...love of talking about Nano!
I am not a fanatic for the car per se but am for the principle behind it, for the alternatives Nano provides (still saying that it will be a big hot potato to swallow), the fundamentals it will change, utilitarian concept it embodies and frugal manufacturing technology it testifies. But for the record, I must admit that despite my fears about Nano, Nano is all over my mind. Nano is having an 'in your face' effect on me.
Nano is bound to change our lives and the signs are already showing. Here are some samples.
A recent article in the newspaper prophesied about the peripheral,in several meanings of the word,industries that will flourish in the shadow of Nano. Will not cheap (economical) accessories well embellish a cheap car? It also took a shot at how our conversations and attitudes and jargon would change to accommodate the shifts in paradigms that Nano would trigger. You might say I am progressively becoming a Nano-voce-philic (For good or bad, such people as yours truly like talking about Nano!). Now that is a word I made up. Is there a "Nano" word for someone who makes up Nano words? Nana-verbo-philic, perhaps? If you are getting the hang of it and think I am getting carried away, I have made my point.
If the masses get their bread should the 'nouveau' as well as the 'riche' not get their cakes? Dilip Chabbria has unveiled his impression of a car that could buy a hundred Nanos. Pegged at 1 crore, the rich man's space age answer to Nano will snub the masses with its antiNano philosphy. There in lies the irony: For the rich India, an answer to a frugal car is an extravagant car of similar dimensions with little else in common.
The irony also represents the socio-economic divide that has manifested in different forms in different cities. Be it the Bangalore-commons' quasi-despisal of those working in, literally, glass houses that are IT complexes. Opportunism, crime, harassment and verbal abuse against techies in Bangalore, Pune and other cities. It also shows up in the amplified pillage caused by mobs incited by any issue, the damage in which is mosty incommensurate to what one would expect in response(!) to the problem which triggered it in the first place.
Here is a more significant example of how Nano is raising its hydra-head even before it juggernauts onto the road ten months down the line. Read here about how Nano has upset another automobile manufacturer's grand plans. Electrotherm had a big idea of a small priced AutoRickshaw, but Nano would allow none of it. But as you would have read in the quoted article, ElectroTherm has plans of salvaging their project by converting the prototype into one that is electric and at the same time cheaper. Now, that is innovation driven by market forces. How often do we get witness that so closely and in the live?
We are in exciting times in India and, going by the international pulse, beyond. The show has just began. Nano has just entered the building.
PS: Now, would you call me a Nano-blogo-philic for that matter? Apologies to OUP for misusing the poetic license. For, officially, Oxford has done away with hyphenated words.
No comments:
Post a Comment