All indications are that India is heading for a major economic slowdown, but it is unlikely you will get that impression reading the so-called business newspapers

The less said about India’s business newspapers the better, but sometimes it has to be reiterated that they live in an alternate universe, all of their own making.

Not one of them ever breaks a scam, although the state is seemingly receding from the lives of people and business houses are taking over. Most are happy covering “politics”, hosting “events”, peddling “opinion”, pumping up “brands”.

Generally doing everything except covering and uncovering business.

Today’s edition is a particularly good example. On a day when India’s auto industry has reported that its total sales across all categories fell by nearly 16%, the most since 2011, only one of the English business dailies has it as its lead story.

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Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that the slump in car and SUV sales points to a slowdown in the world’s fastest growing economy.

“The slowdown isn’t limited to car sales. Air traffic in India, the world’s fastest growing aviation market, expanded at the slowest pace in almost six years in March, while demand for bank loans grew at 13.2% slowing from 14.5% a year ago. Hindustan Lever reported March quarter revenue growth of just 7%, the weakest in 18 months. Economic growth in India slowed to 6.6%, the slowest pace in six quarters.”