Tata Nano...What's New??

India's Most prestigious company, Tata Motors has introduced its most hyped 1 Lakh car last year. Nano, India's Cheapest Car, is projected to be a small, affordable, rear-engined, four-passenger car aimed primarily at the Indian market.Many other motor companies really did not agree with Tata motors regarding the 1 Lakh budget project. However Tata was able to launch its Nano in two designs making all other companies bewildered.

Tata initially targeted the vehicle as "the least expensive car in the world"— aiming for a starting price of 100,000 rupees or approximately $2300 despite rapidly rising material prices.

As of August, 2008 material costs have risen from 13% to 23% over the car’s development, and Tata now faces the choice of introducing the car with an artificially low introductory price, raising the price of the car, or foregoing profit on the car — the latter an unlikely proposition., while an increased price on the Nano will likely decrease demand.

As the Nano was conceived and designed around introducing the automobile to a sector of the population who are currently using eco-friendly bicycles and motorcycles, environmentalists are concerned that its extraordinarily low price might lead to mass motorization in countries like India and therefore possibly aggravate pollution and global warming well as increase the demand for oil.

Singur car factory land dispute arose as Tata's planned manufacturing unit for the car in Singur,West Bengal where the state government of West Bengal had allocated 997 acres (4.03 km²) to Tata Motors. The construction of the car factory on that tract of land began in January 2007 on fertile agricultural land and the expropriation and eviction of approximately 15,000 peasants and agricultural workers. The affected farmers have fears that they will receive inadequate or no compensation and therefore lose their livelihoods.

Work at the Nano factory in Singur has come to a grinding halt. Not a single Tata employee or labourer had turned up for work on Friday after a warning issued by protesters.In a state like Bengal where 90 per cent of available land is fertile, it's inevitable that land acquired for industry will include agricultural land. But for Mamata, Nandigram or Singur are no longer about economics but about politics.