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June 5th of each year is observed as World Environment Day. We are made to pause, debate and reflect on what we have been doing to the world of oursthe only place we can call home. Despite increasing cries of fowl by many over the last two decades, most of us remained sceptic environmentalists. However, we cannot do so any longer as we have early summers, crazy winters and haphazard monsoons. The weather is going haywire and we can feel its effects. As techies and business people, we need to pause to examine the new products and technologies that are dished out each year, to see if they are environmentally friendly.

When Ratan Tata unveiled Nano, he created history. He had accomplished what some auto giants claimed was rubbish while others had proclaimed was impossible. A car that met Euro 4 emission standards, gives good mileage per litre of petrol and is sold at the price tag of $2,500 or $100,000, making it the cheapest worldwide. However, is this a boon or a bane to our increasingly precarious world?

Boon
People who agree it is an accomplishment or boon cite the following reasons:

The price of the Nano makes it affordable even to those who are unable to afford a car in the market and hence invest in two wheelers. This is usually the lower middle class and people in rural regions of the world. As Raja Sowrirajan said, My employer got me a motorbike. However, Im married and have two daughters. I worry about their safety as I cant drop them to school. Therefore, I spend Rs 2,500 monthly to get them picked and dropped to and from school. The Nano is not only affordable but also safe for my entire family and I plan to buy it.

Nano is good for it will get a majority of two wheelers off the streets, which is the foremost cause of road accidents and deaths in India and the developing world.

Many auto giants may shift their design and research base to India as Indian designers have proved they are competent and economical. Another incentive would be the cost factor, as Indian designers are paid 1/6th of what their Western and Japanese counterparts get. In addition, auto giants have to come up with a new model each year. Most importantly, Indian designs are suitable worldwide as they take into account the best and worst conditions.

Bane
Those who say no-no to Nano cite the following reasons.

It will lead to the demise of the mass transport system, especially auto rickshaws, buses and trains as now almost everyone will be able to buy the car. This will result in a huge loss of jobs and livelihood, which will only make the already bad economic situation worse. According to Nandita Deb, Nano will do to mass transit what email and courier did to postal services.

Environmentalists feel the pollution level is likely to become higher with massive sales of Nano in developing countries. According to Shanti Rangarajan, Why didnt the Tata folks design a better bus? With the current price tag and car loans offered by banks, everyone will be able to buy it. Can you imagine the amount of pollution this will result in? We also wont be able to meet our countrys emission standards.

Traffic congestion in the developing world will increase and add problems to the already strained infrastructure. Ajit Sharma, a software engineer from Bangalore says, It already takes me an hour to travel from my home to my workplace which is just 7 km away because of traffic congestion. Once the Nano hits the roads in Bangalore, it will probably take me two hours.Massive increase in import demands for oil as the car is neither hybrid fuelled nor electric and will cause the price of global crude to keep rising having a negative impact on an already struggling global economy.

It is cheap without being safeyou have to pay extra for the seatbelts and other safety features.

The extent to how these factors will affect India and the world remains to be seen as it is still early to say if India and the world will go the Californian waysmog, personal cars and almost non-existent public transport system or the New York waycabs, robust public transport despite the availability of cars and traffic congestion.

Nano can become one of the following

• The middle class family car
• The new developing worlds cab replacing the auto rickshaw, tut-tut, etc
• The new bike of the youth replacing two wheelers
• The poor mans car
• The corporate employers give away

The demand for the Tata Nano is dependent on how its economic status is perceived and this will result in the number of cars sold in India and globally. This will eventually determine if the Tata Nano will become a boon or a bane.

On the other hand, by making the Nano, Tata has effectively thrown the gauntlet into the automobile designer ring, especially to those other automobile makers worldwide who said it was impossible to make a good car whose price tag would be $2,500. Indian auto designers have a bright future as they have shown the impossible is possible. Overall, the Nano is bound to create a design and development race and in the automobile sector globally and it is high time that we had a automobile revolution. Maybe the others will take up the challenge and come up with newer designs, which are more efficient, hybrid fuelled, a new design engine or a $3,000 tanker or a $5,000 bus that is eco-friendly. It is high time too as there have been very little change in the automobile industry except for superficial changes and frills on the dashboard but no real change in engine design.

For a long time, it has been about aesthetics but with the Nano, the race is on for who can produce the best under the hood and economically. The Tata Nano marks the beginning of the global race of the sensible, cost effective transport for the world. However, it might also increase the pace of global warming precisely because of the low cost. Only time will tell. Nano has done one thing singlehandedlyit has awakened people to the environmental debate especially those who had lived in denial of global warming and claiming it is all baloney. Even if Nano doesnt take off the way it is predicted to, it will be the single most technological product that awakened the world to the dangers of global warming.

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