After Covid 2.0, few green shoots for auto in rural belt

The automotive industry is growing less optimistic about a repeat of the quick turnaround the market witnessed after the lockdown last year. Rural markets — that account for 30-50% of automobile sales — had remained largely unaffected by the first wave of the pandemic last year, driving sales even before the cities recovered. That has changed, as rural India, too, is devastated in the second wave. The agriculture sector that drives the rural