Tata Nano – An Indian Product or a Social Revolution?

Finally, one of the most awaited cars, in the automobile industry has been launched, which completely redefines the notion of owning cars. Cars, thought to be a thing of luxury, always eluded the common man, due to their high prices. The car is based on a vision from Ratan Tata, who said, “I observed families riding on two-wheelers – the father driving the scooter, his young kid standing in front of him, his wife seated behind him holding a little baby. It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family. We are happy to present the People’s Car to India and we hope it brings the joy, pride and utility of owning a car to many families who need personal mobility.”

With such a vision, the new Tata Nano focuses on not only the 10% Indian population which has an access to the other automobiles, but also to a huge percentage of population who can overstretch a bit from buying a new two-wheeler or a used small car to getting their own Brand New Wheels in the form of the “People’s Car”.


What is so Special about the Brand – Tata Nano?
Ever since it was conceptualized, the other players in the automobile industry were pessimistic about the feasibility. The Suzuki, the Hyundai, the Renault etc., anyone and everyone in the automobile industry had commented that the Tata dream of a People’s Car was just a figment of imagination and making a car at this low a price without compromising on quality is not possible. This very fact makes the Nano special. It is a brand that defines the Entrepreneurial Dream of an Indian, coupled with the hard work, dedication and determination of a team who believed in and worked for converting this vision into reality.

What is also heartening to see is that instead of making it look like a “cheap car”, the initial look and the comments and reviews from some of the people who test drove the car suggest that it is fares pretty well with its stylish looks, spacious interiors and a good quality drive coupled with a never ever before rock-bottom price tag. The car takes its tagline “Now You Can” from the Obama campaign and actually lives up to it.

On a personal note, Tata Nano even represents a triumph when it comes to a battle between Politicians and Industrialists, the base of which is present in my blog post about the Nano saga. India, the biggest democracy has its share of politicians who try to put “speed-bumps” in any development that happens, to use it for their own selfish purposes. Without going into details, the opposition party of West Bengal opposed the Tata Nano’s factory to be opened and demanded return of 400 acres from the 1000 acres which were allocated by the State Government. This was done on the assumption that since Tata Motors had invested a hefty sum into the Singur factory, they would cave-in to the demands.
Instead of giving in, Tata abandoned the incomplete plant and shifted the facility to Sanand, Gujarat, which not only baffled the people, but also showed the fact that the industrial sector of India is no longer weak and the Politicians cannot change things at the last minute based on their selfish interests. Thus, this Indian brand, with people speculating against it even before its conceptualization had happened, has come out successful defying all the odds.


Political Impact of Tata Nano Roll-out

The name Tata Nano is in itself a project of pride to Indians. The completion of this project changed the name of the Indian Automobile globally, from an industry where people just fixed the auto-parts made in foreign lands, to a place where innovations and research can happen and even reach new heights.

The pull-out of Nano from Singur is not good news to West Bengal, and has also resulted in tarnishing the already bad image of the state in the eyes of the industrial investors. This also led to loss of potential jobs that the new Nano plant, and its dependency industries, would have generated. We still see that Mamta Banerjee is still harping about her “achievement” of not allowing the Nano to settle in peace. Hopefully, the people of the state will see the light of the day and vote reasonably in these elections to ensure that a good Government comes in full power, and such embarrassing event never happens in the state again.
On the other hand, Narendra Modi’s Gujarat Government added another feather to their cap of achievements. With his dynamic speed, ability to convince and prompt action, Narendra Modi got not only the land leveled, but also got all the required documentation ready to roll a “red-carpet” for Ratan Tata’s favourite project. At the 4th Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2009, Ratan Tata said, “the Chief Secretory(in his speech) today quite rightly mentioned that two years ago I had said that if you weren’t in Gujarat, you would be stupid, I did said that and I am very proud that I listened to my own advice and that today I can stand in front of you and say that the fact is that I am not stupid any longer.” This statements from Ratan Tata, raised the bar of Modi Government for Gujarat to a new level.


