(Source: Washington Post)

The iconic American carmaker went bankrupt last year, but its Indian operations have never been busier, evidence of India’s booming economic growth and the rising prosperity of middle classes that are increasingly demanding first-world trappings in one of the fastest-rising countries.

“The new generation wants to hold the steering wheel in their hands,” said Prabhjot Singh, manager of a driving school who said young Indians who used to go to him to learn how to drive scooters are now flooding in to learn how to drive cars.

With rising household wealth, the growth of suburbs and highways and a youthful population, India is the second-fastest-growing market for car sales in the world after China. India’s auto industry reported a 26.4 percent growth in sales in 2009-10, partly because a government stimulus package lowered once sky-high interest rates and made financing easier, according to a study by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).

The Indian government also cut manufacturing taxes in late 2008 and early 2009 to protect domestic markets and attract overseas partners. India’s economy continued to grow at 8 percent, second only to China’s.

Part of the secret to India’s success is that it is producing cars that fit the “sweet spot,” or a budget of less than $7,000 for first-time car buyers. While the United States continues building gas-guzzling tanks, India has perfected the “mini-car.” Tata’s famed Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is an extreme example. It costs about $2,000 and sales are reportedly brisk.

With far lower labor costs, GM India is more willing to be innovative. The company recently announced that it will join Reva, India’s electric-car company, to roll out a new vehicle this year.

Click here to read the entire article.

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(Sources: The Inspiration Room & @Kiruba)

Source: Bangalore City Traffic Police via The Inspiration Room

I got this above image, courtesy of friend a (@Kiruba),  which I consider to be a strikingly effective capture that tells the dangers of Distracted Driving.  I was piqued by the creativity of this advertisement campaign by the Bangalore City Traffic Police (in India), and went looking for more details behind this creative effort.

Thanks to Google, I found The Inspiration Room, and got the following details along with a few more gruesome, yet effective pictures from this brilliant campaign.    These images capture the dangers of Distracted Driving, telling the story from the other side of the conversation a.k.a the non-Driver’s point of view.

Source: Bangalore City Traffic Police via The Inspiration Room

Source: Bangalore City Traffic Police via The Inspiration Room

Summary of the Project:

The outdoor advertising campaign uses disturbing photography to shock people out of talking to their friends and families on the phone while they are driving. Men and women are shown grimacing as blood spurts out from their telephones. The tag line: “Don’t talk while he drives. ”  IMHO, this is probably one of the best advertisement campaigns EVER devised to combat Distracted Driving, and ranks way up there along with the  famous British PSA video on dangers of Texting While Driving.

The Creative Team:

Developed at Mudra Group, India, by executive creative director Joono Simon, art director Vinci Raj, copywriter Akhilesh Bagri, photographer Mallikarjun Katakol, with retouching by Sathish.

To promote greater cooperation between the U.S. and Indian aviation sectors, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), in cooperation with the India Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, US. Transportation Security Administration, U.S.-India Aviation Cooperation Program, and the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE)/International Association of Airport Executives (IAAE), is sponsoring the U.S.- India Aviation Partnership Summit. The event will take place December 7-9, 2009, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The summit will include participation from India’s three key civil aviation agencies – Ministry of Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airports Authority of India – key industry members in the aviation sector, the U.S. government (USTDA, DOT/FAA, TSA, Departments of State and Commerce), and select members of Congress.

• Registration
• Agenda
• Hotel
• Transportation
• Sponsors
• Exhibitors
• Contacts

The 2009 U.S.-India Aviation Partnership Summit is designed to foster high-level dialogue on key issues related to India’s ongoing modernization: aviation safety, air traffic control management, aviation security, airspace utilization, sector environmental practices, and sector training. The summit will serve as a technical, policy and commercial symposium to assist Indian civil aviation agencies and aviation industry representatives in identifying advanced technology and practices that would best suit its expansion and modernization needs. The summit will provide momentum to the growing strategic and commercial relationship between the Indian and U.S. aviation sectors for the long term.

