Indian Bus Industry Needs A Shot In The Arm

This article by Rengarajan Srinivasan, Director, Stellar SP (P) Limited, intends to bring to light the specific issues and constraints of the bus industry and its stakeholders, namely, the bus operators, bus body fabricators and the suppliers together employing a large workforce and their dependant families facing the plight of survival

-  Rengarajan Srinivasan

Worldwide, the corona virus-triggered pandemic has caused unforeseen economic issues regarding trade and industry. At present estimates, the pandemic has caused impact on 190+ countries with over 53 million people suffering and over 10 million losing precious lives. Still, there is no protection for the risk exposure and a vaccine is yet to reach final approval to make its way to the market for prevention measures. Governments and social agencies are over-stretched with expenditures and resources deployed to handle the pandemic and prevent it from community spread across the hot spot demography.

India is among the top nations with the most affected population and draining the nation’s resources and finances in combating the pandemic, while precious lives are lost to the virus. The year 2020 could be a watershed for the economy. Economic revival is yet another mounting challenge to the governments who are being forced to create relief packages. Still, there are huge gaps in the requisite financial aid and subsidies to support the industries, more specifically MSMEs and business enterprises in the automotive industry. The bus industry is the most affected segment among the automotive industry and we still see the absence of buses on roads. Hence, the focus is now on highlighting the need for revival.

Automobile Industry