[sustran] Re: Indian official calls German cars 'criminal'

[Ashok Sreenivas]

Agree with Bina. I happen to have been at the "conference" where he made the
statement. What he said was about the differential taxation on diesel and
petrol in India promoting the use of diesel vehicles, particularly larger
SUVs - which definitely needs to be curbed. Mr. Ramesh is easily one of the
more respected ministers in the current Indian government and generally has
progressive views.

However, I must also add that in the matter of transportation, his view
currently seemed to rather purely technology-centric as he spoke primarily
only about fuel economy standards, better fuels, electric vehicles etc. All
important no doubt, but only a (small?) part of the solution with other
components such as integrated neighbourhoods, walking, cycling, very good,
affordable, reliable public transport and an integration among these being
much more important. I was particularly disappointed when he said that he
thought that [and I paraphrase here] building cities for walking and cycling
was "romantic".

Ashok

On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 7:47 AM, Bina C.Balakrishnan <binacb at gmail.com>wrote:

> Thats not good reporting.
>
> What the Minister said is "Use of these cars is criminal", not that German
> cars are criminal. That is a huge difference.
>
> I read the original article when it came out inthe Indian newspapers.
> I am one hundred percent with Mr. Jairam Ramesh about the use of SUVs on
> Indian streets - or urban streets, for that matter. These are very large
> vehicles, and their presence in the traffic stream does cause interference.
> Besides these large vehicles are not required for purposes of urban
> movement. And they DO consume a lot of gas.
>
> Bina C. Balakrishnan
> Consultant -
> Sustainable Transportation Policy, Planning & Management
> Mumbai, India
>
> Cell:    +91 98339 00108
>
> Home: +91 22 23630572
> Fax:    +91 22 23692673
> e-mail: binacb at gmail.com
>           binac at rediffmail.com
> web : www.binabalakrishnan.com
> skype: binacb
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 12:12 AM, Todd Edelman <edelman at greenidea.eu>
> wrote:
>
> > Indian official calls German cars 'criminal'
> > http://www.thelocal.de/national/20101112-31139.html
> >
> > India’s Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh attacked German automakers on
> > Friday, saying driving big-engined luxury models from BMW and
> > Mercedes-Benz in his country was “criminal.”
> >
> > Expressing his wish for better fuel efficiency in India, Ramesh said
> > people should not be encouraged to buy vehicles such as powerful German
> > luxury cars and gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles.
> >
> > “The luxurious growth of large-size vehicles like SUVs is really a
> > growth of concern, use of vehicles like SUVs and BMW in countries like
> > India is criminal,” he said at a UN function in New Delhi, according to
> > news agency IANS.
> >
> > "I think we seriously need to think about fuel policy regime," he added,
> > suggesting that these luxury models were still made because they run on
> > subsidised diesel fuel, making the real beneficiaries the owners of
> > "BMWs, the Benzs and Hondas," IANS reported.
> >
> > The country should levy extra fees and mandatory fuel efficiency
> > standards on these cars, the minister suggested.
> >
> > "We cannot ask people to buy or not to buy a particular car. But through
> > an effective fiscal policy, we can certainly have an impact," he said.
> >
> > A new committee on national transport plans to give recommendations for
> > such a program in just over a year, he added.
> >
> > India’s auto market is among the fastest growing in the world,
> > particularly in the luxury sector, with German carmakers expanding their
> > operations there significantly in recent years
> >
> > ***
> >
> > See also
> >
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/edelman/2163265797/in/set-72157602171242536/
> >
> > --
> >
> > Todd Edelman
> > Green Idea Factory,
> > a member of the OPENbike team
> >
> > Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081
> >
> > edelman at greenidea.eu
> > www.greenidea.eu
> > todd at openbike.se
> > www.openbike.se
> >
> > Skype: toddedelman
> >
> > Urbanstr. 45
> > 10967 Berlin
> > Germany
> >
> > ***
> >
> > OPENbike - Share the Perfect Fit!
> >
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