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Indians Hit the Road Amid Elephants
By Somini Sengupta A few weeks ago, the traditional Indian joint family household of Vineet Sharma, a fertilizer industry consultant, achieved a long deferred dream. Having ferried themselves on scooters all these years, the Sharmas bought a brand-new, silver-gray hatchback known as the Tata Indica. Never mind that none of the six adult members of the household knew how to drive. No sooner had the car arrived than Mr. Sharma, 34, took it for a spin and knocked over...
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In the Shadows of India’s Loan Boom
Incidents like the one that left Mr. Kumar with 12 stitches in his scalp and a 10-day hospital stay reflect a dark side of India’s economic boom. As consumer lending soars to record levels, India’s banks face mounting criticism and government sanctions for their aggressive loan recovery tactics, which sometimes include using hired thugs. With the economy growing at more than 8.5% a year for the past four years, Indians are taking on home, car and credit-card debt as never before -- with ...
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The challengers
When Ford Motor Company bought Jaguar in 1989 and Land Rover 11 years later, it marked a low point for Britain’s ailing industrial heritage. Last year Ford concluded that it could not make money from the illustrious British marques?equally a sign of its waning fortunes. The two firms shortlisted to take the prize come from India. Their ambition and confidence is a sign of something new in global business: the arrival in force of emerging-market multinationals. Tata Motors, the ...
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Wind of Change
Last month Hansen Transmissions International, a maker of gearboxes for wind turbines, was listed on the London Stock Exchange. Nothing noteworthy about that, you might say, despite the jump in the share price on the first day of trading and the handsome gain since: green technology is all the rage, is it not? But Hansen exemplifies another trend too, which should prove every bit as durable: the rise of multinational companies from emerging economies. Its parent is Suzlon, an Indian firm that...
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In India, the world’s cheapest car debuts to fanfare, criticism
By Tony Azios Manufacturers take note of the $2,500 vehicle?s massive market, as environmentalists fear the effects of an automobile influx. India’s Tata Motors unveils the world’s cheapest car at Thursday’s New Delhi Auto Expo, drawing interest and criticism from environmentalists and automakers around the globe. Dubbed the ’People’s Car,’ the small vehicle will reportedly sell for 100,000 rupees (approximately US $2,500...
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Nonprofit slips in race for cheap laptop for world’s poor kids
By Ben Arnoldy Problems at One Laptop Per Child show how social entrepreneurs can blaze trails but miss the payoff. The vision was grand: Develop a cheap laptop and get it into the hands of 150 million school children in the developing world. Making the computer turned out to be the easy part. On Wednesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop Per Child, showed off the $200 XO. The innovative compute...
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My Other Car Is a Tata
The soon-to-be-released $2,500 People’s Car is a natural fit for India, but don’t expect rivals to match it. By David Welch and Nandini Lakshman, with Ian Rowley in Tokyo Forget about sleek styling, a powerful engine, or electronic gadgets in the dashboard. Gurdeep Randhawa is lusting after a bare-bones car that’ll soon be available in India. The 39-year-old mill manager in a Mumbai suburb buzzes to work on a $1,350 scooter and pile...
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The laptop wars
Will charity or profit end the digital divide? When a plan to create a $100 laptop was announced three years ago at the World Economic Forum, it seemed like a stroke of genius. Here was an opportunity for the global business elite gathered in Davos to show they had a heart, and to do so in a genuinely useful way?by developing a cheap way to bridge the digital divide and extend the benefits of the IT revolution to millions of children in the developing world. Nichol...
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