Tata Motors launched the Tata Estate (1992; a station wagon design based on the earlier Tata Mobile), the Tata Sumo (1994, a 5-door SUV) and the Tata Safari (1998). Tata launched the Indica in 1998, the first fully indigenous Indian passenger car. Although initially criticized by auto analysts, its excellent fuel economy, powerful engine, and an aggressive marketing strategy made it one of the best-selling cars in the history of the Indian automobile industries. A newer version of the car, named Indica V2, was a major improvement over the previous version and quickly became a mass favourite. Tata Motors also successfully exported
Coins of the Indian rupee divided into annas (16 annas to a rupee) and pice (the old spelling of paisa - 64 pice to a rupee). The lowest-denomination Indian coins, the half-pice (128 to a rupee) and the pie (192 to a rupee) were officially demonetized in 1947; while both denominations had continued to circulate up to that time, new examples were not minted after 1942 as they were practically worthless (India remained a member of the sterling area after independence and the rupee remained pegged to the pound sterling. Until 1966, the rupee was worth 1s.6d, or 18 old British pence; a half-pice was