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Nano to hit roads by Dussera: Tatas |
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Huge global interest sees Tata Motors receiving enquiries for setting up plants abroad
Tata Motors has announced that its ambitious Nano project could be rolled out from its Singur facility by Durga Puja. The company’s managing director Ravi Kant told reporters that the entire project had been reworked at the plant site at Singur due to floods last year which had led to cost escalations.
“We have already sunk in Rs 2,000 crore”, Kant said, adding that the entire project’s cost was pegged at Rs 1,700 crore earlier. But he stressed that, despite these |
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cost overruns, the Rs 1-lakh car was on track and on schedule. And there was no question of Nano being produced at any other Tata Motors plant. “Nano will be produced out of West Bengal. We hope to start trial production during July or August,” Kant said.
TATAS EYEING AFRICA, LATIN AMERICA
Kant, visiting the Singur plant a day earlier to review progress and met up with suppliers and vendors, also revealed that the Nano was seeing a huge global interest. According to him, Tata Motors has received a lot of enquiries for setting up plants from countries like the US, Latin America, Europe and South-East Asia. “It’s a great sense of pride for everybody. Nano has changed the rules of the market.”
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 eventually take the $2,500-car to markets in Africa and Latin America. The Rs 1-lakh wonder had taken the world by storm when it was unveiled earlier this year at the Auto Expo in New Delhi by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata.
The Nano had become a hit even at the Geneva Motors Show later, with many global firms showing their admiration for the Tatas in coming up with a cost-effective product.
NO COMPETITION: MARUTI
Meanwhile, the country’s largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki has expressed confidence that the Rs 1-lakh Nano will not be of any competition to it. “It (Nano) just increases the market size. It is a new segment. But it won’t cut into the market of people who are buying cars that are in the Rs 2-lakh price category,” Maruti Suzuki India chairman RC Bhargava said in an interview to a news channel.
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13 Indian firms among world’s top 500
London: Thirteen Indian firms, led by Reliance Industries, have made it to the list of the world’s 500 most valued companies compiled by a leading UK business daily, even as 12 of them fell down from their previous rankings amid weak stock market trends. Excluding tobacco-to-consumer goods major ITC, all the 12 Indian companies present on the list, including RIL, ONGC, NTPC, SBI, Bharti Airtel, DLF and Reliance Communications, saw their rankings drop in the latest global 500 list, topped by American energy giant Exxon-mobil with a market value of $452.5 billion.
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The daily publishes the list based on the market capitalization of the companies at the end of every quarter and the latest rankings are based on March-end figures for this year. The previous list was based on market cap figures at the end of December 2007.
In the global list, Exxonmobil has replaced China’s Petrochia as the most valued firm. Among the Indian companies, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL has been ranked the highest at 80th, down 15 places from 65th earlier, with a market cap of $82 billion. It is followed by state-run ONGC at 148th (down from 115), PSU power major NTPC at 206th (down from 163), Sunil Mittal-led telecom giant Bharti Airtel at 218th (down from 193), realty major DLF at 329th (down from 195) and Anil Ambaniled Reliance Communications at 350th position (down from 252).
However, ITC climbed six spots to the 484th place, with a market value of $19.38 billion. Other Indian companies include State Bank of India at 362th, state-run Bharat Heavy Electronics (364), engineering and infrastructure firm Larsen & Toubro (411). |
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