The U.S. India Aviation Partnership Summit will include a two-day conference in Washington, D.C., followed by two days of site visits to FAA and industry facilities in the Washington, D.C., area, and the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J.

Topics To Be Covered

. Current State and Future Prospects of the India Aviation Industry
. Air Traffic Management Modernization in India: Opportunities and Challenges
. Airport Infrastructure Development/Financing
. Aircraft Maintenance and Certification
. Aviation Security
. Aviation Environmental Best Practices
. General Aviation Update (General Aviation Development in India and Helicopter Expansion)
. Aviation Training in India

Click here for more details

(Source: Retuters India & Autoblog)

The family owners of Italian car designer and niche manufacturer Pininfarina SpA have hired Italy’s Banca Leonardo to sell their majority stake in the company, a company source said on Friday.

The decision was taken at the company’s board meeting on Wednesday, the source said. The sale of the 50.7 percent stake held by Pincar, the Pininfarina family company, was foreseen as part of a debt agreement with banks at end of 2008.

“It is a commitment Pincar made with the banks. The family has no intention of leaving completely,” the source said, adding Pincar will no longer be a majority shareholder.

Images via Apture: Multiple flavors of Pininfarina Designed Ferraris

Sure, but who will buy controlling interest of such a storied company? Have you met our Indian friend Tata? Rumors are swirling that Indian giant Tata, new owner of both Jaguar and Land Rover, is reportedly in the hunt to purchase the Pininfarina family’s shares.

Various other companies have been touted as possible partners for Pininfarina, which has designed stylish cars for Ferrari. Pininfarina is working with French financier Vincent Bollore on developing an electric car.

Earlier this week, Pininfarina said Pincar had subscribed its 50.7 percent share of a 70 million euros capital increase. The increase attracted overall 55.6 percent take-up.   The Pincar subscription to the rights issue was also part of the end-2008 agreement with banks, the source said.

However, the reports are painting the pending deal as a partnership rather than a takeover and Tata already has dealings with Fiat, so they’re familiar with the Italian way of doing things.  If a rival took more than a third of Pininfarina’s shares, it could put at risk its contract to April 2011 with Ford Motor Co. Pininfarinia builds the Ford Focus Coupe-Cabriolet at its plant in Bairo, near Turin, Italy. It also has a joint venture with Ford subsidiary Volvo Car Corp. to make the Volvo C70 at a plant in Uddevalla, Sweden.

Let’s see how it all shakes out!

(Source: BBC)

For five days, millions of people in the Indian city of Calcutta have endured long queues in the stifling heat at bus and taxi stands, metro railway counters and on auto-rickshaw routes.

They are braving both the humidity and the rain in the hope that what has been termed the city’s “great transport mess” will finally be cleared up.

While the difficulties of getting from A to B may be greater now than at any time over the last two decades, the air of the city is much cleaner than before 1 August.

That was when police started seizing all pollution-emitting pre-1993 vehicles to ensure they are kept off the roads in keeping with a Calcutta High Court order.  The decks were cleared for the government to seize the buses, mini buses, taxis and auto rickshaws after the Supreme Court Friday refused to stay the high court order banning commercial vehicles built before 1993.

Images via Apture

Police and Rapid Action Force personnel were deployed in large number to prevent disturbances, as security personnel moved alongside motor vehicles department officials to identify the banned vehicles on the city streets.

Nearly 4,000 private buses, 6,800 taxis and more than 95 percent of the total fleet of 65,000 auto-rickshaws have been barred from the Kolkata Metropolitan Area following the court order.

Meanwhile, following main opposition Trinamool Congress chief and Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee’s accusation that government departments like the police as also the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were running vehicles over 15 years old, Police Commissioner Goutam Mohan Chakraborty said the city police have decided not to deploy such vehicles.

A survey done by the Calcutta-based Saviour and Friend of Environment (Safe) says that around the city’s four most polluted intersections – the Dunlop crossing, the Shyambazar five-point crossing, Park Circus and the Rashbehari Avenue-SP Mukherjee Road crossing – hydrocarbon levels more than halved.

