I News India - Empowering Ideas!

Tata Motors on Sunday told that their much awaited Nano car will be out in the market from its Singur facility by October this year in spite of the project was facing cost overrun.

“We have already sunk in Rs 2000 crore”’, the company’s Managing Director Mr. Ravi Kant said, adding earlier the project cost was pegged at Rs 1700 crore.

Mr. Ravi Kant, who met the West Bengal Chief Minister Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharjee at Writer’s Buildings in Kolkata, told reporters that the entire project had been reworked at the plant site at Singur due to floods last year which had led to the cost escalation.

Mr. Ravi Kant had visited the Singur plant yesterday to review progress and discussed all the relevant issues with suppliers and vendors regarding the manufacture of the car

He sated that if everything will go according to the plans, Nano would be rolled out during Durga Puja. “We hope to start trial production during July or August and Nano will be produced out of West Bengal”, he said.

Mr. Kant had earlier stated that while the company’s focus would remain the domestic market for the first couple of years, Tata Motors was keen to take the car to Africa and Latin America as the global interest for the small car is increased meanwhile.

Tags: Bengal, Nano, Singur, Tata, Tata Motors, Tata Nano

With a new welcome change, as opposed to the company, Wednesday saw the government launching a vehicle. Mrs. Sheila Dixit, this Wednesday, launched the new electronic battery driven Reva on which she announced a 29.5% discount and further subsidies on hybrid cars.

The Delhi chief minister, showing all her concerns towards the rapid deterioration of the air quality, announced that the government would try to the maximum to fight against the menace. Reva, the only car to get concession from the government is now priced at 2.99 lakhs as compared to its original price of 4.25 lakhs for the base model. The concession includes a 15 percent subsidy on the base price as well as the refund of the Vat which is claimed to be paid through the 25p cess over each litre of diesel that the state government had levied about three months ago out of which the state government has already made an incredible ten crores. This announcement comes as good news for the companies who have been planning to launch their hybrid vehicles in the near future which include Toyota, Mahindra and even Tata.

Deputy Chairman of the Reva Electric Car Company, Mr.Chetan Maini announced that the company plans to increase the production of the vehicle over the coming next three years targeting the launch of their new hybrid vehicle in various other metro cities as well as in Europe and South East Asia.

With the recent launch of India’s first hybrid car, the Honda people had put up requests to the government to reduce subsidies over the hybrid vehicles for a cleaner environment pertaining to the price of their launched vehicle not seeming to be in the budget of a major part of the country. With the recent announcement, a Honda spokesperson applauded the governments step and informed that they had already appraised the government with their technology.

Tags: car, Delhi, Electronic Car, Hybrid Car, India, Mahindra, New Car, Reva, Reva Electric, Tata, Toyota

World’s 100 most influential people of 2008, listed by Time news magazine, includes three Indian names and those are of the UPA Chairperson Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, PepsiCo’s Indian American chief executive Indra Nooyi and MD of TATA group Ratan Tata.

The other name which is included in this list from India is of the spiritual leader Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama and Sonia Gandhi are listed in the leaders category.

Ratan Tata and Indra Nooyi are categorized under the list of Builders and Titans.

Sonia Gandhi is present in the list after her turning down the opportunity to become prime minister four years ago.

For Indra Nooyi, sharp strategic mind, tremendous market insight and humanitarian contributions made her to reach in the list.

Dalai Lama is there in the list for remaining ‘calm in the face of cruelty’ against his people by the Chinese.

Ratan Tata is praised for the manufacturing of the people’s car of Rs. 1,00,000 only.

The world’s most influential person in 2008, according to 1.8 million Time.com voters, is Shigeru Miyamoto, who designed Nintendo video game.

Tags: Dalai Lama, Indra Nooyi, Ratan Tata, Sonia Gandhi, Tata, Time news magazine, UPA

India’s two leading conglomerates, Tatas and Reliance have recorded their names in the world’s top 25 innovative companies. Tata at rank six has provided the cheapest Nano car while Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance scored position 19th has established aggressive growth plans.

It is first time that the two companies has entered the list of top 25 topped by Apple Computer, the maker of iPod music players and Mac personal computers. Internet search giant Google is at position two followed by Japanese auto major Toyota, industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE) and software behemoth Microsoft in the top five.

The list, published in the April 28 edition of Business Week magazine that hit the newsstands today, has been compiled by the US financial publication in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group.

Business Week said about Tata Group, “Mumbai-based conglomerate jumps onto our list for the first time, fuelled by its paradigm-busting 2,500 dollar ‘Nano’ car for the masses”.

“The car, from its Tata Motors unit, is the world’s cheapest, thanks partly to a distribution model that sells the auto in kits to entrepreneurs who assemble them for buyers.”

About RIL, it noted that “the Indian petrochemicals giant made it onto our list this year thanks to fans of its aggressive growth.

“But its ambitious plans to reach into grocery retailing, which is dominated in India by small shopkeepers who have rebelled against corporate entrants, have faltered,” it added.

Tags: Ambani, India, ipod, Nano, Reliance, RIL, Tata

British Car Company Ford Motors has confirmed to sale his two brands- Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) to Auto major Tata Motors Company. The deal is finalized at an estimate to be valued between $2-2.5 billion.

As told by the sources, the deal was signed last evening and formal announcement will be made in the evening today.

All the crucial issues are discussed and agreed by both the parties last week. The reason behind the delay in the announcement is that Jaguar workers were on leave. The deal has taken almost nine months to finalise as both Ford and Tata and their financiers sought to iron out issues seen as crucial to the future of the two British marques.

When contacted a Tata Motors spokesperson said the company would make an announcement at an “appropriate time”. Ford on the other hand has been insisting that they would make public the deal only after it has informed its employees.

Tags: , car, Ford, Jaguar, Rover, Tata, Tata Motors