Tata Nano: World's cheapest car unvielled

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata on Thursday unveiled the Tata Nano at the 9th Auto Expo in New Delhi.

Ratan Tata, while unveiling the nano, said: "The car will meet all current safety norms and all emission criteria. The pollution it will cause will be lower than 2-wheelers."

The car, Tata said, is smaller than a Maruti [Get Quote], but has 21 per cent more volume or space inside than the 800. He said that the dealer price of the car will be Rs 1 lakh, plus value-added tax (VAT) plus transport charges.

The car will have a 624-cc petrol engine generating 33 bhp of power. It will sport a 30-litre fuel tank and 4-speed manual gearshift. The car will come with air conditioning, but will have no power steering. It will have front disk and rear drum brakes. The company claims mileage of 23 km per litre.

The car's dashboard features just a speedometer, fuel gauge, and oil light. The car does not have reclining seats or radio. The shock absorbers are basic.

Nano, the world's cheapest car, costs almost half of the cheapest car currently available anywhere in the world.

''Since, a promise is a promise the standard dealer version will cost Rs 1 lakh,'' said Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata.

He informed that the car is 8 per cent smaller bumper to bumper, than the Maruti800 but at the same time 21 per cent larger in its interiors and can sit up to four people.

Dispelling myths that the car was not safe enough Tata said, 'The car has passed the full-frontal crash and the side impact crash''. He also side stepped emission concerns and said the car will meet Euro IV norms.

While critics had been sceptical throughout about the car meeting safety and emission norms, coming as it is at that price, Tata said he was happy to announce that Nano meets all norms as would a modern car.

The car is eight per cent shorter than Maruti 800 on bumper to bumper length, but is 21 per cent more spacious, claimed Tata.

Alluding to fears expressed by environmentalist R K Pachauri and green activist Sunita Narain that the car at that price would add more vehicles on the road leading to higher vehicular pollution, Tata said the 624 cc, 33 HP petrol engine meets Bharat Stage-III emission norms and can also meet the Euro 4 norms.

"Pachauri will not have a nightmare and Sunita Narain can also sleep," he quipped, while recalling that some people had suggested that the car should be called 'Pachauri' and some others said that it should be named 'Mamta' � probably referring to the position TMC leader Mamta Banerjee had taken against the setting up of the small-car project at Singur in West Bengal.

Commenting on the safety standard, he said the car has gone through a full frontal crash test as per norms.

The Nano will come in three variants -- standard and two deluxe models with AC. The standard car would be available for Rs 1 lakh (ex-showroom), while VAT and transportation costs are extra.

The Nano is expected to be commerically launched in the second half of 2008. News reports say that Tata Motors [Get Quote] hopes to sell 500,000 units of the car, almost four times the number of Indicas it sells. Tata plans to focus on a market segment hitherto untapped.

Not since the launch of the Maruti 800 in 1983 has any car gripped the imagination of a nation and indeed car manufacturers the world over so intensely. If commercially successful, the Tata Nano can alter the passenger car market in India, and perhaps the world, beyond description.

Parsis - the Zoroastrians of India

Sooni Taraporevala

About the Author:

Sooni Taraporevala was born and brought up in Bombay. She studied Film and Photography at Harvard University and received her Masters in Film Theory and Criticism from the New York University, after which she returned to India and worked as a freelance still photographer. She wrote her first screenplay Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for an Oscar. Her second screenplay Mississippi Masala, won the Osella award for Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival. Her other screenplays are Such a Long Journey, (for which she received a Genie nomination from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television), My Own Country, and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

Brief Introduction
The contribution of this dynamic Indian community in all spheres of Indian life – arts, sciences, politics, business, and foremost of all – in social commitment and philanthropy - has been phenomenal. Despite their meagre numbers, the Parsi community did not seek any special privileges under the Constitution, and yet played a large role in the development of the country. Jamsetji Tata, JRD Tata, Godrejs, Wadias, Dr. Homi Bhabha, Zubin Mehta, Retd. Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw, Admiral Jal Cursetji, Air Marshal Engineer, are all from this very distinguished community. Indira Gandhi married into the community and so did Mohammad Ali Jinnah's daughter, Dina Wadia.

Parsis are Zoroastrians who arrived in India 1200 years ago from Persia. They were fleeing persecution at the hands of Arab conquerors invading Persia. They landed in Diu, off the coast of Gujarat in India, carrying nothing but a holy flame from their Temple they had left behind. From Diu they went to Sanjan in Gujarat, where the local Hindu ruler granted them land and they began a new life. They were free to follow their own religion and erected their first Fire Temple soon after. They were called Parsis - to denote the region from where they had come - Pars, (Persia).

