Nano Marks the Beginning of “Indian Century”

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Even Tata Motors’ competitors are all praise for the nano. “It reflects India’s maturity in different fields,” says P Balendran, vice-president, General Motors India. “Other countries and multinational corporations, who did not look at India seriously as an innovation destination, will view us in a different perspective.”

Advocates of the ’fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ theory see it as a vindication of their views. “If you have a very large population which is not consuming and a minuscule per cent which is consuming, you just have to figure out a business model to include them in the consumption model,” says Captain Gopinath, who set off a ’flying revolution’ by launching Deccan Aviation.

Yet, meeting the demand at the bottom of the pyramid is not easy, says developer Niranjan Hiranandani, whose surname has become synonymous with a high standard of living in many areas of Mumbai.
While the Nano has used technology to make the price points viable, Hiranandani points out that in a sector like housing, the technological innovation is yet to happen. “There is demand for low-cost houses in millions of units. It is not enough to have the government build a token 10,000 units,” he says.

Source: DNA News (link opens in a new window)