CEO Michael Keating pitched the ' kick ' scooter to central ministers as well as Delhi government in order to explore the possibility of bringing shared electric kick scooters here. Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari, env

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration is aiming to have more than 30 percent of vehicles run on electricity by 2030 in a bid to lower air pollution and curb reliance on fossil fuels Current Affairs News : India has pushed back a deadline to put thousands of battery-driven cars   on the road by nearly a year, in a setback to its ambitions of having   electric vehicles comprise about a third of its fleet by 2030. State-owned Energy Efficiency Services, which is responsible for procuring electric cars to replace the petrol and diesel vehicles used by government officials, will roll out the first 10,000 vehicles by March 2019, Saurabh Kumar, the agency’s managing director said. EESL issued its first tender for 10,000 cars in September. It planned to roll out 500 cars by November and the rest by June. “The need for building more charging points for 10,000 electric cars and states being slow in taking deliveries are the reasons for the delay,” Kumar said i