Economic Benefits of Tata Nano Roll-out – To the Tatas and to the Customers

The Tata Nano is expected to roll out in 3 versions, the basic version is known as the Nano with no prefixes or suffixes. Next up is the Nano CX which comes with HVAC and central locking while the top of the line Nano LX adds power windows to the front doors. which are priced from the lowest around 1,00,000 which is from Pantnagar (would be around 1,30,000 on road) and the LX Model which will be around 1,80,000 which makes it still cheaper than most other cars in the same small-cars segment. This new car will not only be a saver in this recession time, but will also open the automobile segment to a whole new class of customers, who till now, could have only dreamt of owning a car of their own. Other than this, Tata group may think of exporting this “innovation”, though they are currently looking at only the Indian Markets. A new version is seemingly going to be unveiled in a couple years which have higher average and match European Emission Standards.

To the customers, the Tata Nano Revolution is going to help in seeing a cut in the prices in the other cars. This car has also made other players in the automobile industry interested and Bajaj Auto Ltd, the country's second largest two-wheeler maker has announced a joint venture with Renault-Nissan to produce a 2,500 dollar car as well. In yet another independent announcement, Japanese major Toyota announced a Rs 1,400 crore (Rs 14 billion) investment in its Chennai plant to launch a 'strategic small car' within next 2-3 years.

These things are good news to us the customers and also to India as a nation, which will attract not only the huge investments, but also new jobs and developments due to this. As for Tatas, they are getting set to start lapping up this new Market segment.


Living with Nano – Redefining our Visions
After saying all the good parts, this is one area where we might have a concern, though in long term. The presence of the new “People’s car” will surely empower a lot more people to own the car. This is going to have a direct negative impact on the traffic conditions, especially in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad, where there are problems even now. Apart from this, the overall fuel consumption is bound to increase which may yield in further price hikes of petroleum products. The third addition on the same lines will be a problem of finding parking lots for the additional cars which will enter the system.

All said and done, the above mentioned fears will have lesser impact considering a few realities. The Singur Saga led to the postponement of the Nano roll-out and also the capacity is bound to be less now. From what I read, the Tatas are planning to roll-out some Nanos from Pantnagar and the full capacity will reach 3,00,000 cars per year only once the Sanand plant becomes functional. Secondly, with its sleek look and absolutely small 4-metre turning radius, the Nano will get fitted in even the smallest of places. This of course could cause issues with the other cars around it, but the Nano in itself seems a nice option. Another vision is that the Tata Nano will replace the auto-rickshaws in a big way and this I think would be a very welcome change for most of us.


Final Verdict and Personal Take:

With a few changes like no mirror on the Passenger side to save money, Nano does have some turn-downs, but my overall impression of the car is pretty optimistic. The new Nano is surely going to compete for being the first car for a lot, and a second car for another bunch of people. The impact of Nano release on the Used-Cars industry will be evident only once the Sanand Factory starts in a full-fledged way.
Till that happens, if you are a prospective Nano buyer, just pray that you win the Nano registration lottery and get your set of wheels sooner than others; and if you are in construction business, keep looking, we are bound to see a lot of Government Tender notices for building more roads and flyovers.

India – Another Talibanistan in the Making?

The Title suggests that India is on its way to become yet another country which will fall prey to the leadership of Taliban, which seems incorrect. You may suggest that the title should be Pakistan and not Hindustan. But, the facts below do show that we have a lot of our own fundamentalists, which terrorize the nation.


What exactly is Taliban?
The word Taliban is derived from the Arabic word “Talib”, which means, “one who is seeking”, but over the years, the word Taliban has got a meaning, “one who is seeking fundamentalist religious knowledge”.

