Few other cars in recent times have got as much media attention as the Nano has. The Nano, as former Maruti chief Jagdish Khattar pointed out (“Will the Nano change India’s auto industry?”, March 25) in his article, will help cement India’s position in the global list of compact and sub-compact car producers — coming from the head of a company that first defined the Indian small car, this is no mean achievement. It’s another matter that, when Khattar headed Maruti, neither he nor his Japanese bosses believed the car was ever a possibility.
The point made in the same debate by Rakesh Batra, partner, Ernst & Young, however, is also a valid one and worth keeping in mind while we celebrate the Nano. The car market in the country has been changing, and not just in a ‘nano’ manner, ever since the M-800 was first introduced by Maruti in the early 1980s. At that time, the engineering and designs were all Japanese, so though the Maruti was an Indian name, there was little about the car that was really Indian. All this began to change over the years and, it was in the last few years, that the Indian Maruti came into its own.
It began when the company first attempted the re-design of the Zen’s outer body — only Maruti engineers were involved, no one from the parent Suzuki. Later, Maruti engineers were involved in designing the global-car Swift. Finally, to seal this success, Suzuki decided to set up a global R&D hub in India. So, let us celebrate the Nano which certainly takes India’s manufacturing prowess to another level, but let us not forget those who have taken us here, and continue to set new standards of global excellence.
Sanjay Joshi, Gurgaon
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