quiet critical of cars...but thats the epitaph of customization. Now we are complaining about customised cars...but just for a spllit second assume that there is no nano launch...and instead of nano half as much buses are on road even then we will complain, with the errorneous schedule and congestion, pollution and crowd in buses. Our very nature is to complain.
Atleast now when the people can afford this little bit of luxury so everybody is complaining about the intangible things which they never care, now all of a sudden the infrastructure, parking, environment has become issue. Its antagonising that the author is comparing the bus taxes with cars taxes, its height of conservative socialism. Thats why socialism has failed in every country. But in India luckily, we switched to socialist reforms to mould the democratic structure with the changing times otherwise we would also have been perished like other socialist countries. But sadly though, after almost 18 years of reforms there are still some people who are finding it difficult to digest. To those people i would like to give a piece of my thought, that even in the most industrialised countries, like here in Luxemburg with a total population of only 5 lakh there are 10,000 public buses and more than twice as many cars with special discounts from government is what driving its economy even in the times of recession. Any country can become recession proof with its internal market growth and thats what TATA NANO as a car and TATA as a company is trying to achieve. Instead of being critical, lets appreciate it and lets make our india a super power once again, 'coz people in most of the parts of the world still see India with a sense of repugnant, except the English speaking coutries where our countrymen have achieved a lot to make us proud. But apart from these half a dozen english speaking coutries our country is still considered a shit hole,fuelled by films like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Dr.V.N. Sharma <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I am forwarding the Editorial of the latest Edition of Down To Earth. > Very interesting in all aspects of Nano the Lakhtakia Car and its > impact on short term and long term life on this planet and may be > other ones too. > > vns > > ============================= > > Down to Earth - Editorial: The right right > (By Sunita Narain) > ============================= > > The world’s cheapest car, the Nano, rolls out in India this week. > Manufacturer Tata Motors says it will change the way Indians drive, > for the inauguration places the personal car within the reach of > people who once could only dream of owning one. Indeed, the Nano has > been marketed as an ‘aspiration’- the right of every Indian to a car. > No quibble here. There is no question an affordable car is better than > an expensive one; or that a small car, being more fuel efficient, is > better than a big one. No question, too, that every citizen of India > has as much right to a car as every citizen of America, where vehicle > numbers are obscene: some 800 vehicles for 1,000 people (old and > young) against our measly 7 per 1,000 people (urban and rural). > > Let me roll out my concerns. The issue is not the Nano. The issue is > all cars and whether cars still are the future of the world economy. > Over years, in different continents, vehicle manufacturers invented > and re-invented this appliance for self-mobility, for different market > segments. In India, two-wheeler manufacturers can rightly claim that > over the 1980s they, too, provided technology innovation and > affordable mobility for vast numbers. They can also claim they were > the first to break the class barrier. Then, in the early 1990s, when > Sanjay Gandhi’s people’s car, the Maruti 800, hit the roads, gender > barriers also fell - this was a car women could drive and it gave new > freedoms. No question, therefore, of what Nano will bring to new > owners. > > But this launch comes at a time when the production of personal > vehicles itself is becoming old - economy. It is not surprising the > car industry has become the first big dinosaur of the 21st century. > Every country today is working to bail out its automobile industry. > The big four companies are still on the brink of closure. There is > huge over -capacity in the world of cars - sales are down and the > industry is bleeding. You might think it is a temporary phase: cars > will zoom again, as recession blues turn pink. But this is far from > the reality. > > The fact is cars could only make it big in the old economy because > they were highly subsidized, or incentivized through cheap bank loans. > If people could not afford the next car, the bank worked overtime to > make sure the loans kept rolling, even if that eventually broke the > bank’s back. But that is the past. The future, too, will not be too > different. The bank might recover, but the cost of the fuel to drive > the dream vehicle will not. Oil experts will tell you black gold > prices will rise again, when the world economy re-boots. > > Add to this what can only be called the mother of all subsidies - the > free-ride personal vehicles have got, in the world, to emit large > amounts of greenhouse gases and pump them into a common atmospheric > space. As the rights over this ecological commons will be determined, > as they must, carbon dioxide emissions from the cars of the rich will > have to be limited and taxed. This will cost. It will make driving > more expensive. > > The global automobile industry knows it is not our future. It is our > past. Unfortunately, this message has not yet come home. Unlike the > car-saturated West, we still have a large number of people who are > potential buyers. But the fact is in India, because of the even > greater price-sensitivity, personal vehicles are viable only if they > are subsidized to the brim. > > Take the Nano. My colleague Chandra Bhushan has calculated the > incentives rolled out by Narendra Modi’s Gujarat government amount to > a fat write-off - as much as Rs 50,000-60,000 per this Rs 1 lakh car. > In other words, its cost is so low only because the state has doled > out a largesse. Every past and present automobile has got this benefit > (more or less). We can afford a car because our government pays for > it. We can also afford it because we are not asked to pay the price of > its running - the tax on cars is lower than what buses pay in our > socialist country. We do not pay for its parking, a cost, which, if > added, would make us think twice before we bought or drove our new > dream vehicle, whatever the variant. > > As the Nano rolls out, think of how we subsidize the car and tax the > bus. Public buses pay taxes as commercial passenger vehicles, each > year and based on the number they carry. In many states, they pay over > 12 times more tax than cars. Think of the public transport bus service > in your city and ask how much of its revenues go in taxes: half, in > most cases. Think also that the same Tata company, that has managed to > roll out the car of our dreams in record time, does not possess the > capacity to build the buses cities need. > > Such an old-economy approach becomes completely perverse when one > considers that already today, and definitely tomorrow, the greater > proportion of people who are or will commute are using and will > continue to use public transport - a bus or a train. Today, as much as > half of rich Delhi takes a bus, and another one-third walk or cycle > because it is too poor to even take the bus. > > Think again about the car inequity in India - 7 per 1000 people. Can > the government write off the costs - Nano style - so that all can buy > the car? Can the government pay for our parking, our roads and our > fuel, so that all can drive the car? If not, then is this the right > right at all? > > The issue, then, is not the right to own a Nano. The issue is the > right to a slice of the public subsidy so that everybody has the right > to mobility. There is no other right. > > Read this editorial online: > http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=1 > To comment, write to [email protected] > -------------------------------------- > Also > Watch video to find out who wins in the race to emit more > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7aHCCI45pA > -------------------------------------- > In -depth: Urban transport - Cities need mobility, not cars > http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/indepth/term/2005 > > -- > "Those who have the privilege to know, have the duty to act." 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