Auto makers on shaky ground?

The National Capital Region was rattled by four earthquakes in the wee hours of Tuesday. The epicentre of one of them was supposed to be in Manesar in Haryana. A suburb of Gurgaon, several auto giants such as Maruti and Hero as well as component makers have made the city a base for their production facilities. Coincidentally, on the same day, auto industry association Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) called for a briefing to announce its monthly sales figures. Considering that auto sales numbers have been skidding for several months now - a trend that continued in October - the refrain during the briefing was that the industry was already on shaky ground and the last thing it wanted was an earthquake erupting from the auto hub to rattle things further.