new delhi the global semiconductor shortage is hitting the indian mobiles consumer electronics and automotive sectors hard in the midst of the festive season when sales usually peak with the automobile industry understood to have piled up around 5 lakh pending orderswhile customers usually get bargain deals or handsome festive discounts during this period this time they are paying higher for a host of items ranging from mobile handsets and tvs to cars due to the chip shortage freebies have vanished from most of the automotive showrooms as manufacturers struggle to meet demandif you look at the demand parameters which is reflected in bookings or in queries they are very good however the supply side this year unfortunately is a little muted because of this semiconductor issuethat is the reason why the number of bookings have built up but supplies have not come maruti suzuki india senior executive director marketing sales shashank srivastava told ptithe auto industry he further said as per current estimates has 45 lakh to 5 lakh pending bookings and maruti suzuki alone has about pending bookings in the range of 215 lakh to 22 lakh unitsthe problem has not magnified only in october but has been building up since august through september srivastava said adding he expects the discounts and the bonanza offers will be very muted this time because of the supply constraintsin contrast to the usual inventory build up of around 40days stock by firms at the dealership level to meet the spike in retail demand during the festive season especially around navratra and diwali this time it is less than 15 days he saidthe estimated stock inventory on october 1 was around 175 lakh units as compared to wholesales of around 335 lakh units in the same month last year it was around 225 lakh on september 1 this yearaccording to society of indian automobile manufacturers siam director general rajesh menon as a result of the severe shortages of semiconductors faced by tier i and ii component suppliers vehicle manufacturers are facing supply constraints of parts such as engine electronic control units keyless entry abs systems and infotainment systemsas far as consumer electronics are concerned ceama president eric braganza chip shortage is the biggest challenge ahead of the consumer electronics industry because price increases are on the cardsoffering consumer electronics and appliances manufacturers associations ceamas views he said as of now the industry has not seen an immediate effect on the supply side due to the shortagehowever as we enter 2022 there are high chances of chip shortage affecting the supply side and leading to an increase in prices of final goods we have already seen this in the global markets and the same could happen in the domestic market due to the domino effect braganza saidexpressing similar views counterpoint research senior research analyst prachir singh said the sector in india had been relatively less impacted in terms of availability of products due to the global component shortages for the first half