This refers to the editorial Ta-ta Nano (July 13). Nano was hailed by the automobile industry as a small wonder when it hit Indian roads a decade ago. Through the adoption of reverse costing and deploying the best design talents, Tata Motors delivered the promise disproving the doomsayers and enthralling the motorists. There was a mad rush for the new avatar. But the initial euphoria for the vehicle lasted not long. The charm for the new champion slowly waned. Though Nano is a statement of Indias prowess in frugal engineering it is as well a story of wrong market reading and market positioning of a new product.

Philip Sabu

Mannuthy, Kerala

R Gopalakrishnan, the executive director of Tata Sons, once said although the Tatas were the first in the country to come out with the market offering of packaged coconut oil, it was Marico through Parachute that became synonymous with the product; all because of lack of innovation on the formers part. Innovation culture is what thats needed, he observed, rather than meeting targets.

Seen in this light, the phasing out of Nano is not surprising. Earlier it was the case of Ambassador. It is said that both Ambassador and Nissan started by borrowing the technology of the the same 1958 Morris Oxford model of UK. While Nissan through its unique strategy of kaizen (making small but continuous improvements) went ahead to become one of the worlds leading automobiles, our ambassador remained in a time warp.

How I wish India had innovated and produced a company like Tesla whose models offer a mileage of 300 miles! In spite of being blessed with abundant solar energy throughout the year, we couldnt harness and capitalise on this great resource and usher in a revolution in sustainable mobility with requisite infrastructure. We keep hearing of reports like ISROs indigenously developed high-power lithium-ion batteries for e-vehicles and the plan to share the same with automobile companies. Hope such innovations will not go the Ambassador or Nano way and translate into a reality and offer the world a great but competitive Made in India product that beats the likes of Tesla, Nissan, Baidu etc.

CV Krishna Manoj

Hyderabad

There cannot be any question around the intent of Ratan Tata behind launching the Nano, as he wanted to fulfil the aspirations of a two-wheeler owner who always dreamt of having a car. But other competitors also took note of this development and though they did not launch their cars in this price bracket, provided so many other features and even far more space in slightly higher price which car buyers did not mind paying it.

Bal Govind

Noida

GST over, work on MSP

GST has been implemented after extensive deliberations and the glitches are expected to be ironed out sooner than later. With the commitment of the Centre and PM Modi, the responsibility of doubling farmers income by 2022 needs attention now.

Concerted efforts must be made in the direction by bringing in Minimum Support Price for every crop grown, based on scientific and pragmatic methods in addition to the scope for reviewing the MSP periodically.

Rajiv N Magal

Jammanahalli, Karnataka

Wake up, government!

It is surprising to note that the retail inflation has touched a record low of 1.54 per cent and the factory output coming down to 1.7 per cent. Galloping inflation or, for that matter, deflation is not good for the economy. India is witnessing a glut in food crops and there is no mechanism or rather political will to safeguard the crops and create time utility for them. The products are sold at throwaway prices and farmers are in distress.

That factory growth has also slowed down indicates things are not at all good in the Indian economy. An economy should be in an equilibrium position wherein both producers and consumer optimise their profits / satisfaction. The pitiable part is that the government and the RBI are not doing anything about it. This is indeed a cause for serious concern.

S Ramakrishnasayee

Ranipet

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to Letters to the Editor, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

(This article was published on July 13, 2017)

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Nano's journey - Hindu Business Line