Japanese giant Honda is on the verge of becoming number 1 in India's two-wheeler space

A riveting battle for the top slot is playing out in the Indian two-wheeler market. Twelve years after erstwhile partners Hero Group and Honda decided to split, the Japanese company is on the verge of securing pole position in this battle of the giants. Even as the gap between Hero MotoCorp—the two-wheeler company formed by the Hero Group after the split with Honda was announced in December 2010—and Honda has been reducing, this September was a landmark month for the Japanese giant: it was the first time Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), toppled Hero MotoCorp in retail two-wheeler sales. Though Hero bounced back in October and November, HMSI’s November rate of growth—at 38 per cent against Hero’s 12 per cent—shows the advantage lies with the Japanese major. The two have marquee brands—Hero has Splendor in the motorcycle segment while Honda has Activa in scooters.

The accelerated growth, however, is not something that Honda is taking for granted. Atsushi Ogata, 60, HMSI’s soft-spoken MD, President and CEO, is acutely mindful of the challenges at hand. Pawan Munjal-led Hero MotoCorp, he knows only too well, is not going to sit back and let HMSI take the game away. Besides, HMSI is heavily dependent on its mega product Activa and needs more flanking brands to take it to a firm leadership position. Ogata admits that HMSI wants to be No. 1. And he is very, very near the finishing line. Munjal, meanwhile, is planning to counter HMSI’s every move. Having been the market leader for long, Hero MotoCorp is going to take the battle to the HMSI camp. Then there are upstarts that have arrived on the scene of late with their EV game—Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola is already leading the fray in e-scooters, and Okinawa and Ather Energy are also serious players in this segment. Hero already has its Vida e-scooters, but HMSI doesn’t have one yet. And if the rural market, where Hero has a clear advantage, sees a resurgence in demand, then HMSI will face an uphill task. In our cover story, Prerna Lidhoo and Alokesh Bhattacharyya take a close look at all aspects of this fascinating contest between the erstwhile joint venture partners who are locked in a battle for supremacy.

Meanwhile, as the economy gradually puts the Covid-19 pandemic behind it, one segment is witnessing a boom. As Arnab Dutta finds out, the changing nature of work, with hybrid and remote working becoming the norm after the pandemic, has led to a major resurgence in the demand for co-working spaces, making players like WeWork, Awfis, Smartworks and others a happy lot. New facilities are coming up across the major metros, and smaller cities are also witnessing a boom in co-working spaces as companies allow employees to work from their hometowns. Estimates peg the end-2022 numbers in the top seven metros at around 50 million sq. ft and 750,000 seats. In three years, the co-working space market is estimated to be at over 1 million seats in these metros, and over 75 million sq. ft. That’s very smart growth indeed.