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Tesla drives into India: Mumbai showroom opens with high-priced model Y
MUMBAI: Mumbai played host to a pivotal moment in India’s electric vehicle narrative on Tuesday as Tesla officially inaugurated its first showroom, a sleek 4,000 sq ft experience centre at the upscale Maker Maxity Mall in Bandra Kurla complex (BKC).1 The much-anticipated debut marks the EV behemoth’s initial physical foray into one of the globe’s burgeoning EV markets, kicking off its Indian journey with the Model Y SUV.
The Model Y, imported as completely built units (CBUs) from Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, comes with a rather hefty price tag for Indian consumers: the rear-wheel drive variant is listed at Rs 60 lakh, while the long-range version will set buyers back Rs 68 lakh.2 These figures significantly eclipse Tesla’s base pricing in established markets such as the US ($44,900), China (263,500 yuan), and Germany (45,970 euros), largely due to India’s substantial import duties. Customs documentation revealed each Model Y arrived at Mumbai port declared at Rs 27.7 lakh ($31,988), attracting over Rs 21 lakh in import duties, aligning with India’s 70 per cent tariff on fully-built vehicles priced under $40,000.
Beyond the showroom, which is strategically located near Apple’s flagship store, Tesla has imported nearly $1 million worth of Supercharger infrastructure and accessories from the US and China, earmarked for installation around Mumbai to support early adopters. The company is also establishing a dedicated service centre in Kurla West for after-sales support.
The long-term play for India appears clear. Tesla already boasts a registered office in Bengaluru and an engineering hub in Pune. Maharashtra deputy chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, underscored this broader vision, hailing Tesla’s arrival as more than a mere commercial venture.
“This is not just the inauguration of an experience centre but a statement that Tesla has arrived, a statement that it has arrived in the right city and state, that is Mumbai, Maharashtra. Mumbai stands for innovation and sustainability. Tesla is not just a car and car company but stands for innovation and sustainability,” Fadnavis declared.
Tesla had teased its entry on its India-specific X handle with a coming coon” post, hinting at a July 2025 debut.
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YES Bank appoints S Anantharaman as chief risk officer
Former Jio Financial Services group chief risk officer takes charge of enterprise-wide risk at the embattled private lender
MUMBAI: YES Bank is not taking chances with risk anymore. The private lender has appointed S Anantharaman as its chief risk officer, a hire that signals the bank’s continued effort to rebuild credibility and tighten the controls that once famously slipped.
Anantharaman arrives from Jio Financial Services, where he served as group chief risk officer and built a risk management architecture spanning lending, payments, insurance broking and asset management from the ground up. Before that, he held the chief risk officer role at Bank of Baroda and senior leadership positions at HDFC Bank and L&T Finance Holdings. Three decades in banking and financial services, in other words, with scars and qualifications to match. He is a chartered accountant and a CFA charterholder.
At YES Bank, his brief is considerable. Anantharaman will oversee the bank’s entire enterprise-wide risk framework, covering credit policy, market risk, operational risk, information security, data governance, analytics, model governance and data privacy. It is, in short, every lever that matters when a bank is trying to prove it has grown up.
YES Bank’s turbulent past needs little rehearsing. What it needs now is exactly what Anantharaman has spent thirty years building: the kind of risk culture that stops problems before they become headlines. The appointment suggests the bank knows it.
