Nissan's executive vice-president and CEO Carlos Ghosn's key man for his new strategy in emerging markets, Andy Palmer, tells Business Standard how the Tata Nano's experience made his company steer away from the $2,500 car. He also speaks about how Nissan's association with Bajaj Auto to develop a small car failed, making his company place its bets on the Datsun brand to grow its market share 10-fold over the next three years.
Driven by poverty following suspension of work at an ancillary unit of Tata Motors small car project in Singur, a daily wage worker on Wednesday committed suicide at his village, close to the factory site.Sixty-five year old Sushen Santra consumed insecticide at Joymalla village, barely 100 yards from the site, and died at Singur hospital.Santra's wife said they were a poor family and they had no money left after work was stalled in the unit.
Last year, she drove the Tata Motors' Nano factory out from West Bengal. Three days ago, Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee turned down another Tata offer a donation of Rs 27,70,660 to her party from the Tata Sons Electoral Trust.
Minutes after reports emanating from West Bengal indicated that the Singur impasse had finally come to an end with Tata Motors 'agreeing to give land,' the Tatas have expressed distress at the 'limited clarity on the outcome of the discussions between the state government of West Bengal and the representatives of the agitators in Singur.
Tata Sons said dividend from 40-odd Tata Group firms had declined during Mistry's tenure while expenses had risen
The Calcutta high court has dismissed all the petitions challenging the acquisition of land at Singur for the Tata Motors small car plant.
The car will compete with Hyundai Grand i10 and Maruti Suzuki Celerio
According to industry data, for two months, sale of the Zest (7,359 units) were higher than that of Amaze (6,792 units).
Tatas selected West Bengal for Rs 1 lakh small car Nano's plant on May 18, 2016.
Tata Motors twice fixed faulty parts of the Nano.
Mamata government initiates process to give land back to farmers.
The boundary wall has been brought down and makeshift entrances to the unit have come up overnight.
The project was expected to create employment in excess of 10,000 jobs among vendors and service providers in the vicinity of the plant. When Tata Motors announced the small car project in May 2006, it promised to employ 2,000 people directly initially.
The Cyrus Mistry camp is confident that independent directors will take their cue from their counterparts in Indian Hotels.
The automobile firm's response came in reply to an earlier specific query of the apex court asking it to make its stand clear over the allotted land in the wake of changed scenario as the company had already moved its car plant to Gujarat.
Government officials working overtime to dismantle the Tata plant and return land to farmers, says Ishita Ayan Dutt.
The company said the price hike has been effective from Thursday across the country.
There is a flicker of hope for Tata Motors' abandoned Singur site. A team from government-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) visited the place, along with state government officials, for a possible project with the West Bengal Power Development Corporation.
Here's a look at how key Tata group companies fared under Cyrus Mistry's stewardship.
'We want to make Bengal an automobile hub.'
low-cost plans dovetail perfectly with the company's decision to make affordable new models.
In Uttarakhand, the speculation is rife that Bajaj-Renault is trying to explore the possibility of the small car establishment at various places including the industrial hub of Pantnagar.
According to a senior Tata Motors official, the company is taking aggressive steps to correct its product portfolio, with a more 'cleverly defined and targeted strategy'.
Tata Zica was designed by an international team resulting in a more modern look.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi dreams of making Gujarat an automobile hub.
Unlike Ratan Tata's philosophy, Mistry cared about short-term gains. This is a Diwali gift for many
NRI businessman Prasoon Mukherjee, chairman, Universal Success Enterprises, said that the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was briefed about the status of the projects in the state. Universal Success is also investing in the projects. The main projects were the housing project under Kolkata West International City, the chemical hub of NKID, the power project of Universal Success and the motorcycle project to be undertaken by Mahabharat Motors.
Big Bazaar stores have sold 900 Nano cars since February, when Tata Motors made the arrangement.
Irked by constant intimidation of its workforce by agitating party workers, the company had yesterday evacuated the manpower from Singur. "There has been no improvement in the ground situation so far, hence the conditions are still not conducive for resuming work today," a Tata Motors spokesperson said. "We continue to assess the situation closely," he said.
The hatchback has been priced strategically at a notch above the Nano and way below the Tata Bolt.
Tata Motors owns 1,000 acres in this rapidly industrialising town in the prosperous terai region of the state. About 30 per cent of it is learnt to be vacant.
The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday demanded from the West Bengal government that 300 acres of land should be given from within the Tata Motors project area in Singur to "unwilling farmers".
With prospects of Nano rolling out from Singur becoming bleak with each passing day, Tata Motors Limited, however, has not yet asked the vendors to wind up operations there.
Initially, there were concerns that the rudimentary nature of the Nano, priced at about 1,400 pounds, might fall short of stringent European safety standards, but these have diminished following its impressive performance at the Motor Industry Research Association last week.
Tata was concerned that most innovations were happening outside India, some by Indians.
The spectre of Singur and now its verdict is looming large on the future of many of Bengal's projects, especially the state government's industrial parks that are vacant. As many more episodes await, the question uppermost on everyone's minds is, how long will Singur haunt Bengal?
American car maker General Motors on Thursday said it has shelved plans to launch small car in India that was planned to take on Tata Motors' 'Nano', citing viability issues.
India, a booming market for passenger cars, manufactures 4 of the world's cheapest cars.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said it was a 'moral victory' after the Supreme Court asked Tata Motors to make its stand clear on its leasehold rights on the land at Singur as it had moved its car plant out of the state.
'What did we get out of this agitation? Nothing... Now we feel it was all a mistake. We have no work, and our land has turned infertile. We are living in abject poverty'
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