The Nano will also do for the Indian car industry what the Maruti 800 could never fully achieve — it will help the car industry tap into the vast market which currently consists of millions of two wheeler owners. Interestingly, cars account for just 17 per cent of the total market for vehicles in India — two wheelers account for more than 70 per cent. Thus, the Nano has the potential to double and triple Maruti’s contribution in fairly quick time and make the Indian car industry truly mass produced and consumed. At the moment, the Indian car industry produces just under 2 million vehicles a year, which is low by global standards.

It is also, because of its low price tag, a car for the difficult economic times we live in. It will probably be the only indigenously developed Indian car which will have a global brand — though with all the coverage it has received, Nano is already a global brand. One wonders, though, how Ratan Tata now views his costly takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover. They are surely brands of the past from industrial powers in decline while Nano and Tata are brands for the future from a country on the rise.

dhiraj.nayyar@expressindia.com