[TusharK]

Motilal Oswal, Co-founder, MD & CEO of Motilal Oswal Group, took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce that he would stop buying foreign cars and would support local brands like Tata and Mahindra instead.



The billionaire businessman recently purchased a Tata Safari. While revealing his car on the social media platform, Oswal said, “In my pursuit of minimalistic and simple living, I have turned Desi now. Stopped buying foreign cars, watches and other luxuries. World-class Indian products are available now. Started with my Tata Safari, next would be Mahindra.”



In response, Tata Motors congratulated him on embracing the minimalistic lifestyle by going ‘Vocal for Local’.



Prafull Billore, Founder and CEO of MBA Chai Wala wrote, “Welcome to the club”.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Small Bot]

I see too much vitriol all over social media on this.

I personally feel that people are too quick to paint somebody with a dark brush, purely based on their own status in life or their own beliefs.

Wealth and affluence could be relative. For a person who could only afford a Maruti Swift, calling a Tata Safari a way of minimalistic living might seem ridiculous. I get that and I totally respect that view.

What I don't accept is insisting that someone else's views are wrong, because they do not conform to our way of thinking and our buying capacity.

Let the dude buy whatever he wants to. It's his money. He could afford a car three times the cost, and he chose to buy a Tata Safari (arguably an excellent and handsome car for the price though). Let's leave it at that. I don't think this warrants too much of arguing about.

Rather, I actually hope his ownership experience is great, as that would mean more prospective buyers for the Safari.

[lazy]

The suspicious me is wondering if this is a ploy to influence TaMo's stock price - given that he and his firm is such a big market player!!
Most likely no, it'll be far too obvious and illegal too.

However, reading the posts on that thread further confirms a long held belief - literally everyone who's active online (commentators) are losers and should be shunned online/offline. Doesn't apply to people who post original content.

cheers
lazy

[swarnava.ch]

Now I have genuine doubts on his Investment Acumen. He seriously does not realize what he is getting into and I hope he has a standby car available

Disclaimer: The above comment is only meant is jest - my poor attempt to make a sly dig at Tata Cars Quality and ASS experience.

[ajmat]

If he genuinely meant it, just quietly buy locally made items and use them instead of making a noise about it!

Narayan Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji spring to mind!

[Cresterk]

Looking at the kind of insanity that is a 50 car convoy everytime one of the Ambanis step out for a chai, I would say this is pretty minimalistic for a billionaire

[GTO]

I'm all for supporting "local", consider myself very patriotic and have a soft corner for Tata & Mahindra both. I also own two Mahindras and if I were to buy a city EV today, it would definitely be the Nexon EV Facelift.

But let's not look down upon MNC car companies just because their parent is not Indian. Global giants like Hyundai, Kia, Toyota, Honda etc. etc. have invested tens of thousands of crores in India, offer lakhs of jobs to Indians, help in keeping the competition at fierce levels and take care of their customers. It's because of Indian & MNC carmakers both that the auto industry is a significant contributor to India's GDP.

"Vocal for local" means any car that is built in India. What I look down upon at fully-imported CBUs and am glad the Govt taxes the hell out of them.

[Axe77]

On a related and lighter note, at a time when Tata and Mahindra are trying to push the envelope on their higher end "luxury / lifestyle" offerings and pushing the 30L + mark, I don't know if they want their flagship offering to be described as "minimalistic". Of course, I get it that its in the context of German luxury offerings that their cars clearly aren't.

Separately, what would he think of Land Rover or Jaguar for that matter I wonder. Local or Foreign? If its foreign, then what is Hyundai / Kia or the numerous other similar brands who've invested thousands of crores into India. Agree with GTO on this aspect - anyone who's investing substantial money into India, creating direct jobs as well as indirect jobs by supporting auto ancillaries, thousands of dealerships, their staff and what not - they're all contributing in a very real way to our economy and citizens, notwithstanding jingoistic banter that suggests otherwise.

If its a personal decision, I respect that and I don't think people should have an opinion on his choice. The fact that its accompanied by vocal public proclamations tagging PMO and some key hashtags ... well, the less said the better.

[manishk123]

JLR is also Tata owned. Could have got a spanky new Range Rover instead!

Me thinks its a little bit of Marwari conservatism combined with national pride.

[reppy]

As a fellow Jain, I do not see the 'minimalism' here! A Tata Punch would have been appropriate; a Nano - perfect!

Jokes aside, he's a superb personality and a patriot to the core. Respect.

[omranga98]

All fun and games till it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and his Bentley comes to rescue him.

[shortbread]

Originally Posted by omranga98

all fun and games till it breaks down in the middle of nowhere and his Bentley comes to rescue him.

Perhaps he considered the switch due to the Bentley's reliability!

[PreludeSH]

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Now I have genuine doubts on his Investment Acumen. He seriously does not realize what he is getting into and I hope he has a standby car available

Disclaimer: The above comment is only meant is jest - my poor attempt to make a sly dig at Tata Cars Quality and ASS experience.

Maybe he will buy every local car and he has said he will also buy Mahindra (why does he need two? ) That way something will always be in working condition.

[rajivr1612]

I don't have anything to add about the thread subject. But some of the response posts are quite funny and can be good candidates for the Official Jokes thread.

[Dry Ice]

Originally Posted by lazy

The suspicious me is wondering if this is a ploy to influence TaMo's stock price - given that he and his firm is such a big market player!!

Exactly what I thought too. But then, not really sure of the timing. Debt notwithstanding, TML is posting good results and share price already reflects that.

Originally Posted by ajmat

If he genuinely meant it, just quietly buy locally made items and use them instead of making a noise about it!

Narayan Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji spring to mind!

Come to think of it, most people would do the same thing he did after buying a car - post about it on social media. Agreed, he could have been a bit more restrained with the wordings and tags but, hey, every person has a different yardstick.