Nano will easily come to reach within working population in 3tier towns.Towns were road is just a formality.And people dont feel the bad quality, because two-wheelers rule these places.

I think with Nano like cars now becoming reachable to people with smaller earnings in smaller towns, the need and voice for good roads will become louder.

Very good blog. you need to write more frequently. Bought your book while in India in DEC and gave it to friend. Waiting for a US release.

Alok: Yes, I agree- the middle class and corporations need to do more. But corporations cannot be effective by themselves without better government policies - that eliminate AMCs, electrify villages, and so on. We cannot replace the government in the public sphere and investment: after all, the middle class and entrepreneurs pay taxes to the government so that they invest in broader well-being and development.

Additionally - and here I come back to the comment Unaimed Opulence - our ‘urban rural divide’ has allowed our legislators to talk about our issues of poverty and development as ‘one or the other’. We discuss policy and reform as either pro-poor or pro-business, when in reality, good policies (direct subsidies, IT infrastructure, loosening of red tape on local/rural entrepreneurs and especially small businesses) are both.

Getting IT to solve problems has never been a problem - be it in India or in any other country. The challenge has always been the “support infrastructure”.

For example, if the farmers were to be benefited from IT, then do they have enough supporting infrastructure (both h/w and s/w) ? Can the farmer afford a cheap enough computing device (laptop, desktop, hand-held, etc.) ? If yes, is there sufficient electricity (solar, lunar, whatever) to power them up ? Connectivity ? From a s/w perspective, can the farmer communicate in his/her native tongue ? Does the device “come up” in native language (e.g. BOSS bosslinux.in/ ) ? Can the farmer securely conduct banking transactions from the remotest corner in our country ?

Finally, India has the unique challenge of multiple languages. Indian Railways booking counters will accept forms in almost any language. A s/w infrastructure must exist to support this flexibility.

I am an IT professional. And if I were to think of one help to the community from an IT perspective, I am forced to back out immediately. Otherwise, it becomes a ‘band-aid’ approach.

The Indian IT ‘problem’ is a “government scale” problem. The government needs to step in to establish some common ground. And, before long, farmers et al would be demanding solutions - not us going to them.

Nandan sir, Its high time Infosys does some real creativity and forget profit motives as we have all seen money cant be end to any road .And I strongly urge Infosys to create world class solutions but the first focus should be India with Indian mindset .

Its long time India has ignored its farmers which is traditional strenght and such a beautiful thing , why cant Indian IT/Infosys collect their problems/requirements get to plan well and then implement something for them ?

The approach this time should be non profit motivated if we want to create develpment and hapiness at the same time.

“and poorer Indians should not be denied a choice that the middle and upper classes (WE) have had for so long.” - I think putting us (the privileged) in context with our words of choice is the only method to make us realize of how blinded we are with our greedy lifestyles.

“urban rural divide” - Once again - the rich will feed off the struggles of the working poor. We have no shame in saying we work for the least among us; a true reflection of our society will effectively show that we (the privileged again) have always done more and will continue to look out for the interests of number one : ourselves.

I am guilty of this - this is the change I’m trying to bring - let us first admit our own greed before praising the empty promises made to the least amongst us. Your opinions Sir?

Some of who can afford pricey cars are upset with the fact that now a lot of people with smaller paying capacity will join them in use of almost free road infrastructure in most democratic fashion (each one consuming almost equal size of the car, just as each vote carries the same weight).

Their another garb is increase in pollution because of common man driving a car, which was fine as long as they were producing it.

I think it would be an hypocritical to call Nano a bad thing from any point of view.

It is kind of counter-intuitive, but Nano can become a reason for progress on public transport. If Nano really clogs roads, and if indeed people in power corridor suffer from it, their can be change in apathy towards public transport from policy makers. Remember, it took drastic pollution levels in New Delhi’s air for Delhi to go CNG, and become green city as it is today.

Given that, Nano is priced at around the Bajaj auto-rickshaws, it would be interesting to see what unfolds. When Tata Indica entered the cab market and now one cannot see Marutis in that area anymore. So, if Nano were to encroach into auto-rickshaw market (yes, the pricing need to be worked out some), Mr Tata might probably have contributed into solving the mass transit problem a bit !

Then we have the problem of connecting remote areas with surrounding towns/cities. These are the places which might see once in a day, a bus roaming around multiple villages picking (piling ?) fares before disgorging at the town/city. Nano would definitely contribute in this area.