I will be watching the social changes due to this car with interest. I hope the horrid autorikshaws are soon replaced with nanoxis..(nano taxis)

And with most of our cities realizing the need for mass rapid transport systems and working towards it, this will soon become a non-issue. Villages anyway, traffic is not a big issue even if every house is going to have a small car.

No matter whatever it is, arguing that Tatas should abstain from providing Indians a cheaper alternative for commuting is a no-brainer argument I feel, never a solution to the real problem of lack of infrastructure, good public transport systems etc. In fact I hope these will wake up our law makers to come up with better strategies. Sunita Narayan has such pointless propagandas from time to time because that’s her job(The municipal water I drink if tested will be 100 times more contaminated than colas that are made out of proper plants).

Will we say low-cost airlines should be banned because they choke our sky with more flights and more people? They also use large amounts of fuel and make a lot of noise too. So lets argue that Capt. Gopinath, please abandon your business and get lost because you are too cheap, so many poor will fly and pollute our country.

There is no good answer to the infrastructural question. We are headed for a period of greater pollution and choked roads. But if the traffic congestion reaches such intolerable levels, it may well manifest in a variety of ways as in the hastened development of more satellite towns, migration of investment to a second tier of cities, greater preference for public transport, proliferation of public transport services perhaps by private operators, etc.

At this point, there is no major environmental movement in India – much of the change has been driven by a few individuals with some help from the courts. As environmental pollution increases exponentially, its hazardous consequences on public health in urban areas will also increase. This may in turn provide a fillip to this nascent movement and force the state to move towards a greater commitment in this direction.

For the most part, I agree with the author. Criticism of the one lakh car will not alleviate the demand and attempts to ‘fix’ the problem risk raising larger concerns about the role of the state in the marketplace, its commitment to equity and fostering innovation. The car, after all, only brings the country’s day of reckoning when it will have to confront the infrastructural and environmental questions much nearer.

You are right in saying that one cannot stop Tatas from selling the car. However, one should also not prevent people from buying it. Why do we not prevent people from buying the Maruti-800 as it too is affordable to the middle class Indian? (Last checked, the Maruti was retailing at an EMI of Rs. 3000 a month without a huge downpayment …. remember the Rs.2599 scheme?) The marutis too crowd the roads. Infact why not introduce a legislation that cars cannot be priced less than Rs. 5 lakh, or better still, Rs. 10 lakh. In that way, only the the ultra-rich wold be able to afford cars and our roads would be free once again.

The point I am trying to make is that the one lakh car will make life better for the customer who purchases it and he has every right to make his life better by purchasing the car. It is the government’s job to keep up with the infrastructure (because it collects taxes from the citizens). Instead of criticizing the govt. and castigating it for not being able to develop this infrastructure, most of the “one-lakh-car-is-bad” proponents are shooting the company who actually tries to bring comfort to the consumer for a lower cost. And if petrol is to become expensive due to scarce supply, the sales of such cars and other cars will automatically reduce. Companies may conme up with smarter options like hybrids or electric vehicles.

Sunita Narain, the director of CSE wants the govt. to tax the one lakh car like crazy. This tax is highly unfair because it penalizes a company for being efficient! And why is the tax being introduced only now? Can we retrospectively levy this “crazy tax” on every car plying the road? It will be terribly unfair to Tatas as most of the other firms have made their money by selling cars without that “crazy tax”.

Why not tax all vehicles? or atleast tax all private vehicles like crazy? How about taxing scooters, motorbikes, and all other private vehicles because they too use petrol which is an expensive resource? How about taxing bicycles like crazy? Afterall, they too use the road and our infrastructure is crumbling. How about taxing pedestrians using our scarce infrastructure? You get the drift?

Solution:- Let the Tatas introduce the one lakh car. Let the roads be overcrowded and choked. Let the citizens protest / demand with the government for better infrastructure. If the govt. fails to deliver, it is out of office in the next term !!!