Tata Motors of India will soon unveil a $2,500 car that is a not only a marvel of low-cost manufacture but a novel business model innovation. The “People’s Car” (this nickname sounds like the original Beetle, right?) is the latest incarnation of India’s ability to change the way business is organized and managed to produce low-priced products services for people at the Bottom of the Pyramid. India is pioneering in low-cost eye surgeries, low-cost telecom services and low-cost retailing (with tiny sachets of shampoo and other products).
My own concerns about the $2,500 car is that Tata didn’t go far enough. Putting millions of additional cars on India’s terrible roads will cause a nightmare of even more pollution and crowding. If India and China follow the Western model in lifting their people out of poverty into the middle class, global warming can only become much worse. This may not be fair to Indians and Chinese but it is, alas, probably true.
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Be sure to check the comments in that article ;-)
What's wrong with these people who write about it like this ? Every country has the right the follow to what is best for them. Telecom became a revolution in India because Reliance Communications came with a cheap phone or what Deccan Aviation did to the airline industry. It might do the same to the car industry. As for safety standards, I am sure a Plastic car with limited speed would be much safer than a 80 Km/hr two wheeler.
We have the right to innovate and will do it in our way ! He should probably look at their Global Warming stats before commenting on India ! What say!