Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola Electric saw its stock crashing to about Rs 90 a piece in the morning trade on Monday, as aggrieved customers flooded social media platforms again with a myriad of issues with its flagship electric two-wheeler.

The Ola Electric share nosedived to Rs 90.26 apiece, a drop of 8.5 per cent from the last trading session. The EV firm debuted on the stock market with Rs 76 and even touched Rs 157.40, before crashing like a pack of cards over innumerable hardware and software issues with its e-scooters and poor conditions at its service centres across the country.

Since touching the all-time high, the company’s share is trading around 42-43 per cent lower.

The EV firm continues to lose its market share in the Indian EV market and in September, its share further dropped to 27 per cent amid rising competition as well as its crippling service centres. It saw 24,665 e-scooter sales last month, from 27,587 units sold in August, according to the government transportation portal Vahan.

Led by robust two-wheeler (2W) retail sales, the Indian automobile market saw 6.55 per cent growth (year-on-year) in the first six month of current fiscal (FY25), as rural markets are set to spur demand going forward, a report showed on Monday.

The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) said that the April-September period saw 9.08 per cent sales growth in 2W, 7.58 per cent in 3W and 1.07 per cent in passenger vehicles (PVs).

However, consumer vehicles (CV) and tracker retail sales fell by 0.65 per cent and 8.82 per cent, respectively, as per the FADA data.

According to FADA President C.S Vigneshwar, “the Shraddh period further impacted sales negatively, leading to a YoY decline in retail sales across various categories”.

Mercedes-Benz car dealers in South Korea have apparently been trained by the company's local unit to tell customers that the automaker used battery cells produced exclusively by CATL in its electric vehicle (EV) models.

In the 2023 EQ Sales Playbook, Mercedes-Benz Korea's official dealer training material, dealers were instructed to mention CATL as the EV battery cell manufacturer when responding to customer inquiries. CATL is the global leader in EV battery sales, reports news agency.

The topic of EV battery cell suppliers has been a closely watched matter within the auto industry recently, following a massive fire caused by a Mercedes-Benz EV that ended up damaging over 100 vehicles and destroying an underground apartment parking garage in Incheon, west of Seoul, in August.

The real estate sector in India is the second-largest employer after the agriculture sector and the phenomenal growth with an 18.7 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) makes the sector ripe to become the largest employment generating sector and a hub for young talent, industry leaders said on Saturday.

The Indian real estate industry is witnessing a boom in terms of value and volume with a well-established value chain of developers in residential and commercial real estate, contractors, consultants such as architects and engineers, investors and so on.

“Further, this 'mother industry' is boosting other ancillary sectors and also, new-age PropTech startups are also booming with over Rs 40,000 crore invested in them, the real estate sector is poised to create multiple career opportunities,” said Vikas Jain, President-Elect, NAREDCO Maharashtra Next-Gen.

Speaking at a seminar here, Rajesh Doshi, Secretary, NAREDCO Maharashtra, said this sector is not limited to engineers or architects anymore.

“Real estate is for smart, driven individuals who can turn possibilities into opportunities. With the integration of tech, big data, and 3D modelling, there is a rising demand for skilled professionals like data scientists to forecast industry trends and dynamics,” Doshi added.

Bank credit grew by 15 per cent in August in India, maintaining steady levels compared to the same month last year (14.9 per cent) as agriculture and industry picked up, a report showed on Saturday.

The non-food credit demand has also grown by 15 per cent in August with broadly similar growth last year, according to the report by Bank of Baroda (BoB).

According to Jahnavi Prabhakar, economist, Bank of Baroda, the credit to agriculture sector rose at a steady pace of 17.7 per cent from 18.1 per cent in July and higher than 16.5 per cent growth in August last year.

The credit to the industry sector saw a moderate increase of 9.8 per cent YoY in August, compared to 5.3 per cent same month last year.

Notably, medium-sized firms saw robust growth in demand, rising 19.2 per cent YoY, while large industries witnessed a 7.7 per cent credit growth.

As the agitation of Samsung employees enters the fourth week for pay hike and better facilities, the unyielding striking employees met Ministers of Tamil Nadu to discuss matters.

Ministers T. R. B. Rajaa, T. M. Anbarasan and C. V. Ganeshan met the striking workers of the Samsung plant and discussed with them the possibilities of ending the strike. The Tamil Nadu Labour Department has held five rounds of negotiations with them but to no avail.

The workers are striking for an increase in their wages and a reduction in work hours, also recognising the CPI-M-backed trade union CITU in the Samsung plant.

It may be noted that the Samsung plant in Kancheepuram, where the workers are striking for the fourth continuous week accounts for nearly a third of the company’s revenue from India.

More than 50 per cent of the smartphones shipped during the second quarter this year had cameras with 50MP resolution, as average primary camera resolution of smartphones doubled from 27MP in Q2 2020 to reach the highest-ever level of 54MP, according to a report.

The gradual growth can be attributed to persistent consumer preference for improved cameras.

Over the years, there has been a shift in the number of rear cameras as well, according to Counterpoint Research. To meet these expectations, OEMs have continued to focus on camera innovation and adoption of higher resolutions.

While the quad camera setup captured 32 per cent of the shipments at its peak in Q3 2020, the triple camera setup dominated the market in Q2 2024 with a 45 per cent share.

To boost India’s position in the field of sustainable development and renewable energy, Union Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Pralhad Joshi, will embark on a three-day tour to Germany from October 6, the government said on Saturday.

The minister is set to attend the ‘Hamburg Sustainability Conference’ from October 7-8, and will hold a series of bilateral meetings to boost cooperation in sustainable development, Green Hydrogen, low-cost finance and renewable energy value chain components.

According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the visit will elevate India-Germany relations to create business opportunities and accelerate the expansion of renewable energy in India and worldwide.

The visit will also underscore India’s commitment to sustainable development and renewable energy, fostering international partnerships to address global challenges, the ministry added.

About 21 startups in India raised nearly $93 million in funding across 16 deals this week, which included four growth-stage deals and 12 early-stage fundings.

It is a big drop from nearly $461 million raised by 29 domestic startups last week, which included 10 growth-stage deals.

This week, agriculture supply chain startup Waycool raised Rs 100 crore (about $12 million) in debt financing from Grand Anicut. Waycool buys fresh produce, including dairy products, from farmers and sells them to retailers and restaurants.

Fintech platform Basic Home Loan raised $10.6 million (Rs 87.5 crore) in a Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), along with CE-Ventures.

Troo Good, a Millet-based snack brand, raised Rs 72 crore led by Oaks Asset Management, along with Puro Wellness and V Ocean Investments,

Low-cost airline major IndiGo on Saturday experienced a major network outage, disrupting flight operations and ground services across the nation,

The technical glitch left several air travellers stranded across airports as they were unable to board flights or book tickets, leading to significant delays.

"It's good to invest in new aircrafts but how about improving the ground services (at Bangalore T1 for the last one hour). Additional counters are required, disturbing to see old people suffering. @DGCAIndia please notice,” an affected flier posted on X social media platform.

"Technical glitch at @IndiGo6E. Airport looks like a railway station", another commented.