Auto-rickshaw drivers have tried to keep public transport off the roads

That is important because high hydrocarbon levels have been blamed for an increase in liver and kidney illnesses as well as higher level of cancer.

With less traffic on the roads, the oxygen count shot up by around 15 to 20%, leading to a drop in the percentages of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Suspended particulate matter, the main cause of bronchial diseases that makes Calcutta the asthma capital of India, dropped by 50%.

“Calcutta is back to low pollution levels it enjoyed until about 20 years ago,” said Safe’s convenor, Sudipto Bhattacharya.

“The vigil has to continue and none of the 15-year-old vehicles or those older should be allowed to go back on to the streets.”

Mr Bhattacharya said that Safe’s findings vindicated the green activists’ stand against older vehicles.

Many other fresh air fans agree with him.

“The sharp drop in the hydrocarbon level proves that older vehicles are the major culprits,” said green activist Subhas Datta, who lobbied the city’s high court to seek the withdrawal of all vehicles older than 15 years.

“They emit unburnt fuel into the air that pushes up the hydrocarbon level to dangerous levels. Let us hope that Calcutta will breathe freely from now on.”

Back in February Calcutta Tramways announced that it would running the buses it operates on a B20 biodiesel blend — a move which, while motivated by financial reasons, is expected to cut pollution from the buses by 35%

Click here to read the entire article.

(Source: Autoblog & Autoweek)

Americans may have the opportunity to welcome the Tata Nano to their shores in just over two years, according to a confirmation from David Good, a U.S. rep for the Indian automaker. Before it arrives, Tata assures that the ultra-cheap compact with a base price of just $2500 will be configured to meet all emission and crash standards. If successful, we could see see versions of the Indian microcars running on biofuel and diesel.  This begs the question whether the price point will continue to stay around $2500 even after meeting such stringent safety and emissions requirements? Probably not! It is safe to say that the price would be a little less than $5000  – the expected price of the Euro version.

But who will distribute the teensy Tatas? Well, that’s up in the air right now. A brand-new dealer network for the brand has been discussed. Another option would be selling the Nano through Jaguar and Land Rover dealerships — the Indian automaker owns both, after all.  But this option seems highly unlikely,  according to Stuart Schorr, a spokesman for Jaguar Land Rover, who dismissed the rumours.

A larger European version is slated to debut in 2011, and has an upgraded engine that could get 67 mpg. That car is still expected to come in at less than $5,000.  Tata would be the second Indian company with cars on U.S. streets. Global Vehicles U.S.A. Inc. of suburban Atlanta plans to introduce pickups made by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. later this year.

(Source:  Autobloggreen & The Economic Times)

Ratan Tata has stuck to his words.  At the premiere for Tata Nano in the Auto Expo earlier this year, Tata Motors chairman Ratan Tata had said: “By and large we’ve always been a diesel company so we will have a diesel version that will follow this (petrol) variant soon after.”   Now, after 203,000 firm orders, Indian automaker Tata found out that most buyers had opted for the more expensive variants of the Nano: only 20 percent of orders have been placed for the base model. The consequence is that Tata is experimenting with new strategies for the Nano, introducing new variants to make it even more attractive for the local market. One of the most important features will be the introduction of a new 0.8-liter diesel engine, developed by German company FEV.  According to sources in the auto industry, the small diesel engine will have fuel injection systems developed by Bosch, but the rest of the platform is being developed by Tata Motors and FEV.  A 3-door version hatchback Nano, an idea that was originally rejected, is also in the works. Plans for the European versions are, so far, unchanged, but will surely benefit from the diesel variant.

(Source: Bloomberg & Wall Street Journal)

India may lift a 5 1/2-year cap on pump prices of gasoline and diesel, the first market-opening move by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh since his election victory this month. Shares of refiners surged.

Oil Minister Murli Deora said he plans to seek cabinet approval within six weeks to free up fuel prices from state control. “The government has taken notice and is working on” a proposal, he told reporters in New Delhi.“We will ensure that fuels reach people at the right time and at the right price,” Deora said today.

