Tuesday Thought

With  PM Modi on USA trip, there is not much happening  in political circles in the country, except that elections were announced for the state assemblies in Haryana & Maharashtra. Still some thoughts of today which I want to share with you friends

1 Few days back I had written about the slow down in automobile sector. The actual fact is that  the sales of ordinary cars have been slowed down because of middle class not interested in buying cars by taking car loans when other modes of similar transport like Ola/Uber is available. To emphasise on this point please consider following facts

-MG Hector booked 21000 SUVs during first week of its launch. This SUV cosr around Rs 20 lakhs for mid range variant. Waiting period is 6 months.

-Kia Seltos booked 32000 in first month. This SUV is going to cost approx Rs 16 lakhs for mid range variants, waiting period is 6 months,

-Tata Harrier sold 50000 units in first 3 months, the mid range variant cost around 15 lakhs, waiting period 3 months.

– Maruti XL 6 booked 5000 SUVs, cost Rs 11 lakhs for mid range variant.

-Hyundai Venue booked 50000 SUVs in first month, cost Rs 16 lakhs for mid range variant, waiting period 6 months.

-Mahindra XUV 300/500, established models in the market, 2000 units getting sold per month with average price between Rs 10 to 18 lakhs.

-Baleno, Creta , Breeza, Ertiga (Marutii) Tata Nexon, Jeep Compass still selling in 4 digits  every month.

Then where is market slow down ?

Slow down is in age old models like Alto, Wagon R, I 10, Santro, Indica , Indigo, Nano.

The fact is upper middle class Indians are moving from ordinary to luxury cars.

Same way sale of Volvo and Scania buses is increasing as compared to Ashok Leyland and Tata buses or trucks.

The fact is Maharashtra and Karnataka’s state road transport’s all premium buses are of Volvo & Scania. For every 15 minutes MSRTC’s Shivneri (Volvo) Ashwamedh (Scania) plies between Mumbai and Pune, and for every hour between Pune and Bangalore. All these buses run with packed capacity with satisfied customer.

Similar analogy is available in other sectors also

-In Fast Moving Commercial Goods (FMCG), Unilever  and Procter& Gamble are facing slow down as they are out numbered by Patanjali  and Dabur

-In mobiles Samsung and Nokia are loosing but Xiaomi, Vioi, Oppo, Realme are creating new records in terms of sales.

-Jet airways had to stop its operations but Indigo and Spice Jet are doing wonderful.

-BSNL & MTNL are on the verge of extinction because of poor services, but Jio, Airtel leads with highest share of new customers every month.

-D Mart is opening new store every month,

-Flipkart, Amazon’s sales are increasing day by day.

Then where is slow down ??

My personal opinion is slow down is only in News Papers, Visual Media and in the minds of  Media persons under the influence of Lutyen  crowd.

2  RBI has put one more bank under their radar. Today morning Punjab & Maharashtra Co Operative Bank (PMC bank) announced to their customers that  as per RBI’s restrictions imposed on their bank, only Rs 1000 can be withdrawn from their account in next six months. This action is being taken under section 35 A. Loosely the section 35 A means that the bank has given the loans to some entities, without taking prior approval from RBI as required by guidelines.

My only question to RBI- how can a person survive on Rs 1000  in 6 months. Near my home, there is a branch of PMC bank, in the morning there chaos at the Bank premises. This branch mainly caters to lower middle class and middle class residents of our locality which is predominantly  a residential locality. Even my wife and myself also have our savings accounts with that branch, plus FDs plus locker. After retirement, both of us are kept  major chunk of our money in this branch, and since morning I am worried.

More than thinking about us, I was thinking about poor families whose total savings/money from salary are in this branch. Now a days most of the salaried people, the monthly payment is directly credited into their bank accounts. Now all of these people have to immediately open new account in another bank and inform their employer not to credit their salary in PMC Bank. For any emergency what they will do- as their savings are blocked.

Some times I fail to understand, why always common man has to suffer. A bank is doing business from the funds deposited by saving accounts holders and fixed deposits. When bank’s management does some blunder/mistake, then RBI sees that  the common man suffer. This has happened umpteen number of times and what RBI/govt has done- they have promise that your money in the bank is insured up to Rs 1 lakh. Now what is Rs 1 lakh  in present days ?

So in the end in this case consumer suffers, otherwise in management jargon CONSUMER IS KING.

What you say my friends

Awaiting your comments/feed backs/views,

 

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

24^th Sept 2019