New Delhi: For four years, the Indian bicycle industry has pedalled along at a leisurely rate of growth, but companies in the business are now putting on a burst of speed ahead of elections in key states this year and the general elections next year.
Some state governments have begun to distribute bicycles for free to schoolchildren and the poor to pull in votes. And the leader of one party, which has the bicycle as an election symbol, has promised to do more not just for the people but also for the symbol if he is voted to power—free bicycles for students.
Pedal power: A file photo of activists at a BJP rally. Political parties have begun to distribute bicycles for free to pull in votes. AFP
Such announcements have buoyed an industry plagued by sluggish demand and falling exports, the result of high raw material costs and stiff competition from China in the global marketplace.
In June, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Karnataka government announced a Rs90 crore plan to distribute 435,000 bicycles to eighth-graders, a programme extended only to poor families earlier.
Last month, N. Chandrababu Naidu, the former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party, whose party symbol is bicycle, announced he will distribute bicycles for free to students if he is voted to power.
For the first time, Bihar recently floated a tender for 200,000 bicycles.
And several other states, including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, are providing bicycles for free to schoolchildren.
The poll cycle
The bicycle industry’s growth has been unprecedented this year primarily due to elections, said Satish Dhanda, managing director, Sadem Industries, a bicycle manufacturing company. He is also the chairman of Engineering Export Promotion Council, a trade body governed by the country’s commerce ministry.
Orders for 1.4-1.5 million bicycles have already been placed by various state governments this year, up from 1 million last year, Dhanda said.
A bicycle can cost between Rs2,300 and Rs5,000.
Tamil Nadu alone has placed an order for 650,000 bicycles in the past three months. The tender was won in equal parts by the country’s four biggest manufacturers— Hero Cycles Ltd, Atlas Cycles (Haryana) Ltd, TI Cycles and Avon Cycles Ltd—who together control 85% of the market.
Chhattisgarh, which will go to the polls this year, plans to distribute 70,000 bicycles to girls belonging to the so-called Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes this year, up from 60,000 last year when Atlas Cycles won the tender.
It has also widened the beneficiaries’ net to include all below the poverty line, or BPL, families this time.
These numbers contrast with those of the past four years, when domestic sales of bicycles remained stagnant at 12 million a year. And one-fourth of this is made up of bicycles imported from China.