Indian state-owned refiners used to set retail fuel prices twice a month after the government ended controls on oil products in April 2002. That stopped in December 2003 after the then Bharatiya Janata Party-led government barred them from raising rates before the May 2004 elections.

Mr. Deora said the government would consider deregulating prices of natural gas only after a decision on deregulating oil prices is taken.

Indian Oil gained 6.8 percent to 609 rupees in Mumbai trading, the highest level since Jan. 17, 2008. Bharat Petroleum Corp., the second-biggest state-run refiner, climbed 3.7 percent to 464.70 rupees, while Hindustan Petroleum Corp. added 8.4 percent to 362.95 rupees.

Indian Oil shares have climbed 42 percent since Prime Minister Singh’s government was re-elected on May 16 without the support of communist lawmakers who oppose fuel-price increases. That led to speculation that the government will relax the pricing curbs. The benchmark Sensitive Index has gained 20 percent in the same period and advanced 52 percent this year.

State refiners sell automobile and cooking fuels below cost, at prices fixed by the government, to curb inflation which has held below 1 percent for 11 straight weeks. Retail fuel prices haven’t been changed since January, when they were cut for the second time in two months.

A group of Indian engineering students from Ludhiana successfully build a pollution-free motorbike designed to run on air pressure rather than petrol. Video courtesy of Reuters.

 (Source: Wall Street Journal)

(Source: Autobloggreen & Financial Times)

Executives at India’s Tata Motors admit that their company is a bit behind the times when it comes to environmental awareness when compared to established players in Europe. “We are behind as far as the world is concerned. There are many Scandinavian companies because they are more conscious of this than the rest of us,” says JJ Irani, a director for Tata’s automotive business. He adds, “We are not shy of learning.”

Img. Source: Flickr

“Tata is new at this game,” Mr Irani told the Financial Times, explaining that the Indian group had not concentrated much on environmentally friendly products until now.

 “What we wanted was the experience of other global conglomerates who have been on this journey before,” he said.

For this reason, Irani and a few of his colleagues are currently visiting a number of large European companies in an attempt to pick up a few pointers on how to improve their eco-credentials. In addition, the group has plans to meet with executives at some of the world’s largest oil companies. Irani hopes these meetings will allow Tata to “catch up faster” than if they were on their own.  Mr Irani said he was taking managers from Tata companies to see how other groups behaved. “We want to see what sort of problems they face and how they deal with it so we can catch up faster.”

Tata has come in for heavy criticism from some environmentalists about the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, but the Indian company retorts that it is more fuel-efficient than a motorbike.

Tata sees a big opportunity because it operates in some of the biggest polluting sectors such as power generation, steel manufacturing and chemicals and carmaking. It has set up a group dedicated to exploring ways of becoming more environmentally friendly and has about 100 people working on it across all its companies.

The Tata managers will also meet some grandees of the oil industry including Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, and Lord Oxburgh, ex-chairman of Shell.

They will also visit executives at banks Standard Chartered and Deutsche Bank as well as Siemens, Europe’s largest engineering group.

On a related note, TATA is releasing its all-electric Indica for the Norwegian market and eventually for the rest of the world. 

Although the all-electric Tata Indica on display at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week is not the soon-to-be-released model, there’s a lot we can learn from the vehicle – and from TM4’s Eriz Azeroual – about how the technology will be implemented when the new model goes on sale in Norway either later this year or in early 2010 (yes, this is later than previously expected).  A limited number of the Indica’s are already testing in Norway and the TM4 reps are heard saying that Tata Motors is “a cool company. Very aggressive.” Even though they’re most famous for the Nano and apparently wanting to dominate the low-end automobile market, in Europe market they want to be known for electric vehicles.   Norway is a perfect entry point to bring an EV to Europe because there is a high tax on gasoline-powered vehicles. The high cost of electric vehilces isn’t totally equalized by the taxes, but EVs and gas-powered vehicle prices end up being “comparable” in Norway.