And what about people who actually come from Indian society who feel this way? Are they racist/patronising/stupid too. Good chunk of people whi feel this way, even on this thread are people who actually live in India. But I guess it is easy to paint is as some sort of balc and white, Us vs them issue.

What a ridiculous comment.

So still lots of honking and a few cows but nano should help push the govt to build more infrastructure, especially near smaller towns and district HQs. The govt in india always does the absolute minimum needed or demanded of it, certainly the nano wont change that. The main hope in india is bottom-up growth where the emerging middle-class, folks who work astounding hours and have the kind of drive makes you and I look like complete goof-offs, get a chance to push ahead and force change.

Otherwise, just spend an hour in any indian (federal/state) govt office and you will realize how bad things are…so when people say things like “why doesnt the govt provide this or that” I know that they are either ABD or havent visited one of these offices for a loooong time.

To improve the roads and infrastructure, one needs means to pay for it. Also, lots of people die/get hurt in two wheeler accidents. I’ve seen plenty of families stuffed on a scooter and always thought that was very dangerous.

Will the Nano help with increasing spending and demand on roads and infrastructure ? In the US there was a huge boom in roads and highways in the mid-twentieth century. Everyone knows the image of the American Dream, getting on the highway in your convertible to drive wherever you want and be the master of your own destiny. Cars and the automotive industry really defined the image of middle class americans post-WWII. Will we see something similar in India ? Highways being built from North to South – proper roads from pind to pind ? I am sure many here have spent hours in a Scorpio or Jeep bouncing around on horrible roads to get to relatives living in remote regions. Has the government committed to ramping up to accommodate the influx of drivers ? I am sure even pre-Nano with the larger middle class and economic boom, there are probably already huge numbers of new drivers. And if the roads are built, as some have mentioned – will there be more done to improve road etiquette / basic driving skills ? Will lories get their own lanes so you don’t have to honk all the time ? AWAAZ DHO !!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Quadrilateral

But if we give the darkies choices and capabilities they might choke on the sweet air of freedom! They are too savage and barbaric to make responsible consumption choices. Not at all like our responsible former masters.

Koschei output sounds a lot like what the GM people might have said when Toyota introduced the Corolla in the 60s.

“We need to get over our moon landing fetish. The rocket technology just isn’t there.”

Whatever happened to TATA’s compressed air car? That is a great idea. Most gas stations are already set up to deliver compressed air. Would be much more efficient than any sort of electric car.

We need to get over our hybrid fetish. The battery technology just isn’t there.

he..he.. Dr. A. well said.

I think Tata Nano will be a winner. Owning a car is something aspirational. Anyone who can afford a Rs 50,000 two wheeler can just push a little further and get the comforts of owning a car. But the explosion of cars would cause undesirable side effects, screwing up the Indian cities’ pathetic infrastructure even more.

two-wheelers account for 76 percent of india’s vehicles, so if they were replaced by nanos, pollution would decrease. but other problems will get worse – congestion being the most obvious one. everything is both a solution to something and a problem to be solved. This assumes that 2-wheelers would be replaced by the Nano; which I think is an assumption that would need to be looked at. 2-wheelers are popular for a number of reasons in India and not every owner will be a family of 5 that would be eager to upgrade to a Nano. Secondly the figures cited in that study look at Asia as a whole and the aggregate market. I think as the article later points out one could easily institute a scheme to convert the two-stroke 2-wheelers into more efficient engines. i don’t think i nor anyone else here is saying that.

I think if you look at some of the comments, like Alberuni’s they pretty much are saying that. of course the nano is not chiefly about looking out for the environmental concerns of the poor. but neither are cell phones, tvs and computers. most of these end up in polluting toxic recycling outfits in the developing world, often dumped there by the wealthier countries or the wealthier in each country. and it’s the poor who end up handling them in abysmal conditions. should cell phones and tvs and computers be withheld from poorer countries and especially poorer people in those countries until and unless they enforce stringent environmental conditions? perhaps so.

It is not a zero sum game; we can improve on both fronts now. And no one said the Nano should be banned or anything; I just think it is a bit farcical the way people are trying to sell it as a big environmental leap forward for everybody when it isn’t. Problems like toxix recycling can be handled fairly straightforwardly, since rich countries don’t allow their citizens to run the risks of dealing with them but poor countries do. Until the latter start valuing the lives of their poorer members more then things won’t change. Which of course they should do. Also, I think it’s wrong to think of a car as something that people want just because they’re aping westerners.

Actually you have misinterpreted (somewhat wilfully, it must be said) what I actually stated. I said we should not “ape Western consumption patterns uncritically� this does not mean that we can’t desire the same goods, we just can’t afford to produce, consume and dispose of them the same way as has been done in the past by Western countries; who were very unaware/uncaring about the ecological costs of doing so. We should aim for a high standard of living without necessarily having to follow the exact same model; I think some of the co-operative and regulatory changes being put in place in countries of Europe and SE Asia are more relevant for us; which of course need to be adapted to local conditions. For people in villages, distance is one of the major factors contributing to their low standard of living. Transportation isn’t a luxury, it’s an important element of productivity. Whether it’s buses, cars, or train, people do need to get around.

Yes, I am well aware of the importance of transport for the rural sector; since rural development is what I have been studying for the last decade. Spending on roads is actually, for every rupee spent, the most poverty reducing form of expenditure the govt can engage in outside the short-term. However, I don’t think the problems of the rural poor will be solved by the Nano. The baseline forecast’s estimate for the total number of these newly acquired cars in these societies is also, of course, vastly larger than the number of Nanos expected to be manufactured.

You are going off what the current figures are which were considerably revised downwards from initial estimates after the worsening economic conditions (I actually think final sales will be even lower but that is a separate topic). Initially the thinking behind the Nano was to accelerate the pace of car ownership and your assumption only holds true if every Nano owner would have gone for a higher polluting alternative in its absence. Given that part of the motivation behind the Nano was to ensure that car ownership spread to those who were not car owners and for whom under current prices were not able to own cars; I don’t think this is a valid assumption.