At last, a shaft of light for the automotive industry. A surprisingly large number of advance orders for the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, has led Tata Motors to “place on record its gratitude to the people of India”. That more than 200,000 people ponied up 80 per cent deposits in a weakening economy, for delivery in perhaps one or two years, is good news for India’s largest vehicle maker. There cannot be many carmakers who have to select their customers by lottery. An injection of about $500m in short-term liquidity, meanwhile, is a welcome boost for a group that will burn cash this year and maybe next.

But this is still a pear-shaped car for a pear-shaped business. Tata Motors’ salvation will not come from middle-class Indians trading up from two wheels to four but from the benevolence of the banking syndicate that gave the chairman a $3bn bridge loan to buy UK marques Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford last June. Some $1bn has been repaid from a rights issue; the other $2bn is due in four weeks.