Blame game as wheels come off India’s auto sector

NEW DELHI, Sept 15 (AFP): When India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed that a preference by millennials for ride-hailing apps was contributing to a painful slump in car sales, it sparked an online backlash from furious youngsters.
They started a campaign using ironic hashtags such as Boycott Millennials and SayItLikeNirmalaTai last week to push back against older generations blaming them for today's problems in society.
While data shows firms such as Uber and Ola are popular with younger consumers more comfortable with shared mobility and digital trends, analysts say the auto industry's problems run deeper than that - and it is facing more serious bumps in the road.
With a population of 1.3 billion people, India is the world's fourth-largest car market and one where owning a vehicle is as much a status symbol as a means of transport.
But the country's once-booming auto sector - seen as an important barometer of overall economic health - is in the slow lane, with sales slumping for the 10th-straight month in August.
"The minimum (priced) car that you can get nowadays starts from six to seven lakhs ($8,500 - $9,800)," university student Somya Saluja told AFP.
"So it's much easier to pool-in rather than to buy a new car."
Even India's richest banker, Uday Kotak, recently said that his son was more comfortable using ride-sharing apps than owning a car.
Uber and Ola reportedly facilitate some 3.65 million daily rides.
Still, Avanteum Advisors managing partner VG Ramakrishnan told that the key reason for the drop in car purchases was economic.
"I think the slowdown is primarily because consumer confidence is low and income growth has really been impacted in the last couple of years," he told the news agency.
India's economic growth slowed for the fifth-straight quarter in April-June to reach its weakest pace in five years.