Unlike Barack Obama, who classified Taliban into “Good Taliban” and “Bad Taliban”, from an Indian’s perspective, I’d rather divide the Taliban into:
1. The Foreign Taliban
2. The Indian Taliban


The Foreign Taliban – Based in Afghanistan and Pakistan
The oldest Taliban Militia was established in Afghanistan, after the Sovient Union broke up, to fight the Mujahdeen war-lords who were corruptly ruling parts of the country, and restore peace in a united Afghanistan. This movement of Sunni Pashtun religious students, was backed up indirectly and directly by the United States and Pakistan, because the Taliban used to check the spread of the USSR rule.

Growing in power, the Taliban under the leadership of Mullah Omar, took over the entire Afghanistan under their “Exemplary Islamic Rule”. The brought back the system called taqlid, which means a very strict following of traditional Islam. Cutting the long story short, in 1980s, Osama bin Ladin established guerrilla warfare bases in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. But after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the Taliban began to look at the Western culture as its enemy. They considered items like Television, Music etc to be Western infatuations, which are aimed to break their religious beliefs. This intolerant mind-set led to the 9/11 attack on the United States, by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban refused to extradite Osama to the US.

On the other hand, Pakistan in its bid to take over Kashmir also helped the Taliban to grow. This has led to the Talibanese rule in a lot of Pakistani territory and even the Democratic Government and the army seems to be unable to control their growth. The Government’s approval to sign a peace treaty which accepts their rule in the SWAT valley, shows that Taliban in Pakistan is a force to reckon with.

Over the years, the same snake that the US and Pakistan nurtured and nourished has raised its hood against them and the Terror attacks in the US and the problems in Pakistan have grown very grave concerns globally. The new Obama administration has also recognized this threat and a new Af-Pak Policy is in place.


The Indian Taliban - A More Dangerous Breed

Unlike the Islamic terrorist Taliban that is growing in Af-Pak region, the Indian union has multiple versions of its own Talibanese ideologies. After all, we are a land where there is unity in diversity and hence there are diverse Taliban-like groups in India, based on caste, creed and region with their own selfish interests.


The Muslim Taliban in India

Before the title is taken in a negative sense, I would like to clarify one thing. An Indian Muslim is as much Indian as any other person. It is absolutely incorrect to consider all followers of Islam as bad and they are not the only community spreading terror. Generalizing the whole community due to the presence of a few bad people would be absolutely incorrect.

There are some areas like Cheetah Camp in suburban Trombay, where the local clergy are highly influential. Known as Khan baba, Abdul Jalil Khan said that he is fighting against the “corrosive power” of the visuals on the air-waves as all television programmes, either informative or entertaining, are replete with images of lust and of semi-nude models. The people are forced into sending their children into Madressa instead of the schools. The Madressa curriculum is very limited to Islamic thought culture and it has not changed over-time, which makes it even more dangerous. Children here are taught the “real” Islam and slowly they become molded to the rigidity of religion, which is a threat to our secular nation.

Another example to cite here is the one I came across on a blog. On January 16, a Pakistani woman named Saba was bashed up at a mall in Mumbai. The “crime” she committed was having a tattoo which said “Shukr Alham Du Lillah”, meaning “Thank you, God”. A group of Islamic Radicals led by Shabana Talukdar slapped her in the mall’s washroom till the Management came to her rescue. (Also printed in the Mumbai Mirror)

What I am trying to suggest here is, whatever happened to the fundamental right of “Freedom of Expression”. Especially in this case, where I personally don’t think anything provocative was written.


The Maharashtrian Taliban
Starting with Shiv-Sena, a group of pro-Hindu fundamentalists under the rein of Bal Thackeray, for the Marathis in Maharashtra, this group has grown in power over a period of time. With various cases pending in the court, the members of this group are either Politicians themselves, or are closely linked to Political Parties which provides them safe haven. The Shiv-Sena is known to have played a vital role in the riots that sparked out in Mumbai after the Babri Marjid demolition. A Judicial Commission also pointed at the Sena for its direct involvement in coordinating the anti-Muslim riots, and accused Thackeray of “commanding his loyal Shiv Sainiks to retaliate by organised attacks against Muslims.” But after 7 years of Judicial Proceedings, Bala Thackeray was given a “clean chit”.

