[sustran] Guardian article--more thoughts

[Anjali Mahendra]

Thanks to Sujit for sending those comments from others in India.

The New York Times Series by Amy Waldman came to my mind too.  But it was
definitely a far more balanced 4-part series that captured many of the
issues people raised against the Guardian article.  I have them saved up
(unfortunately they are only available on TimesSelect now) but am not sure
if there's a way to send attachments to the list.  I could cut and paste
them if required.

BTW, I'm surprised that the Guardian article doesn't mention one big change
likely to happen in the next couple of years--the development of The Tata
Group's "one-lakh rupee car" (that's about $2200)!  The car that's supposed
to change the way the middle class travels in India and get them out of
those lowly two-wheelers.  I've pasted a small excerpt from Ratan Tata's
interview with the McKinsey Quarterly.  But given the fact that he is the
Chairman of the Government of India's (autonomous) Investment Commission and
his old established business group has the one-lakh rupee car as their main
goal in the near future, is it a surprise that the highway projects are the
country's priority??  And not rail?  The Tata group is known to be one of
India's biggest and smartest business comglomerates--quite respected too I
would add, so the PR also is not a surprise.

"The *Quarterly*: Turning to your plans for the Indian market, the most
intriguing is perhaps the development of a people's car that would sell for
100,000 rupees.<http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_page.aspx?ar=1688&L2=21&L3=114#foot2>What's
the thinking behind it?

Ratan Tata: It is propelled by the opportunity, but there is also a social
or dreamy side to it. Today in India, you often see four people on a
scooter: a man driving, his little kid in front, and his wife on the back
holding a baby between them. It's a dangerous form of transportation, and it
leads to accidents and hospitalizations and deaths. If we can make something
available on four wheels—all-weather and safe—then I think we will have done
something for that mass of young Indians. If you could position an
all-weather car that was not a glorified scooter or a stripped-down car,
then I believe there would be a market potential of one million cars a
year."
One million cars a year!  And Tata's doing his little bit to make sure that
it's smooth sailing when they hit the road.

Best,
Anjali

-------------------------

Anjali Mahendra

Doctoral candidate

Regional Economics and Transportation Policy

Department of Urban Studies and Planning

MIT



Office:

Room 24-423

77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
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Message: 11
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 16:13:58 -0400
From: "Lee Schipper" <SCHIPPER at wri.org>
Subject: [sustran] Re: "India is on the road to a transport
    revolution"
To: "SUSTRAN Asia and Pacific Sustainable Transport"
    <sustran-discuss at list.jca.apc.org>, <sujit at vsnl.com >
Cc: Eric Britton <fekbritton at gmail.com>, S.Norton at dpmms.cam.ac.uk
Message-ID: < s45a2853.040 at hermes.wri.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I will try to dig out a similar (series) from the New York Times several
months back

Someone in Indian road building has a good PR Agent.
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