Wednesday 3 September 2008


PROTESTS HALT INDIA’S PLANT FOR CHEAPEST CAR

Anand Giridharadas

The New York Times, September 3, 2008

MUMBAI, India — This country’s project to build the world’s cheapest car has driven into a quintessentially Indian ditch.

On Tuesday, the automaker Tata Motors said that political protests over land had compelled it to stop building the plant in eastern India for its much-awaited Nano model. The car was scheduled to go on sale next month for 100,000 rupees, or about $2,250, less than the cost of the optional surround sound system and DVD player on the Lexus LX 570 sport utility vehicle.

Late Tuesday, an executive with knowledge of Tata’s deliberations said the company would still begin making Nanos in October, under a backup plan to shift production to other sites. For the first two months, Tata will produce 10,000 cars a month instead of the planned 40,000, said the executive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the company.

The Nano has been dogged from the beginning by one of India’s most wrenching problems: how to create space for industry by moving farmers off their land and compensating them adequately.
In a tale rich with incongruities, the Communist-run government of West Bengal State invited the Tata Group, a symbol of Indian capitalism, to set up its plant in an area called Singur. It acquired 1,000 acres from farmers on the company’s behalf.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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