The one lakh car is finally here and wow! What a PR juggernut that was and continues to be.
The Nano is everything that the PR machinery is managing to get through. It deserves every bit of square centimetres publicity that it is getting and that, to say the least is, phenomenal. Very few negative articles or comments have come out on the Nano. What is being voiced though is the unmentioned, unstated or unquoted criticism of flooding the Indian market with a cheap car that will only make our roads more congested, and the environment more threatened.
The Nano deserves all the praise because it is indeed an epoch making product. It definitely is India's answer to the T-Ford, as one journalist pointed out.
The best article or column so far has been the one by Swaminathan S Ankleshwar Aiyar in the Sunday Times of India, January 13, 2007 titled " Attacking Polluting Policies, not the Nano."
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Attack_polluting_policies_not_the_Nano/articleshow/2695666.cms
It is a perfect piece that should make our policy makers think seriously about policies that limit innovation.
OFF THE CUFF: In karnataka, the Nano is more likely to be a Nanoo. (Meaning "Myself," or also , "Me too.") which conveys the idea of the Nano very well. Of course, the name Nano is great. Kudos to the guys who came up with such an apt name.
