Blogs

The automotive retail landscape in India is not just evolving; it is being redefined. With shifting consumer behaviors, digital-first interactions, and the growing prominence of EVs and hybrids, dealerships must ada...

When I realised that the Indian government was planning to make the recently concluded Bharat Mobility Global Expo an annual event, I was aghast.

In the ever-evolving landscape of automotive manufacturing, one cannot overlook the environmental challenges that persist. Mumbai's recent decision to retire its iconic red diesel-run double-decker buses, in service...

On Sunday, September 03, 2023, I got a call from my friend and a senior photo journalist Mohammed Shafiq informing me that Deepangshu Dev Sarmah was no more. He was at that time working with Mobility Outlook, a B2...

What’s with journalists these days? Has journalism changed from being a noble profession to one that is ignoble? It seems that it has become a profession of jokers, extortionists, political stooges and spineless boy...

To say that an Electric Vehicle (EV) revolution is sweeping India may be a bit of an overstatement, but it is true that EV sales are in the fast lane and the country will see an EV revolution in the not-so-distant f...

For some reason, MG Motor India never brandished its Chinese pride. The reasons were obvious. In India, especially among the politicians and bureaucrats, the word China spells enmity and distrust. No one in India i...

Author Elisabeth Foley has rightly said, “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” And that is precisely what Vikram Kirloskar and Toyota have demonstra...

Many decades back, much before I joined the newspapers as a journalist, I remember reading the book titled ‘Iacocca: An Autobiography’. The bestselling book was co-authored by William Novak and was originally publis...

I love it when a random auto journalist in India writes in his column that a high speed car needs to be driven on a race track. Auto journalists are typically that breed of professionals who “run with the hares and ...

Today, the concern over climate change has pushed global business operations towards being greener and more sustainable. More and more businesses are incorporating sustainability goals in order to cut down on energy...

“Gurinder is no more you know? He died of gunshot injuries a couple of years back. I was informed about this a few days back when I met a journalist from Punjab,” Shafiq told me. I was aghast. How is it that I misse...

It’s been several months since I accepted a car or bike “review” invitation. Yes, I miss reviewing new cars and bikes. There is no denying that fact. OEMs continue to shower journalists with free air travel, free 5-...

In the good old days, some of us used to pick up the morning #newspaper to read the latest news, whether it was on #politics, #sports, local development or #business. The more voracious readers amongst us spent thei...

But all the talk of “Atmanirbhar Bharat” makes no sense if it does not bring in the moolah for the investor. In the early days of post Independence making moolah was very difficult because of the “red-tapism” and co...

Words like “Make in India”, “#AtmanirbharBharat” or self-reliant India have been doing the rounds much before we got our Independence in 1947. It was Mahatma Gandhi dressed in his simple cotton dhoti and shawl who...

OEMs are basically manufacturers of cars, two wheelers and other vehicles. I have often asked myself, are OEMs like the Pied Piper of Hamelin in the poem written by Robert Browning. And are we journalists and influe...

A couple of decades back, #journalists were kind of independent when it came to reporting and they never had the management breathing down their necks to get moolah for their organisations. And even if they wanted...

In days of yore, #journalists were simple in their outlook, existed on meagre salaries and were there on a mission to bring out the truth. In the 1980s and early 1990s before the television boom, business journalism...

In Part 4, I explained what it means to deal with the “Paapi pet ka sawal hein…” issue. After all, journalists and PR pros are humans too. They have to survive.

Many of us would have heard of the Hindi phrase “Paapi pet ka sawal hein…” In essence it means, eventually it’s all about feeding ourselves, it’s about our stomach… Yes, we all work hard because we want to put food ...

Are #journalists different from #PRprofessionals? I really do not think so. Both jobs call for a lot of hard work, patience and self-respect. I have often referred to these professions as two sides of a coin. Throug...

In the past I have talked a bit about #journalists, but what about #PublicRelations boys and girls? Who are they? What is their mandate?

For more than a decade from the 1980s to 1990s, I was a business journalist working in different newspapers. #Journalists at that time were known for their ethics, self-respect, high moral standards and their vast k...

The Nurburgring was the Holy Grail for car manufacturers to prepare their cars for the worst lap of its life to break each other’s record. Some manufacturers would bring their cars to the track just to develop them,...

Jeremy Clarkson. We all know that this man working for BBC and who hosts the show ‘Top Gear’ has a huge fan following. So does Sunny Leone and Pamella Anderson, at least when her silicon implants were in good order!...

Every day we hear someone or the other, thinking of ways to replace the traditional human driver from the car, thus removing driver error from the equation all together which seems like a good idea…in theory. But...

Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call to make India clean (Swatch Bharat), there has been a flurry of activities, both genuine and fraud, trying to heed to his call. Some have honestly taken up...