China, Reliance and now the Nano

by Nikhil

Welcome back!

The Chinese are coming. This was the fear some years back. They are going to be a threat for anything and everything we produce; from batteries to TVs, from Bikes to footwear…everything is going to be Chinese. Goods are going to be sold at “Chinese Rates”. Did anything much happen?

Did the Hero Hondas and the Bajajs shut shop fearing an onslaught of cheap Chinese bikes?
We did not see the Videocons exiting the market when a TCL or a Konka landed. But for the Chinese idea of bundling too many things into one(TV,Radio,Emergency Lamp all in one), those goods were all a sham. It was when the Chinese landed when the average Indian learnt the meaning of quality! All the media hype,died a slow death. The joke that was going around was that China wanted to sell some prime property in Mumbai, at dirt cheap rates!

Then came the Ambani era. Guess, it all started with the launch of the Monsoon Hungama. Cell phones were no longer exclusive to the rich. Did CDMA actually give a run for the GSM operators’ money? No, most of the CDMA market was newly created which the GSM operators of those times would not have been able to get into. Though the fear of Reliance trying to shake up markets(from kiranas to the stock market) continues, the repercussions of a Reliance Fresh would not be much looking the rate at which demand is increasing. Various retail formats may threaten the existing system, again… No!!!, newer markets would be either created or the markets will adjust to any usher in such juggernauts.

And now the third fear is imminent. All the bikes are going to be dumped.Everyone will buy at least one Nano, may be one for each member of the family.Roads will be full of Nanos.
Hello!!! Would this happen overnight? Would someone who would shell out 40k for an entry level bike go for a 1lakh plus Nano? Not happening….

Hope I get to read this after a year or 2 and feel good.

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8 comments

1 Ren { 01.19.08 at 8:22 pm }: You got a good point da, but unlike reliance, Tata might convert a huge two wheeler marker in to car buyers. But then nano has to prove that its has more worth than a second hand car (think of a nice used M800 that comes at 100K) To win more customers Tata has to prove nano to be a low maintenance-high
mileage car. – I am really excited to watch the show !

- Ren
2 | Balu | { 01.20.08 at 9:28 am }: Ya i remember the Chinese invasion hype! I remember even reading in depth about Chinese bikes which was priced at Rs 10,000! God knows what happened to them.. and Chinese batteries they never lasted more than two days!
Coming to NANO.. there is lot of hype.. and how long the demand will continue to be the same depends on the quality of the final product… if the car turns out to be good wat do you know.. people might take a bigger loan after all they are getting a bigger vehicle!
The reason why no one spends more money on a high end bike is because it offers them nothing extra other than more speed.. and thats not wat an indian middle class family wants.. what they want is space to accommodate a family plus a little more luxury than a two wheeler! And NANO offers both
3 Nithin { 01.21.08 at 5:48 am }: Well.. maybe not bikes.. but wat abt auto rickshaw’s??? an auto costs over a lac including the cost of permits etc….few years down the line could we see nano replacing these auto’s??? maybe a nano variant would be launched specifically targeted towards the auto segment…. i think its certainly possible…
4 sirisha { 01.26.08 at 12:50 pm }: i have seen your blog its interesting and informative.
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5 Rajaram S { 01.28.08 at 9:52 am }: “Would someone who would shell out 40k for an entry level bike go for a 1lakh plus Nano?”
I don’t see a reason why someone would not go for this.
By upgrading, you get
- protestion from rain!
- High society feel!
- room for more passengers
and much more …
6 Laxman { 02.11.08 at 11:36 am }: i have seen your web page its interesting and informative.
I really like the content you provide in the web page.
But you can do more with your web page spice up your page, don’t stop providing the simple page you can provide more features like forums, polls, CMS,contact forms and many more features.
Convert your blog “yourname.blogspot.com” to http://www.yourname.com completely free.
free Blog services provide only simple blogs but we can provide free website for you where you can provide multiple services or features rather than only simple blog.
Become proud owner of the own site and have your presence in the cyber space.
we provide you free website+ free web hosting + list of your choice of scripts like(blog scripts,CMS scripts, forums scripts and may scripts) all the above services are absolutely free.
The list of services we provide are

1. Complete free services no hidden cost
2. Free websites like http://www.YourName.com
3. Multiple free websites also provided
4. Free webspace of1000 Mb / 1 Gb
5. Unlimited email ids for your website like (info@yoursite.com, contact@yoursite.com)
6. PHP 4.x
7. MYSQL (Unlimited databases)
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9. Hundreds of Free scripts to install in your website (like Blog scripts, Forum scripts and many CMS scripts)
10. We install extra scripts on request
11. Hundreds of free templates to select
12. Technical support by email

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Please contact us for more information.

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7 silverine { 02.15.08 at 7:05 pm }: hey your archives are not reachable!! I left your link to the ‘jetty’ incident at savekerala blogspot and the link is not opening.
8 Nikhil Narayanan { 02.16.08 at 5:42 am }: @Silvy
http://blog.nikhil.co.in/2007/07/bathing-with-jetty-is-prohibited.html
May be coz I moved to my domain…
@rest
thanks for the comments