Tata’s Nano & the people’s car. But who are these people??
The expression ‘Public’ or ‘People’ is used indiscriminately both by polititians and corporates alike. Their respective ideas or products are thrust forcibly on the people under the guise of ‘public interest’ or the ‘wish of the people’
Tata’s 1-lakh car demonstrates just this. This is nothing but a criminal attempt by Tata (with great respect to Tatas & their noble/ priceless contribution to India’s industrialization over the years since Indian independence) to push its miniature size unsafe car into the Indian markets with a sole intention to make gains. The worst part is they call it the “People’s car”. But who are these people? What will they gain out of this car? The very thought of having to look at the problem of jammed roads and lack of parking spaces in cities is really scaring. The increase in the level of pollution in cities is also a major cause of concern. This 1-lakh car is just going to make things worse for the country.
From the business point of view this is killing competiton. We (Indians) accused Aussies of poor or no sportsmanship. Now what would you call this?? Just like the Aussies arrogant and unacceptable attitude of “win at any cost”, this seems to be Tata’s style of saying “Now I will sell my cars, at any cost“.
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January 11th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Ah…are they going to be cars for the roads or cars for the skies.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I’m sry chandrachoodan.
i disagree with u completely.
u seem to have gotten the whole point wrong.
if pollution is ur reason, remove autos(which have no CNG) frm the roads…make stringent emission rules in the country…if roads are the problem, revolt against the govt…let them improve the infrastructure…its a dream come true for many indians to own a car…n its now coming true…if cars are the problem,then we shouldnt have let foreign-make cars enter the market…do u say that by not adding one more model on the roads is going to solve all ur problems? i guess this needs a wider perspective of thought!!
January 11th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Preethi: The post was written by Karthik, my guest-blogger.
As for the points in the post, I do agree they are a little off the mark. I personally can’t wait for the car to hit roads and am re-considering my decision to buy a bike.
Also, as Ravikiran said, the car will bring back the sari to the workplace. And you can’t get a better argument for the car. So there you go.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:33 am
Refusing to buy the nano car for the reasons mentioned in the post would equal to supporting our imbecile government that hasn’t done anything remarkable to improve our infrastructure over the years. Go nano go.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Karthik: One point. With a cheaper car, autos will lose a lot of their market. And that is argument enough for the Nano.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:41 am
And Karthik/others: Please to read this post first. It addresses a few questions about transport within the city:
Low cost housing for the poor, on Examined Life
January 11th, 2008 at 10:55 am
Point taken.
Sry I didnt chek who wrote it.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:30 am
i strongly second preethi… also there r few points i would like to mention
1) nano meets every safety standard for its class, i.e comparable to maruthi 800,alto etc and has undergone extensive full frontal crash tests
2) nano confirms to bharat 3(euro 4) emission norms and it pollutes less than most other cars on road presently
3) It gives a mileage of 22-26 kms/lit of petrol that means more fuel savings as well
With such features, I sure deem it as a car worth buying if not for rich people.
Tata Nano will make every Indian own a car like Ambani made it possible for every Indian to own a phone by offering it for Rs.501
January 11th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Thank you all for your comments. I know this topic could be argued both ways.
However, without arguing for the sake of arguing, I do agree that it would be wrong to blame carmakers for the inability of our governments to provide a good public transport system or lay good wide roads and that the points put forth in my argument is not fully justified. Who knows maybe the sudden increase in the volumes of cars might even force the government to widen the roads or construct more flyovers. I also do agree that maybe this “cheap” car would make the dream of every “poor” man in India to own a car a reality.
But I totally disagree with the point that this car would not have any impact since it is ‘just another model’ among the bunch of other new car models launched by various car makers every year. The difference over here is simply the price. Maybe the impact this car would have is for us to see after it is made available to the public from October.
January 11th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
i disagree with you . it will not only be the tata lac car that will create conjestion . other cars are involved in the traffic as well. the nano is an “INDIAN ENGINEERING MASTERPIECE” indeed.
January 11th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
[...] Tata Nano is probably one of the better things to happen to the Indian market. Even if long time friends disagree. Posted by Chandrachoodan Gopalakrishnan on January 11th, 2008 | Filed in Opinion [...]
March 5th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I totally agree with you and your point.
But I see that you apology to the tatas is undeserving.
I am sure you would find this very usefull
http://www.bhopal.net/tata_rapsheet.html
[...]The Tata Group, a family-owned Indian multinational with 2005 revenues of Rs. 76,500 crores ($17.8 billion), has an unjustifiably good reputation. The corporation’s flagship company Tata Steel made its riches through large-scale takeover of tribal lands in Jharkhand and Orissa and opportunistic business deals with the British colonial powers and the East India Company.
Until the onset of liberalisation, Tatas remained the undisputed king of the license-raj, covering its trail of human rights, labour and environmental violations with liberal philanthropic give-aways. As the realities of operating in a globalised environment began sinking in within Tatas, more and more people, including its loyal employees, are beginning to understand that talks of nation-building and corporate social responsibility aside, Tata companies have no obligation to anybody but their own shareholders.
As the rapsheet below will corroborate, the corporate house’s reputation is a result of Tata’s successful public relations strategy rather than a reflection of reality.[...]
There is a lot more.
You should ask an old man from jamshedpur region and they will tell you how tata has aquired land in return of supplying steel and iron to the british empire.
They took over tribal lands during the British Raj. Later when these tribal refused to work in the mines. They cut down entire forests of trees, that these tribal were dependent on for its sap and then forced them work in these mines.
Now Tata has effectively covered its cruel past and is making you believe that is an Indian company who care for India.
Infact they were traitors to the Indians during the freedom struggle.
I implore you go through this and then you will be able to write about the TATA better
Best of luck