From these humble beginnings emerges a grand chapter of progress, growth, expansion, diversification, accomplishments and achievements unsurpassed by any other community in India. Through hard work and social commitment, they founded business empires, colleges, hospitals and research institutes – and in the process a very vibrant business culture in Bombay. Jamsetji Tata and JRD Tata, the Godfathers of India’s industrial development, were true visionaries – combining business with philanthropy. Dr. Homi Bhabha, Zubin Mehta, the Wadias, the Godrejs, Retd. Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw, Admiral Jal Cursetji, Air Marshal Engineer, are all from this very distinguished community, which is guided by three principles in life – Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds. Today, their numbers are fast decreasing – the community faces the threat of extinction – for reasons that are linked to the belief structure of their clergy. Zoroastrianism is a non-proselytising religion – there are no converts. One can only be born into it. Marriage outside the community is not encouraged. Parsi women who have married outside their community are ‘derecognised’ and are not allowed into the Fire Temple. The birth rates are declining and the community is fast ageing. Inter-marriage within the community has increased the incidence of certain genetic disorders – people are marrying late, or not at all.

This feature is a tribute to the contribution of this dynamic Indian community in all spheres of Indian life – arts, sciences, politics, business, and foremost of all – in social commitment and philanthropy. Despite their meagre numbers, the Parsi community did not seek any special privileges under the Constitution, and yet played a large role in the development of the country.

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The Early Years

Arrival in India and the beginnings of a new life

According to Parsi lore they spent nineteen years on the island of Diu, after which they set sail again and landed in Sanjan also on the west coast of India, either in the year 936AD or in 716AD [many an intense battle has been fought amongst Parsis over which date is more accurate.]

Permission to settle was granted by Jadhav Rana, The Hindu ruler. These newly arrived strangers were called Parsis - to denote the region from where they had come - Pars, (Persia), once the birthplace of mighty empires, now the distant dream of a band of refugees.

Hindu India was kind to the refugees from Pars. They suffered no persecution, no fear. They were allowed to prosper and grow. They built the first fire temple in AD 721(Picture to the left), installed with due ceremony the holy fire which they called the Iranshah, the King of Iran; lived largely peaceful, obscure existences in various villages and towns of Gujarat as farmers, weavers and carpenters.

For about three hundred years after landing at Sanjan, Parsis are said to have lived in peace and without molestation. By that time their numbers had greatly increased. Many moved from Sanjan to other parts of India with their families: to Cambay, Navsari, Anklesvar, Variav, Vankaner and Surat in the north, and to Thane and Chaul in the south. Pockets of Parsis were also found in Upper India, mentioned by early travellers: in Sind, Dehra-Dun and Punjab.

Whenever they left Sanjan to settle elsewhere, they carried a part of the Iranshah with them-the first fire they had consecrated on Indian soil. But not all climes were as hospitable as Sanjan. In Sind, Ibrahim the Ghaznavid perceived the Parsis as a colony of fire-worshippers and attacked them. In Thana, which was ruled by the Portuguese, they were seen as idolaters and put upon by missionaries to convert to Christianity.

However, Islam did follow them even to India. In 1465 Sanjan was sacked and destroyed by the Muslim Sultanate. Parsis fought valiantly, side by side with their Hindu benefactors. Many lost their lives, but the priests managed to rescue the sacred fire and carried it safely to a cave on a hill, where, protected by jungle and sea, they guarded it for the next twelve years.

Though they didn't completely lose touch with the Persian language, Gujarati (their version of it), started to become their mother tongue. They adopted many Hindu customs. Parsi women dressed like their Indian counterparts. They even wore nose rings.

Many settled down in the port town of Surat, in Gujarat, where in the fifteenth century, Europeans (the Portuguese, the British and the Dutch) had been given permission by the Mughals to establish trading factories. Unhampered by caste prejudices, Surat provided an ideal opportunity for Parsis to engage in occupations that they had never attempted before. Farmers became traders and chief native agents, carpenters became shipbuilders. An adventurous few left Surat and moved south to Bombay, then only a set of islands, in the wilderness. Here, they acted as brokers between the Indians and the Portuguese. They were in Bombay when it was ceded by Portugal to England in 1665 and three years later when the Crown handed over the island to the East India Company, Parsis were already a presence.

"They are an industrious people," wrote Governor Aungier in a letter to England, "and ingenious in trade, therein they totally employe themselves. There are at present but few of them, but we expect a greater number having gratified them in their desire to build a bureing place for their dead on the Island."

The East India Company had grand plans for Bombay. They had visions of making this settlement a vibrant trading and commercial centre. In order to do so they needed to attract Indian traders, merchants and craftsmen to settle in and develop this frontier land. The terms they offered to native communities were generous and to an immigrant community like the Parsis must have seemed almost heaven-sent. All persons born in Bombay would become natural subjects of England. All communities migrating to Bombay were guaranteed religious freedom and were permitted to build their houses within the fort walls, alongside the British, where they would be protected from any hostile attacks. Though the Parsis were quicker to recognise and seize this unique historical opportunity and came to Bombay earlier than most and in larger numbers, they weren't the only ones. There were Muslim weavers from Ahmedabad, Bohras, Beni-Israeli Jews, Jains, Armenians. And though the residential area was divided into the white and native parts, in the real life of the city, in the counting houses, markets, docks, everybody jostled together in a cooperative venture.

Extracted from the book
'Zoroastrians of India: Parsis: A Photographic Journey'
by Sooni Taraporevala.
c 2000 Sooni Taraporevala.
Reproduced with permission of Good Books, Mumbai, India.

http://www.the-south-asian.com/April2001/Parsis-Arrival%20in%20India.htm

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