The Latest off-shoot of an uncle-nephew quarrel for power sharing between Bala Thakeray’s son Udhav and nephew Raj, has given rise to another offshoot of such kind called The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray is all gaga about the needs of the original Marathi Manoos (actual Maharasthrians) and it raised a virulent campaign against the migrants, especially from Bihar and UP. The group is known to have assaulted the Taxi-drivers, vendors and the people who had come all the way from UP and Bihar to take the Railway Examination at the Mumbai Center. Among the cases known, there is also a case of a sweet shop named “Karachi Sweets”, whose owner was threatened by the MNS to either change the name of the shop or face the consequences.

From the records that I read online, at least 84 cases are filed against the MNS which include grave crimes like rioting, promoting enmity, expressing prejudices in public etc. Raj Thackeray’s name is included on 55 of these, with some of the cases where he is the prime accused. But the fact that he is not charge-sheeted yet and the fact that he was just jailed for some time and released on bail show the Political Muscle of the MNS.


The Rama Sena and Bajrang Dal

The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Though they say they are secular and accommodating in their ideology, the Bajrang Dal has a goal of reversing the impact of the Muslim and the British rulers in India. This also includes the restoration of the currently disputed places of worship like Ayodhya and Kashi. Though I am not saying this is completely wrong, but it is also not correct to destroy places of worship of other communities.

The Bajrang Dal is also known to have had active involvement in the various riots. The VHP leader, Praveen Togadia, was arrested in April 2003 after distributing tridents to Bajrang Dal activists in Ajmer defying ban and prohibitory orders. Other than this, the Bajrang Dal activists are known to be “spoilers” when it comes to Valentine’s Day Celebrations, by invading parks, pubs, shops, cinema halls and restaurants and behaving like “social-police”.
Another such group is the that newly got fame is The Sri Rama Sena, which is a group of self-acclaimed Hindu fundamentalists who want to “restore” Indian values back into the system. Around 40 members of this group attacked a pub in Mangalore, Karnataka and physically dragged and abused the defenseless girls. The pictures and videos of this incident also show that there was grappling and molestation involved in this bizarre incident. The people who tried to intervene were also bashed up.

The sad part about this event is that everyone rose up in anger, but the Politicians remained unmoved for the fear of losing votes. Yet, the women came up with a great idea of gifting the leader of Ram Sena Pramod Muthalik, with huge numbers of pink underwears on the Valentine’s Day as a gift for his efforts.

Fate it seems is ironic, in Ramayana, Rama had a Sena of Monkeys who behaved like Humans and now we have this Rama Sena of Humans in Kalyug who...


My Take on the Taliban and India Topic

On a personal note, I feel that the Taliban within is much more dangerous as compared to the one beyond our borders. The Af-Pak Taliban forces can be even attributed to their warring nation with almost no education, but the Indian Taliban is far more dangerous as it comes from an educated class living in a democracy. The recent spur of events woven around yet-another Hindu fundamentalist Varun Gandhi is not music to our ears.

The very events mentioned above make me ponder whether we do have any fundamental rights left with us. Security threats and Violence have also led to another set of questions.

“Are we living in places where people are less Fundamentalists or Rigid then the Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan?”

“Will India – A country of diverse Tribes, Religions and Cultures still remain united or will it too Succumb to these Hardcore Perpetrators and get divided?”

“Will the Political Parties understand that they too are feeding yet another Taliban which has the potential of going the Af-Pak way, or will they continue to think short-term?”

As responsible citizens of a secular democratic, we must understand that nobody can violate others’ lives or forcibly invade their ideologies. We must join hands and take action against Hardcore Dictators.
If there is nothing else you can do, at least show your concern and VOTE RESPONSIBLY.