Incredible India – It happens only in India (Small Car with a Big Heart)
11-Apr-2009
I dedicate this article to my son Nischal who is celebrating his 3rd birthday today. He has been an inspiration for me in my life and he has been influencing through his pure selfless love and affection.

Ever since I have come to this earth I wanted to trace the evolution of Mother India and after many years of struggle, I realized that the story of India began almost thousands of years ago, when man first appeared in this part of the world. There are many stories of a Stone Age man occupying the entire Indian subcontinent. It’s very interesting to note that Indian exploration of tools & technology also took shape in those early years of human civilization. Man was continuously struggling to survive and this survival instinct forced him to invent tools and techniques as he started making smaller but more effective tools of stones & bones for his hunting (Survival Instinct). This innovation led to expressing ideas through rock paintings, building shelters etc. From ancient civilization to till date India has come a long way. Today India has more than 1 billion population and has developed enormous strength and capability to show a new way to the world.

India is known for its intellectual super power in more than one instance where we have proved our ability to guide the world in a new direction. Aryabhata is greatest astronomer and a mathematician of India. He was born in 476 AD and introduced to the world a magical digit called "0" (zero) and rest is history. I am sure we all know that Sushruta was the first Plastic surgeon in the world and lived in 6th century. Sushruta was a surgeon and teacher of Ayurveda . There are many incredible great stories about India and Indians which world can study and understand the contributions and power of Mother India.

India is not just another piece of earth of this planet, she is a Super power, a goddess of many cultures, religions, languages but she is ONE. Today India is the second largest country on earth in population, and seventh largest in geographical area. From an image of the land of yoga, tigers, snake charmers and elephants, India has acquired an enchanting image of "The most happening place in the world”. The image cannot be brighter than the object, and the fact that there is a visible change in India's image. In this modern world, India is known for its ability to innovate, champion Change and lead the IT revolution in the world arena. You will be pleasantly surprised to know farthest & deepest reach of Indians across industry segments in USA. A total of 35% of Doctors, Scientists, Engineers, and start up champions in America are Indians. So brand Made in India or Indian is shining brighter than ever before.

While India was progressing well on all fronts to compete, collaborate and innovate greatest technological inventions with the rest of the world, there were few Indians in India who were deciding to gift India a new age Small Car with a Big Heart called Nano. The very concept of Nano evolved with a strange thought from Mr.Ratan Tata. Not sure how true this story is, it was one of those rainy days in Mumbai when Ratan Tata was traveling and saw a small middle class family getting fully drenched in rain as they were traveling in a scooter. A strange thought crossed his mind “Why not make a Car for a common man?”. In Ratan Tata’s words “It led me to wonder whether one could conceive of a safe, affordable, all-weather form of transport for such a family”


Everyday when we step out of our home to office, work, near by city etc., how often we pay attention to what’s happening around us, who is responsible for the mess around us, how can we help to make a living better for self & others. Does anyone of us think on these lines, it’s not that only a rich man like Ratan Tata who can think and make a NANO dream come true in 6 years. I think all of us in our own way can make a difference, provided we care for our environment, neighborhood and fellow citizens and the country we live in. Our village, town, state, country is not just a lump of earth but it’s our Motherland, if we desire its progress we must take responsibility of promoting wellness of everyone.

House of Tata’s are known for their Corporate Social Responsibility in India, if anyone would like to get first hand information one needs to visit Jamshedpur and enter Tata Nagar. Ratan Tata has said in an interview that his company does not want to grow “Over Everybody’s Dead Bodies.” Close to 66% of the profits of Tata’s investment arm, Tata Sons, go to charity and they do not publicize much about it. They believe in transforming in millions of people in India and across the globe. Truly Tata’s are no comparison to any Indian Company till date.

Summer of Mar’2003 in Geneva Ratan Tata announced to the world that they will present a common Man’s car to India which will be affordable by any middle class family for a sum of Rs.100,000 ($2000). When the world heard him, people said Tata’s have lost their senses and ready to destroy the empire that they have built, some Japanese engineers said “By joining 2 bikes it does not become a CAR”, some said “Will it be a TOY or will it move on road” and so on.. But Ratan Tata had this determination, commitment and his empathy for Indian Middle Class family that made him chase his dream with a bunch of indigenous team of young engineers to work on a plan to create a People’s CAR for Indians by Indians. It took 6 years for the team to narrow down on a dream project and they were ready to unleash the dream of their beloved young (72 years) chairman.

