The industry minister said the small car project could not come up if 400 acre was returned as demanded by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. Nirupam Sen, who had discussed the Singur project with Tata in Kolkata on Thursday night, said that the state government wanted to work out a solution and was was open for talks to find out an acceptable solution.
For Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the transition from a 'people's man' to corporate India's preferred chief minister was rapid, albeit with a cataclysmic effect.
At a time when the automobile industry is eyeing a market of 2 million cars by 2010, various automobile projects of industry majors, including Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra, are running behind schedule.
An important political milestone during the year was the return of the Left Front to power with an over two-thirds majority.
The Indian conglomerate is also studying investments in automobiles, software and hotel businesses, as well as biofuel in South American markets such as Brazil and Argentina.
It is "ironic" that extra security measures, taken after being warned of a possible terror strike, were eased just before the terrorists assaulted the landmark Taj hotel, Tata group chief Ratan Tata said.
When the world's cheapest car was launched to global fanfare at the 2008 Delhi Auto Expo, a Singaporean journalist asked Ratan Tata whether he had considered the traffic implications once the Nano hit the roads.
Though most people expected Tata Motors to select either Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka for its Nano project, it was clear that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had done the impossible and coming from nowhere bagged the prestigious project.
No one is saying the steel industry is out of trouble. The financial crunch continues, and coupled with high cost of input, severely affected the first-quarter profits of steel companies. But most agree with Tata that the signals are encouraging.
Tata Motors has opted unconventional mediums like web search, viral marketing and innovative public relations-driven campaigns, where the news in brief is called 'Nano news' in some papers and television advertisement breaks are called 'Nano breaks.' There is also Nano merchandise like T-shirts and key chains. Unlike most car launches, it is not supported by a television campaign, leading to a big saving for the company.
In CDMA, we did not have legacy carriers, a second hand market of handsets, or even people understanding the technology
After Tata group chief Ratan Tata criticised the spectrum allocation criteria announced by the government, GSM cellular operators on Tuesday took potshots at the guidelines, which they said was 'lenient' towards CDMA operators.
Noting that the company's Nano plant in Singur, West Bengal, was expected to come into operation in the last quarter of 2008, Ratan Tata, in a letter to shareholders in the annual report for 2007-08, said that manufacturing facilities would be expanded to meet domestic and global demand in the future. "New variants of the Nano are also currently under development to meet the new environmental and fuel price challenges".
Nano's sales have been sliding. How does Tata Motors plan to bring the excitement back?
Eyeing potential business opportunity, Boeing Corporation is planning to approach the proposed Tata-Singapore Airlines.
Indian Hotels hardly has any other option as even domestic competitors such as ITC, the Oberoi group, The Lalit Group etc are fast catching up.
Among other things, Ratan Tata also said, 'All I can say at the moment is that the project is highly profitable. After all, I am not doing it for philanthropy.'
The company has already unveiled the European version -- Nano Europa -- at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this month -- which is likely to be fitted with a more powerful engine than the Indian version complying with Euro-V emission norms.
The Indian information technology industry will need to move up the value chain to tackle competition from countries like China, Philippines and Vietnam, said Ratan Tata.
The investments are expected to happen in the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor.
Known to be the world's least expensive car, Nano is expected to redefine personal transportation in modern India. Customers can expect to own a car coming at a price between Rs 1.20 lakh (Rs 120,000) and Rs 1.30 lakh (Rs 130,000), depending on the version.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to discuss the impact of global demand contraction on Indian economy with industry leaders in New Delhi on Saturday, ahead of the G-20 summit in London next week.
Ratan Tata, chairman of India's sprawling Tata Group, on Thursday will pull the covers off a car that is dividing his country
India Inc very keen to do business in Gujarat.
Just a decade ago, a kind of muscular nationalism was the leitmotif for talent management within Indian corporations. Any suggestion of bringing in foreign talent had managers bristling with indignation.
Here is a list those great men and women who, in the past 20 years, have shaped the course of India Inc.
Leading industrialists met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (not in picture) in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss the general state of the Indian economy and other industry-related matters.
Asaram Bapu had some powerful backers within the Congress... Why Kumari Selja's phone hasn't stopped ringing... Gossip from the Dilli Durbar
Some 100 component makers worked with Tata Motors for over 3 yrs.
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday had a breakfast meeting with top honchos of India Inc at the iconic, sea-facing Taj Hotel in Mumbai. Amongst those from India Inc who were present at the meeting included Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Group and Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani. Others present were the chiefs of India's two largest banks, O P Bhatt of State Bank and Chanda Kochhar of ICICI Bank, Swati Piramal and Sudha Murthy.
Names of the 100,000 customers who have been finalised for allotment of the Nano through the computerised procedure were announced by the company last month.
Industrialisation in India is increasingly acquiring the characteristics of crony capitalism in which states are perceived to be ganging up with businessmen at the cost of the aam aadmi
Ford Motor Co on Wednesday said it expects the sale of its two European marques Jaguar and Land Rover, in which India's Tata Motors has evinced interest, to be through either by this year-end or early next year.
The Nano car loan is available for a maximum tenure of 7 years at an interest rate that ranges between 11.75 per cent and 12 per cent p.a.
Tata Motors, however, will not be able to meet this small demand and keep the Nano alive from October next year, when safety regulations for existing car models kick in.
A financial turnaround in Tata Steel and Tata Motors has come as a shot in the arm for Chandra.
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