The Indian Auto Expo has Tata JLR ditching Detroit to jump into its Asia home with the Ssangyong  M&M combination readying the Korando launch in the country and the GM reintroducing the Sail as a Chevy brand and the Wuling Vans from its Asia portfolio

The Wuling vans from Chevy, will be competing with the old Omni and O2 from Maruti Suzuki and also the Force ABS model launched tomorrow

Worldwide Auto sales are expected to go to 77.7 mln units in 2012 with US a just under 20% market share and China a over 20% share of the market. Indian business would be up to a little below 4% of the global market according to our conservative estimates . news of Indian auto industyr global market share rising to no.3 is still starting to do the rounds as sar sales recover from a bad low in Mid 2011. 

Daimler is introducing a new series of 17 launches from August-September 2012 to late 2013 with its first Indian built truck going on display tomorrow

State Bank of India has nearly 22,000 ATMs and another 5,000 from its associates, ICICI Bank has 7000 ATMs of its own. Foreign banks are in fact recognised in many parts of the country by their ATM locations, as the logo and slogan heavy ATM kiosk, though treated by a utility as many creates and builds the bank brand and shows it for reach than the bank.

However, as ATM operations can be more easily run by a third party with the omnipresent Brink's Aryas money truck delivering cash to each machine, bankers have been rooting for a white label ATM operation like the Tower companies in Telecom, with their own revenues and necessitating elimination of free ATM transactions as once the model has been approved, charging fees and paying for the location become mandatory for the consumer and cheaper for the bank

Apart from communalisation of costs to all banks for location , it will also mean that operators charge lesse r fee on a larger base and thus a committee of the MOF has been recommending the deed as public Sector ATMs including those of larger Indian private banks ICICI, Axis and HDFC total nearly 100,000 and probably these few do not want to be caught spending on the brand anymore.

Indian Media and Entertainment posted a string of positives though listed bullionaires like Eros and PVR continued to struggle to prove their worth on a perceived high cost base, being measured against some unreasonable expectations.

While Ra.One was a blockbuster but fell on being second to Sallu's antics, The Don 2 and Mission Impossible concurrent successes of this month are being compared on equally tenuous marks despite $3 mln of daily business as Indian enterepreneurs in their bid to fund the global majors have set a high watermark for profiting from the success of this entertainment.

To a funny bone it might aseem its corporatisation is a s much a dud as that of Foreign banks like Stanchart to harness the Indian Capital markets, with IDRs that do not have the rights for ibnvestors to enjoy the company's performance.

Entrepreneur Sanjana Reddy cottoned on to the Big race weekend idea and roped in Sachin Tendulkar for a new racing league for India's newly converted sport afficionados as consumption lifestyle catches on in urban mobile India

The new league has already sold 4 of the 8 franchises roping in SRK and Dabur's Mohit Burman from the obvious inspiration (though different cash flows, Mohit sld his Kings XI/RR stake partly) More bollywood/tollywood stars have been lined up with Nagarjuna teaming up for Hyderabad

The racing league, owned by Machdar Motor Sports Company, will have eight city-based teams with two cars forming a 16-member grid. Sachin and Sanjana Reddy together have bought a 26% share in the league.

The cost of a franchise-for a contractual term of 15 years-will be around $20m with investors having to pay $5m upfront and the remaining in $1 million tranches during the ownership period. The races will feature F1 and upcoming Indian drivers and will be held in Delhi, Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur, Doha and Bahrain.

Shah Rukh, along with business partners Juhi Chawla and Jai Mehta, will own the Mumbai franchise, while Dabur's Mohit Burman is on the verge of buying the Delhi franchise. Malaysian business tycoon and Air Asia boss Tony Fernandes along with UK-based hedge fund manager S G Srinivas is set for the Chennai team.

It remains to be seen however how many drivers will turn up for the teams and if there will be bidding for driving scalps at this juncture. Sponsors may not get the luxury to wait for a trial edition of the league to complete