TMS Ep450: Auto inventories, IIT-Madras, RIL, de-risking and decoupling

India’s passenger vehicle segment is facing a strange situation. While big and swanky cars are zooming out of the showrooms, the smaller ones, it seems, are piling up with wholesale dealers. Inventory levels have soared to 45 days -- up from around 39 days in March. So what does it mean for the car market in India? 

While small cars are struggling to hit the fast lane in terms of sales, sale of two-wheelers, meanwhile, saw a good growth of 9% in May due to the wedding season and improved rural incomes. Moving on, the education ministry has come out with the National Institute Ranking Framework, 2023. And IIT Madras is at the top again -- for the fifth year running. But how does IIT Madras continue to beat the rest? And why have the newer IITs seen a fall in their rankings? 

Interestingly, IIT Madras is also mulling developing a driverless car by 2025. Well then, from the country’s premier institutes, let’s turn our gaze to the largest conglomerate. Shares of oil-to-telecom major Reliance Industries have underperformed benchmark indices in the past one year. Foreign portfolio investors, too, have trimmed their holdings in the stock over the past few quarters. So what has led to this steep fall in the conglomerate’s shares? And will the Dalal Street’s big boy reverse its downtrend? 

Moving on to our last segment, today we are decoding two interesting terms that were recently coined by world leaders. G7 countries have stressed their desire to “de-risk,” and not “de-couple,” from the Chinese economy. But what do these two terms mean and how are they different? Listen to this episode of the podcast to know more.