TATA Nano- My 2 Cents

Nano has cocupied the centrestage in the last few weeks for all the wrong reasons. A pet project of Ratan Tata -which made the entire world sit up and take notice, being stalled thanks to a maverick politican makes a good joke.
It is a sad state of politics in this country that businesses are held to ransom by all and the sundry. What started as a demonstration against TATA having excess land snowballed into TATAs exiting from Singur, WB.Last heard, TATAs are scouting for land in Karnataka and another southern state, AP.
More about this in another blog.
Personally speaking, I too am not happy with the Nano. (No offence to Mr Tata. My ire rests solely on the khadi brigade.)Before being branded a lunatic let me explain. Reasons for that are simple:
TAKE 1. I live in Bangalore, a city known not only for size zero roads(as BANGALORE MIRROR ad states), but also for drivers with size zero brains. They are adept at converting a neat 2 lane road to one with 4 lanes. I am also told that the driving habits of fellow drivers in other cities are not much different.
TAKE 2. Of late there has been a shift in the dowry taking habits of male Indians of certain communities. Dowry which was being given in the form of vehicles, jewellery etc is now being given in the form of "parking slots". More fuel is spent on finding a parking space than reaching the destination
TAKE 3. The car looks good. No doubt. But it is truly a tin pot car. We Indians never cared for personal safety while driving. This car is a boon to such thought process. I suspect insurance companies might not insure neither the car nor the occupants.
TAKE 4. This point is not in opposition to the Nano per-se but more towards the strategy around the target group. I suspect the Nano aims to cater to a segment of people which uses a motorcycle as of now, but wants to own a car. I dont think a person who owns an A-list car would say "Hey the Nano looks cool.Let me buy one". Sorry does not look possible. If it caters to the motorcycle owners, what about the mileage. Even the gas guzzlers among 2 wheelers, notch up 30-40 kmpl. The nano falls short by say 10kmpl or even more. This is very healthy for a car but still not a two thumbs-up for switching. Add to this rising fuel cost, we have sundries like maintenance ,cost of spares which might be more than one can afford.And now did someone talk about using it in villages? Stop kidding me.
TAKE 5. In developed countries, infrastructure was the pre-cursor to having a large scale personalized transport aka the Nano. Americans on an average own 3 cars per household today. They did not own so many during 1950's. Thanks to Sloan and his GM centric policies cars are a necessary evil in the USA. But still the infrastructure exists to handle the same. It is also being constantly upgraded to meet the demand for cars. Do we have that capaibility in infrastructure? Sadly the answer is a resounding NO. Our existing infrastructure is bursting at its seams. At this juncture we could do without a few more cars .

The need of the hour is to have a mass rapid transport system in all of the metros and not a nano. There was a wonderful article written in Forbes which pointed out why the Nano might not be a good idea at all. I suggest everyone to read through it as the author, speaks at length with very valid reasons.

To conclude I say that we are putting the cart before the Horse. In a few years to come maybe I will start from home, reach office in the afternoon and start back to reach home before evening. Who knows IT folks in Bangalore might be asked to WFH always and this might prompt them to build a temple for "Nano Maa" :))