Growing Smaller - Nano style

In March this year, Indian car company Tata released the Nano car. Its basic principle, to provide a cheap, affordable new car to the masses. It is set to revolutionise the car industry, with most big brands (including American and European ones) planning on releasing rival models. This mix of innovation and invention has turned a previously struggling Indian car company around. But they haven't stopped there. Tata are now investing in land development so they can build "Nano" houses.


India is a resource hungry giant, with a massive poor population that is booming into an overgrowing middle class. But allot of these working class are still relatively poor to be able to afford a car or a flat. So this is Tata's main market - the emerging middle class. This emerging class, despite the financial conditions being experienced all over the world, is still expected to grow. So obviously Tata have tapped into a good thing, making money and providing jobs in times of crisis while giving emerging families a better lifestyle. 


But all of this development is going to come at a cost. With more cheap cars on the road, there is going to be even more traffic congestion and air pollution. With cheaper housing being built further out from city centers, urban sprawl and degradation to the natural environment will only continue at a faster rate. 

But providing these services at such a cheap cost is the amazing part. Very little has been invented, only ideas and technologies from around the world have been incorporated to create these cheap and usable products. The cars, instead of welded together, are glued together with similar strength. The concrete in the houses has been recycled and reinforced with extra strong plastic, to give it similar durability to normal reinforced concrete.


Surprisingly, it's not advanced nations leading the way in these initiatives, it is the emerging nations like India themselves. In this environmentally conscience world, advanced nations like America and Britain might have to start following these countries lead at growing smaller. 

LINKS
The Nano home - The Economist

The New Peoples Car - The Economist
Not So Nano - The Economist