Saturday, December 30, 2006
Corporate rivalry v/s fertile land
As West Bengal remains exercised over whether or not Mamata Banerjee’s protest was instigated by ‘corporate rivalry’ as claimed by Ratan Tata, one issue has vanished from the media pages.
The Singur land handed over to the Tatas is fertile, two-crop land. It may be recalled even Sonia Gandhi had publicly asked all states under Congress rule not allow land under cultivation to be given away to SEZs .
Why should the same logic not apply in West Bengal, which is ruled by a Congress ally? Why would the Tatas not be willing to accept alternative, non-agricultural land? Simply because of Singur’s proximity to Kolkata and the access it provides to markets and transportation facilities.
What does any of this have to do with the ‘nameless’ corporate rival? In any case, the only company capable of providing serious competition to the Tata plan to make a Rs 1 lakh car is probably Maruti Suzuki, where the centre has a little say. Another company that may pip the Tatas its neighbour in far away Pune. In a liberalised economy, where licenses do not rule decisions, companies are expected to fight fiercely for every percentage point of market share. In this changed scenario, even the Tatas must learn to identify the rivals and expose them in order to make their charges credible.
For those who know very little of the matter: The Naxalites, the BJP and a lot of other people support Mamata, and the Left (about as left as UK 'New Labor' is becoming I'd say and they by now are beginning to look about as 'left wing' as Adolf Hitler) support the Tatas.
IMO: If the "Indian Express" assessment is correct, then Tatas are not credible on this issue. So the prospects for a worthwhile 1 lakh car are also small. We need something more along the lines of the Tesla electric car if possible. I would have thought even, say, Bajaj could have had a try at that. JRD Tata used to 'think big' but the Tatas now seem to have lost that capacity and confuse economic size with longer term credibility. And on the Singur issue they now seem to even lack short term credibity. It is a pity.
The Singur land handed over to the Tatas is fertile, two-crop land. It may be recalled even Sonia Gandhi had publicly asked all states under Congress rule not allow land under cultivation to be given away to SEZs .
Why should the same logic not apply in West Bengal, which is ruled by a Congress ally? Why would the Tatas not be willing to accept alternative, non-agricultural land? Simply because of Singur’s proximity to Kolkata and the access it provides to markets and transportation facilities.
What does any of this have to do with the ‘nameless’ corporate rival? In any case, the only company capable of providing serious competition to the Tata plan to make a Rs 1 lakh car is probably Maruti Suzuki, where the centre has a little say. Another company that may pip the Tatas its neighbour in far away Pune. In a liberalised economy, where licenses do not rule decisions, companies are expected to fight fiercely for every percentage point of market share. In this changed scenario, even the Tatas must learn to identify the rivals and expose them in order to make their charges credible.
For those who know very little of the matter: The Naxalites, the BJP and a lot of other people support Mamata, and the Left (about as left as UK 'New Labor' is becoming I'd say and they by now are beginning to look about as 'left wing' as Adolf Hitler) support the Tatas.
IMO: If the "Indian Express" assessment is correct, then Tatas are not credible on this issue. So the prospects for a worthwhile 1 lakh car are also small. We need something more along the lines of the Tesla electric car if possible. I would have thought even, say, Bajaj could have had a try at that. JRD Tata used to 'think big' but the Tatas now seem to have lost that capacity and confuse economic size with longer term credibility. And on the Singur issue they now seem to even lack short term credibity. It is a pity.
# posted by uv : 10:25 PM
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