Indicus Analytics, An Economics Research Firm
http://indicus.net/Newsletter/Consumer_Market.aspx
Consumer 2.0
Volume no. 2, Issue 4, January 2009
Vehicle Sales Growth Sharply Down………..
In India, Car sales grew 1.7% in 2008, sharply down from 16% in
the previous year. The bulk of the downturn was the second half of
the year.
Economic slowdown and fears of job cuts are believed to be the key
drivers of the trend reversal as the fears led customers to defer
purchases of new vehicles. Car sales fell 7% in December, 19% in
November, 6.6% in October, 4.4% in August and 1.7% in July.
However, car sales growth remained in positive territory.
Sales of trucks and buses declined 9.5% in 2008. Motorcycle sales
fell 2.5% to 5.78 million units.
Bajaj Auto to launch XCD 135
Bajaj Auto has had a tough fiscal so far, with sales volume dropping
by 8%. But it is hoping that 2009 will be a better year with a slew of
new launches…
Tata Motors Struggles to Raise Cash, Introduce Nano by Deadline
Tata Motors Ltd.,
the maker of Jaguar cars and Land Rover sport-utility vehicles, must
repay a $3 billion loan and aims to introduce the world's cheapest car
this year…
…………consumer confidence low
Worldwide consumer confidence took a severe beating and The US
witnessed record job losses. Consumer confidence in India is not too
high but stands out in comparison to most of the world.
India's consumer confidence highest in world
India has topped the chart with 114 points in the Global Consumer

Indicus Analytics, An Economics Research Firm
http://indicus.net/Newsletter/Consumer_Market.aspx
Confidence Index, in a scenario where consumer confidence across
the world has taken a dip……
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From around India
Canon bullish on India
Despite global economic slowdown and liquidity crunch, Canon is still
bullish on India and is planning to launch 100 new products in 2009,
introducing path-breaking, customer-friendly technologies……
Internet-Based Products Hit Indian market
Snappy Fingers, launched a Question and Answer search engine,
developed by Chirayu Patel……
Varismo Networks has launched VuNow, that is set to redefine the
home television experience by bringing millions of free Internet
videos around the world directly to your TV, all this without a
computer……
Cashnext, developed by entrepreneurs from Kanoor is a product that
works on IVR independent of any service providers……
XFX launches the first Graphic card with 1.5GB Memory
In this special edition package, XFX has bundled the most memory
available in a budget-minded performance graphics card with a full
release version of Ubisoft’s highly anticipated first person shooter,
Far Cry 2. Balancing power and performance with price, the GeForce
9600 graphics card packs a memorable visual punch with huge
memory reserves……
Property and Stock Market Slump Affects REITs
REITs or real estate investment trusts seem to have disappeared
from the lexicon of fund managers and realtors. Not surprising,
considering the simultaneous slump in the property and stock
markets.
Product Placement going strong in Bollywood
The statistics conclude that about 71 percent of Indian
consumers think that product placement is a good way of being
informed about products and services. ...

Indicus Analytics, An Economics Research Firm
http://indicus.net/Newsletter/Consumer_Market.aspx
Online payment of EB bills to be extended
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) is planning to extend
online bill payment facility to all low tension power consumers in the
state by year-end……
Penetration of Commercial Bank Credit
It’s a chicken and egg situation. Economic growth in many ways is a
dependent on credit, and at the same time banks lend more in
economically vibrant regions. Most of the economically backward
regions also suffer from low credit penetration. In fact, as the map
below suggests, vast tracts of the country (marked in lighter shades)
receive commercial bank credit amounts that are less than 15% of
their GDP. This is clearly inadequate.
Source: Indian Financial Scape
Housing demand in urban India for the lower
segment
With the focus now on to meet the need of the common man, we
need to identify who he is and what is his requirement. Estimates
made by Indicus Analytics in its product Market Skyline of India

Indicus Analytics, An Economics Research Firm
http://indicus.net/Newsletter/Consumer_Market.aspx
indicate that there are currently 68.2 million households living in
urban India. The income distribution of these households is presented
below:
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Almost fifteen percent of the urban households have an annual
income of less than Rs. 75,000. This group accounts for a large
amount of the slum formation in the city. People from these
households are involved in servicing the needs of the higher income
groups and can not afford to travel long distances (poor urban
transport systems have not helped either!). Thus they settle in and
around the localities giving rise to slums and squatter settlements.
The income estimates from the study further show that 25% of the
urban households have annual income between Rs. 75,000 and
1,50,000 and another 36% have annual income between Rs.
1,50,000and 3,00,000. The remaining 25% have incomes above Rs.
3,00,000.
A look at the type of housing demand further gives the idea of how
large is the unmet need of the low cost housing in urban India.

Indicus Analytics, An Economics Research Firm
http://indicus.net/Newsletter/Consumer_Market.aspx
Source: The Housing Skyline of India 2008-09, (112 cities), Indicus
Analytics
The estimates from the Housing Skyline of India for the top 112 cities
show that almost 65 % of the excess demand in the next seven years
leading to year 2015 is for houses with sub 1,000 square feet area.
This would translate to approximately 6.8 million houses. The same
study further estimates that approximately 70% of the demand
would be for houses with 2 rooms or less (or 7.4 million new houses).
Insights from Indicus
Monetary policy in uncharted territory
“Clean” Coal for power generation
Middle and lower middle income segment is driving housing demand
Regulation vs. Antitrust: First Principles
Auto sector - looking ahead
Small Savings in Post Offices
Mumbai and Delhi have higher numbers moving towards prosperity
From around the world
Asia may struggle to lift growth with consumer plans
Indeed, Chinese and Indian factories were cutting jobs at a record
pace in December, purchasing managers' indexes
showed. Consumer confidence is also ...
Global Outlook For 2009
Allen predicts unemployment will continue to rise and the economy
will remain weak as consumers and businesses refrain from new
spending until they are ...
Research and Markets: The Brazil, Russia, India, China Food Retail ...
The Brazil, Russia, India, China Food Retail Market Grew by 8.8%
between 2003 and 2007 to Reach a Value of $806.3 Billion…..
NRI takes over German clothing chain store
The man behind the takeover of Wehmeyer is Rajive Ranjan, Techno
Lifestyle GmbH's managing director, who recently signed a deal for
taking over 28 of its stores in the states of North Rhine Westphalia,
Rhineland Palatinate and Lower Saxony.