First Rover, now a loner...

Tata is at it again. After sending shock waves through the industry on their proposal for acquiring Jaguar and Land Rover, they are now planning on relaunching the Indica in the UK market. Tata, a huge conglomerate, has stamped themselves in the the minds of the Englishmen after the acquistion of Corus. Of course, this will definitely help boost brand value. After a failed stint in 2003 to sell the Indica through Rover, the think tank has been reconsidering the idea, but this time themselves. Rover, which was on the verge of bankruptcy was trying to sell the Indica at a premium of 6-8.5K pounds per car, hoping it would help turn around their fortunes. However, the plan bombed and with that so did the Indica leave the UK too.

However, reports from back then suggested that the car was probably overpriced by around a 1000 quid. Tata is now designing the next-gen Indica, the X3, the first major revamp. This, sould be a significantly better product, testing is currently being carried out with 1.4 litre dicor as well as Fiat-sourced 1.3 litre mulitjet diesel engines, the same unit doing duty on the Suzuki Swift. The Indica's strongest point in India has simply been the economy of diesel and space(read sedan-sized interiors). The new gen Indica I expect, will be a good contemporary looking product - as was the first generation car - with great space again and hopefully a big jump in quality. And when I say quality, it's an all-encompassing term including build quality, reliability and 'attention to detail', a few factors on which the Indica was a bit weak. The UK customer will not be as forgiving. Tata you listening?

The only other point of consideration is, if Tata does bag Land Rover and Jaguar, Tata will have much more on stake. They will have to - again, have to - ensure that the Indica succeeds and ensure that people would be able to rely on Tata selling cars. For if they don't, I don't know how many of them would be game to buy an English brand from an Indian company that can't make cars themselves. Now Tata, will you just go ahead and do it!!!

Harley's 'n Mangoes...sure you didn't think you would hear it together

There is a lot of ado over the Harley and mango deal. For the late starters, India is relaxing pollution norms for Harleys, so they can be Euro 3 compliant as compared to the standard Euro 4. For the now thirsty-and-bored-of-waiting-bikers, it means we'll finally get to set our rears on a Harley, if - and that's a big 'if' in the largest and wildest font you can find - you can afford to buy one. I wonder if it's a good thing, selling our mangoes for American cult machines.

The argument against such an arrangement is that, India would be selling its mangoes(a food source), which has a sizable chunk of it's population under poverty. My question here, does India have a mango deficit? Googling Harleys and mangoes(a match made in heaven you said?), I found here that we can export 8,000-10,000 tons mangoes a year as of now, as said by the Chairman of Agriculture and Processed food products Export Development Authority, India. And this would be at around $36/dozen, quite a sum. This in front of our total annual production figures of 14 million tons, looks like pocket change almost. A basic fact, buying power needs to be created in the first place to create demand. So for those who think this deal will make our country more impoverished, I doubt it, at the worst it would make a few farmers richer and give them incentive to produce even more. If the export of mangoes is kept to a controllable sum, then the government can ensure that domestic prices will stay in control.

And is pollution a problem? Hell yeah! But come to think of it, these are bikes which would at best sell in double figures now. I would be more worried by all the 1L cars that would be puttering around our roads in the future. The fact of the matter is, we are talking about some real small numbers here. A few bikes, a few mangoes, but that marque Harley Davidson is always known to create quite a stir isn't it?