I am the common man and the news channels say this is what I need...

Tell me how many of us would be willing to sell our house in that posh area when we have heard something about an approval in the waiting for a huge shopping mall in the area. Obviously the prices would shoot up and we would want to wait until the mall materializes. And that you wouldn't want to see your house being seized from your hands before you are dead doesn't even deserve a mention.

Now tell me, how much unjustified the farmers in that troubled state are when they complain that their land was seized against their wished and that they were paid for their land at the paltry rates prevailing before the proposed small car project. The media has been giving extensive coverage to the travails of the industrial house and all sympathy has tilted in the favor of the industry. Statements pertaining to the Brand of that state being tarnished because of the unfortunate exit of the manufacturer are rife. The accusations are all on the protesters. There is no doubt that the political leader of the resistance movement is baking her own bread in all this heat and that the responsibility of fair land acquisition doesn't completely lie with the prospective manufacturer, likes of who are generally allotted the land by the state government. But who is talking about the culpability of the state government in its unjust land acquisition policy! Why can't we expect the bureaucrats to look into the social research papers that suggest innovative measures as giving out shares into the profits, etc?

I put it on record here to express my take on our 'responsible' media. The media represents one of the most educated sections of this 1.1 billion large country and so much for all their post graduate and doctorate degrees; we can't even expect an independent opinion from a single representative on the issue. Everybody is harping on the one point general opinion, in favor of the industry. That when they hold regular debates on an inclusive national development to become a super power by 2020. And when the public opinion is whipped by this media, the repercussions can only be imagined. An entire national opinion skewed by unsymmetrical information feeds. I feel miserable. 15-Aug will come again next year and I would see all those slogans written by the young educated representatives of the nation on my office notice board again, mentioning how India makes them proud. I shudder at the thought.

Another thought struck my mind though. Just after the auto expo in Delhi this year, I saw an interview of the chairman of some government organization (I forgot the name of the lady). She raised concerns on the repercussions on the much touted small car project. Of course, the interview was neither re-telecast nor the concerns highlighted in the media to the level of making a public opinion. 

For a moment let's forget our responsibility towards our environment and be selfish to only think about making human life more comfortable. You can count those on hands who expect any drastic improvement in the national infrastructure in the next 10 years. Please see the word drastic in proper light here. If the economy grows at 9 % then an infrastructure growth of 9 % would not be called drastic. It would just mean that the situation on road anytime in future would remain just as it is today. To make a noticeable difference, the actual growth in infrastructure would have to outpace that needed. And I don't see that happening anytime soon. In that light, imagine the current situation on roads worsened by those small cars replacing even a quarter scooters and bikes of today. Utter chaos. May be, until the infrastructure boom begins we can design cheaper and fuel efficient public transport. Affluence is not in every poor man owning a car, affluence is in every poor man earning enough to eat three-times-a-day meals, affluence is in him sending his child to school, affluence is in him being able to commute in the hassle free and faster public transport system, affluence is in him being assured of a quality health care, affluence is in him being assured of his human and civil rights, affluence is in him knowing that nobody can just seize his land below the marker price. Once we know this, we wouldn't give so much of airtime to something which doesn't even count in the priorities of social development.

And when you talk about the technical innovation, I don't see a substantial one here. The price tag is highly dependent on the ancillary units located around the plant. The only substantial achievement of this project seems to me in the area of logistics and supply chain management rather than in the area of technology. This is just a walmartization of the car manufacturing - concepts of retail supply chain optimization being applied to manufacturing.

But of course, we can't afford ignoring the environment today. The need of the hour is not to build an annual half a million more cars burning petrol at a much higher rate than that of two wheelers but to develop cars around a whole new concept involving solar energy, fuel cells, and what better than undrinkable water. Numerous other national and international players are expected to join the fray soon to cash in on the short term boom in the small car. I wish they would pool their resources to expedite the invention of such a concept car. That would be a technical feat, and a responsible one at that.

Otherwise how different this is from the short sighted phenomenon we saw on the Wall Street in the last few years that now led to the near demise of the international finance industry. The Americans went only after the short term profits and growth and here we see the same in automobile happening in India. Yes, there would be a big difference though. The short-sightedness there affected the artificial web of finance, woven by humans around the globe and the same here would affect the natural cover in multiple ways and irreversibly reduce the life span of the planet earth.

Thinking, anyone?