Tata Launches Nano

It is finally out! The Tata Nano is almost as cute and sexy as the Ipod Nano and holds the promise to revolutionise the way automobiles will be driven in India (potentially even the world). It portends a significant socio-economic revolution in the smaller towns of India and will potentially spur the development of more roads and allied infrastructure in the remote corners of the country. While that will take quite some time, be ready for crazier traffic in the big cities and saturation in the smaller ones. Some argue this is retrograde and screws up the environment but then one could argue development in general is bad? As long as this growth in mobility for the masses is balanced by better roads and infra, things should turn out well.

My admiration for the Tata Motors and Ratan Tata runs even deeper now post this launch. This Nano has established India solidly in global arena of automobile design. The perseverance of Ratan to hold on in West Bengal is admirable in the face of the daily brinkmanship by the vested elements to shut down the Nano factory. The guy is out to do good for Bengal by letting industry take roots once again. Let us hope that 'common people' in their thousands drive out to Singur a year from now with their little Nanos to express their solidarity and gratitude.