8DECEMBER, 2024Led by robust demand in the festive period, Maruti Suzuki India and Tata Motors are looking to have record retail sales in October. The companies are also eyeing bumper deliveries to customers on Dhanteras. The country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki, said it has delivered about 30,000 units to customers on Tuesday."We are also expecting another 10,000 deliveries tomorrow. Last year we had witnessed registration of around 23,000 units," Maruti Suzuki India Senior Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) Partho Banerjee told PTI in an interaction.He noted that the company is witnessing robust demand and is expecting deliveries of around 2 lakh units this month."October is going be all-time high for us in terms of retail sales. It will be the highest ever. The earlier highest was 1,91,476 units in October 2020," Banerjee said.The bumber sales are also expected to bring down inventory levels for the company to around 30 days from the current 36-37 days, he noted.Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles MD Shailesh Chandra said the automaker has seen strong growth with 30 per cent increase in registrations in October compared to the previous year."As a result, this October, the total registrations for Tata Motors is expected to be the highest ever for the company. On Dhanteras, we will deliver more than 15,000 vehicles, on the back of robust demand for the entire portfolio, including new launches," he added.Mercedes-Benz India Managing Director and CEO Santosh Iyer said the luxury car market leader has recorded its best ever sales this Dhanteras backed by new launches like the LWB E-Class and also strongly driven by SUVs like GLC, GLE & GLS. India and Saudi Arabia are exploring collaboration in emerging fields like fintech, new technologies, energy efficiency, clean hydrogen, textiles and mining to further boost trade and investment ties, an official statement said on Friday. These areas were discussed during the recent visit of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal to Riyadh.He co-chaired the second meeting of the economy and investment committee under the India-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) along with Minister of Energy, Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud on October 30 in Riyadh."Both countries are exploring collaboration in emerging fields like fintech, new technologies, energy efficiency, clean hydrogen, textiles, mining," the commerce and industry ministry said.During the Future Investment Initiative (FII) event, the minister urged global investors to seize emerging opportunities in India, particularly in high-growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, renewable energy, digital infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.India is the second largest trade partner for Saudi Arabia whereas Saudi Arabia is India's fourth largest trading partner.The bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $43 billion in 2023-24 against $53 billion in 2022-23. Over 2,700 Indian companies are registered as joint ventures/wholly-owned entities, with investments worth about $2 billion in the Kingdom.Saudi's direct investments in India amounted to $3.22 billion from April 2000 to June 2024. TOP STORIESAUTOMAKERS WITNESS RECORD SALES OWING TO FESTIVE SEASONINDIA AND SAUDI ARABIA TO EXPLORE COLLABORATIONS IN EMERGING SECTORS
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