The choice of selecting between Manual and Automatic in India has always been unanimous and people prefer to use Manual due to its Fuel efficiency. I had rarely seen a car with automatic transmission in India, except perhaps the luxury biggies like Mercs, Sonata and Skoda. Due to my first point above, automatic transmission is not much talked about and marketed in India, thanks to the uneven city traffic conditions. In City traffic, people will hate to switch between 2nd and 3rd speed often, but they will be able to hit the mileage max by cleverly handling that. With an Auto transmission, the Gears change with speed and there is always an inertial factor for Gears to change when the speed rises and falls often. This will cause an improper speed detection and Gear change always and the result is a little more consumption of Fuel. If Indian roads were smooth and clean and everyone followed lane discipline, auto trans would have touched the Fuel economy of Manual nearly. Hence, naturally I would suggest to go for a Manual in India to save your pockets though its painful.
To support this, it is always good to practice driving a manual trans car. If you are someone who learnt driving in America with only those two pedals, you will probably be able to drive only there, because the rest of the world, especially the Europeans, prefer their left foot on the clutch. It’s easier to drive an auto trans and hence you don’t need to have any learning, specific to the car. But, learning to drive a manual car will cover the whole world. So it is always good to drive a manual car(if it’s your first and if you are in India) so that the purpose 1(Fuel efficiency) and Purpose 2(Global coverage) are taken care of.
It’s finally upto you to decide between those.