When world got the first glimpse of NANO in Geneva Motor show’2008 everyone including Ferrari, Suzuki and whose who of the world Auto industry were shocked, surprised & were happy by a tiny moving NANO and the rest is history. The whole Geneva Auto Show erupted with joy of seeing a dream come true for the first time in their life. This Indian miracle announced to the world that India & Indians are ready for innovations in the Auto sector. Those who criticized the idea of Euro 1700 car stood up and took notice of little NANO and hailed the technological innovations of Tata Motors.

Back home in India when the world was busy celebrating the success of NANO, Mr.Ratan Tata was busy planning for his Dream plant in West Bengal, and he did not know that he would have to wage a war with his own countrymen to set up his dream project plant. He is a roaring tiger and was not willing to give up his fight, but he was loosing time as he had to keep up his promise which he had made to the Indian Middle Class. Later he found a new home for NANO in Gujarat. Once the plant is ready, this will make the car affordable to an additional 14 million families, including a section of 58+ million two-wheeler owners in India.

It’s the irony of this greatest democracy in the world where politics/politicians are out in public to ruin the socio economic growth of the country for their selfish motives. I am not sure when & how we will learn to bring in a change in Indian political system.

The Indian Middle Class would never have dreamt of owning a car someday, 23-Mar-2009 is a Dream come true for millions of Indians who had never thought of having their own car. Undoubtly the star of the moment is Ratan Tata’s Pretty Woman NANO. Many people may argue that Nano will create more problems in India than helping Middle Class. I strongly disagree with this logic of some intelligent thinkers that it will add to the tumbling poor infrastructure in the country. But I would like to remind them of an old adage “When the going gets tough, tough gets going”. Let the 21st century thinkers, politicians, scientists, citizens find better ways to solve these problems rather than blaming NANO invention. If Ratan Tata would not have dreamt about NANO somebody would have done that in some corner of the world. Let us be proud of what Indians have given to the world and celebrate the Indian Nerds who are leading the world automotive innovation through NANO.

I am an avid fan of house of Tata’s because I had the fortune of working with Tata’s in the early days of my career and as I write this article sitting thousands of miles away in England I overjoyed by the noble idea & vision of Mr.Rata Tata which has made Indians proud. I have met several people across Europe in UK, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland any conversation does not end without discussing NANO story. We are proud of you Mr.Ratan Tata, you are the Real Hero of India and I am sure Mother India is very proud of her son.

Read more about NANO :
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Finally-history-on-wheels-gets-rolling/articleshow/4307704.cms
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/006200903221651.htm

Watch Ratan Tata’s passionate Story of NANO in his own words Part 1 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3brUB8IZhAo Part 2 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Mw6BuMJEM&feature=related Part 3 : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xvjhg2Zh84k&feature=related

Lessons learnt from this mind-blowing experience of Human Spirit, Passion, commitment, determination, Team work and uncompromising character are;

Its all about Human spirit of Change
Challenge your limits and embrace change all the time.
Nothing is constant but Change, be open to change and you can change your destiny. Man the maker of his own destiny.

Learn to Question the unquestionable
Never accept things as they are, challenge the unchallenged. Question status quo all the time
Develop deep questioning ability, questions lead to clarity and clarity leads to destiny

The quest to lead & the quest to conquer will bring the best in you
Develop a killer instinct and always innovate, explore to lead by example
The achievement of your goal is assured the moment you commit yourself to it, give your 100% in whatever you do, success will be yours

Dream the impossible.. Dreams translate into actions
Keep your dreams alive to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, your vision, hard work, determination, and dedication.
Remember everything is possible for those who believe in their abilities

If you want to bring change, you need to lead by example, path to success is not easy.. but not impossible either
Great ideas can come from every corner of India, you need to channelise your energy by starting something small
You are the vehicle of change, if you cannot change, no one else will.. so never give up!!

Learn to love what you do – Believe that you are doing a great work & you will deliver great results
Keep looking for new things, never settle for something simple
Do not let the others opinions to drown your ideas

Hunger for success leads to development/growth/newer competencies
Always think different & learn from everybody around you, knowledge is all around you. Create space for knowledge in your mind and acquire survival & life skills
Never think you know everything, be humble and willing to adopt, change to accomplish your dreams.

We need to live our life as if we were to die tomorrow (Live life to the fullest extent everyday). We need to learn as if we were to live forever. In life knowing is not enough; we must apply our mind to everything that happen around us. Most of us have the willingness but we do not do anything. While others wait for opportunities to come by but some people create opportunities to impact our world. I firmly believe, through continuous learning & innovation we can solve any problem, overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal that we can dream of. A real & a new living successful example is NANO. Jai Hind……