About time the Tata companies that are owned by the public are freed from the clutches of Tata Sons, says Sudhir Bisht.
'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'
Which were the five businesses Ratan Tata had great hopes for, but his successor failed to deliver?
Thirteen years after their small car project was forced out of West Bengal following the anti-land acquisition movement in Singur, Industry and IT Minister Partha Chatterjee has said talks are on with the Tatas for big-ticket investments in the state. Underscoring job creation as the TMC government's top priority, Chatterjee also said incentives to companies will depend on ability to generate employment. He said the Mamata Banerjee dispensation wants two large manufacturing units to be set up by any prominent industrial house at the earliest. "We never had any enmity with the Tatas, neither we fought against them. "They are one of the most respected and biggest business houses of this country and also abroad. "You can't blame the Tatas (for the Singur fiasco).
Indian carmaker Tata Motors gave the world its cheapest car in the form of Nano.
We will not be in the ultra-low-cost car segment. Our focus will be on the A1 and A2 segments, which are growth areas in which many of the new players like Nissan, Volkswagen or Toyota are planning to enter. Our entry-level car will remain the Maruti 800.
Mamata Banerjee and Singur share a history that dates back to 2006.
Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee gave Singur, the erstwhile site for Tata Motors' Nano that made her popular, a miss.
Karl Slym, president and managing director of General Motors India Private Limited, said the company would launch Chevrolet Cruze, its new offering in the Chevrolet Spark segment, by third quarter of its financial year ended December 2009. Slym added, "The car will be priced similar to Chevrolet Spark. As far as the minicar is concerned, we are not competing with Tata Motors' Nano, which is a different segment."
Sensing stiff competition from Maruti Suzuki with the all-new Alto 800 with an aggressive price tag, Hyundai and Tata Motors announced deep price cuts and launch of new special edition variants, respectively to beat the market leader.
John Elliott, the author of Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality, on his Riding the Elephant blog, says the sacking of Cyrus Mistry as chairman of Tata and Sons was in line with Ratan Tata's personal style of dealing with executives
Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant spoke to reporters on the problems in Singur, the production site for the Nano, soon after announcing the company's quarterly results.
The Trinamool Congress chief sounded almost desperate to take land for setting up industry.
With the Indian car market growing at the rate of 30 per cent no car maker wants to miss the opportunity.
China's First Automobile Works and Ural India might get the Singur land to set up an automobile manufacturing plant.
Following the re-entry of French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen, the erstwhile sleepy town -- already home to Tata Motors' manufacturing plant for small car Nano -- finds itself along the country's prominent auto hubs like Pune in Maharashtra and Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.
"The small car will be our new model and it will be rolled out by early 2010," Ford India Executive Director Nigel E Wark told reporters in Kolkata. He said the company is yet to decide on the target segment of the small car, but added that it would not compete with small cars like Nano from Tata Motors' stable.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's emphasis on a rigid land policy has pleased the farming community but not the industry.
The author tries to separate the hyperbole from reality in the Gujarat model.
While it is difficult to attribute any one single reason to this, low cost, less depreciation, easier loans, and ready availability of good models are some of the reasons behind this boom.
In a ruling which can have far-reaching consequences, the Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the controversial acquisition of 997.11 acres of land in Singur in 2006 by the then Left Front government in West Bengal to set up Tata Motors' ambitious Nano car manufacturing plant.
Some 100 component makers worked with Tata Motors for over 3 yrs.
Car makers are trying hard to boost sales in India.
Farmers are gettong ready for another agitation.
The West Bengal chief minister did not have anything new to offer to Singur and its people, except that the site would be used for an industrial project.
The plea for return of land has been made under the new Singur land Rehabilitation and Development Act enacted by the West Bengal government.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the West Bengal government not to return land to farmers in Singur, that was earlier leased to the Tatas, for now.
This year's edition, three years lost to the pandemic and scheduling, wore a distinctive shade of green, and, as would befit an era of technology shift from internal combustion engines to electric motors, had a clutch of high-technology exhibits and concepts. But the excitement of the expo's heyday was missing.
With recession threat looming large, Indian corporate houses may be forced to rethink their projects, which have been stalled following problems in land acquisitions, industry analysts said.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday night formally announced suspension of the 15-day indefinite dharna, saying a final agreement has been arrived at by the West Bengal government on the Singur issue."Since the government has found a formula for the solution of the Singur issue officially, I am suspending the dharna," she said from the dharna manch, addressing a big gathering of cheering party supporters.She thanked Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi.
This time over BHEL's power project proposal.
India's economic condition is expected to improve by 2022 though the gap between the rich and the poor would widen, said C K Prahalad, management consultant and author of corporate strategy, including The Core Competence of the Corporation, said on the sidelines of the CII press conference.
In 2008, the companies had planned a tripartite joint venture entity that would build and sell a $3,000 (about Rs 1.4 lakh) competitor to Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car. Bajaj was to have a 50 per cent stake, with Renault and Nissan having 25 per cent each.
Tata most-awaited car, after Nano, will be ready by 2014. The car is going to be the first proper four-seater for such a small footprint and also a passenger vehicle with the smallest turning radius.
Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said the company has, in partnership with Renault-Nissan, developed India's most fuel efficient and least-polluting car engine.
Infosys, the country's third largest software firm, on Thursday said it was undecided on going ahead with investment plans in West Bengal, where socio-political opposition has thrown Tata Motors' Nano project into uncertainty.
The protestors' claim was made after the much-anctipated first inspection of the factory site on Wednesday by a committee set up under the aegis of West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi to examine the ways of solving a controversy that had arisen after some farmers had refused compensation for the land acquired for the project.
A year later, land prices are less than half the peak levels of Rs 20 lakh an acre.
The country's second largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) on Monday joined hands with Renault-Nissan to launch a small car in India by 2011 that will compete with Tata Motors' Nano on price point - Rs 1 lakh.
Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car that costs slightly more than some premium bikes available in the country, is unlikely to wean away buyers from the two-wheeler segment, an industry official said on Friday. "I don't ascribe to the idea that the introduction of low priced cars in the market will affect the two-wheeler segment," S Balasubramanian, executive vice-president for operations & marketing, TVS, Srichakra Ltd said.
