New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- India's automobile market is in deep trouble. Fresh figures released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers show that sales of passenger vehicles in July plummeted 31% from the offtake a year earlier. This marks the ninth straight month of decline, and the steepest in about two decades. Given the alarming fall, it isn't surprising that carmakers have intermittently been halting production until dealers clear inventories. Most companies are offering discounts, and some are hoping that new launches would whet demand. But little of it seems to be working. The sector, as the numbers show, continues to shrink, threatening job losses across the supply chain. The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India has warned that nearly a million jobs could be lost if the contraction persists. For an economy accustomed to high single-digit growth, the travails of its main manufacturing industry have turned business sentiment especially gloomy. Whether slower growth in incomes is to blame or market- specific factors remains a bit of a puzzle....