TATA Nano Yeah-yeah, No-no?

June 5th of each year is observed as World Environment Day. We are made to
pause, debate and reflect on what we have been doing to the world of oursthe
only place we can call home. Despite increasing cries of fowl by many over the
last two decades, most of us remained sceptic environmentalists. However, we
cannot do so any longer as we have early summers, crazy winters and haphazard
monsoons. The weather is going haywire and we can feel its effects. As techies
and business people, we need to pause to examine the new products and
technologies that are dished out each year, to see if they are environmentally
friendly.

When Ratan Tata unveiled Nano, he created history. He had accomplished what
some auto giants claimed was rubbish while others had proclaimed was impossible.
A car that met Euro 4 emission standards, gives good mileage per litre of petrol
and is sold at the price tag of $2,500 or $100,000, making it the cheapest
worldwide. However, is this a boon or a bane to our increasingly precarious
world?

Boon

People who agree it is an accomplishment or boon cite the following reasons:

The price of the Nano makes it affordable even to those who are unable to
afford a car in the market and hence invest in two wheelers. This is usually the
lower middle class and people in rural regions of the world. As Raja Sowrirajan
said, My employer got me a motorbike. However, Im married and have two
daughters. I worry about their safety as I cant drop them to school. Therefore,
I spend Rs 2,500 monthly to get them picked and dropped to and from school. The
Nano is not only affordable but also safe for my entire family and I plan to buy
it.

Nano is good for it will get a majority of two wheelers off the streets,
which is the foremost cause of road accidents and deaths in India and the
developing world.

Many auto giants may shift their design and research base to India as Indian
designers have proved they are competent and economical. Another incentive would
be the cost factor, as Indian designers are paid 1/6th of what their Western and
Japanese counterparts get. In addition, auto giants have to come up with a new
model each year. Most importantly, Indian designs are suitable worldwide as they
take into account the best and worst conditions.

Bane

Those who say no-no to Nano cite the following reasons.

It will lead to the demise of the mass transport system, especially auto
rickshaws, buses and trains as now almost everyone will be able to buy the car.
This will result in a huge loss of jobs and livelihood, which will only make the
already bad economic situation worse. According to Nandita Deb, Nano will do to
mass transit what email and courier did to postal services.

Environmentalists feel the pollution level is likely to become higher with
massive sales of Nano in developing countries. According to Shanti Rangarajan,
Why didnt the Tata folks design a better bus? With the current price tag and
car loans offered by banks, everyone will be able to buy it. Can you imagine the
amount of pollution this will result in? We also wont be able to meet our
countrys emission standards.

Traffic congestion in the developing world will increase and add problems to
the already strained infrastructure. Ajit Sharma, a software engineer from
Bangalore says, It already takes me an hour to travel from my home to my
workplace which is just 7 km away because of traffic congestion. Once the Nano
hits the roads in Bangalore, it will probably take me two hours.Massive
increase in import demands for oil as the car is neither hybrid fuelled nor
electric and will cause the price of global crude to keep rising having a
negative impact on an already struggling global economy.

It is cheap without being safeyou have to pay extra for the seatbelts and
other safety features.

The extent to how these factors will affect India and the world remains to be
seen as it is still early to say if India and the world will go the Californian
waysmog, personal cars and almost non-existent public transport system or the
New York waycabs, robust public transport despite the availability of cars and
traffic congestion.

Nano can become one of the following

• The middle class family car
• The new developing worlds cab replacing the auto rickshaw, tut-tut, etc
• The new bike of the youth replacing two wheelers
• The poor mans car
• The corporate employers give away

The demand for the Tata Nano is dependent on how its economic status is
perceived and this will result in the number of cars sold in India and globally.
This will eventually determine if the Tata Nano will become a boon or a bane.

On the other hand, by making the Nano, Tata has effectively thrown the
gauntlet into the automobile designer ring, especially to those other automobile
makers worldwide who said it was impossible to make a good car whose price tag
would be $2,500. Indian auto designers have a bright future as they have shown
the impossible is possible. Overall, the Nano is bound to create a design and
development race and in the automobile sector globally and it is high time that
we had a automobile revolution. Maybe the others will take up the challenge and
come up with newer designs, which are more efficient, hybrid fuelled, a new
design engine or a $3,000 tanker or a $5,000 bus that is eco-friendly. It is
high time too as there have been very little change in the automobile industry
except for superficial changes and frills on the dashboard but no real change in
engine design.

For a long time, it has been about aesthetics but with the Nano, the race is
on for who can produce the best under the hood and economically. The Tata Nano
marks the beginning of the global race of the sensible, cost effective transport
for the world. However, it might also increase the pace of global warming
precisely because of the low cost. Only time will tell. Nano has done one thing
singlehandedlyit has awakened people to the environmental debate especially
those who had lived in denial of global warming and claiming it is all baloney.
Even if Nano doesnt take off the way it is predicted to, it will be the single
most technological product that awakened the world to the dangers of global
warming.