How Restaurateurs Cope With Soaring Food Prices

Less than six months ago the price of rice was $9.99 for a 20 lb bag.
Tday it is flirting at almost $30.00 for the same 20 lb bag! For the
residential domestic consumer it is one thing, what do restaurateurs
who have to maintain the quality of their menu, manage with the
soaring cost of ingredients, I kept wondering.

This question was answered by a New York Times article which says,
"All across New York City, cooks, chefs and restaurateurs are
struggling to cope with soaring costs of many of their basic
ingredients, including flour, eggs, rice and cooking oil. "Everything
is going up at once" is a universal complaint among them, so they are
devising all sorts of strategies to avoid having to pass the brunt of
the price increases on to their customers. Some are cutting back on
waiters and kitchen help, others are staying open longer or expanding
their offerings to increase sales. One sheepishly admitted that she
had started adding the sales tax to customer's bills rather than raise
the prices printed on her elaborate, laminated menus."

"Suvir Saran, the owner and a co-executive chef of Devi, an Indian
restaurant in the Flatiron district, said he was weighing whether to
pare down portions, because he did not think he could raise prices.
Devi already charged $65 for its "chef's tasting menu" before the cost
of rice and chapati flour doubled over the past few months. A 30-pound
sack of rice has risen steadily this year to $43 from $22, while a
15-pound bag of flour has gone to $22 from $8 and a 4.6-gallon
container of canola oil is up to $34, from $18 or less at the start of
the year, Mr. Saran said.
"Rice is such an important part of our business," he said. "We've been
getting battered by these huge price increases." Mr. Saran said that
he earned little profit on a dinner of tandoor-grilled lamb chops
priced at $30, but that in the past he had been able to make up for
that by selling rice dishes. No longer. "This year we're not making as
much money selling rice," he said," to the New York Times.

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/nyregion/04prices.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Now An Indian Napa Valley?

First it was the city of Bangalore, becoming India's Silicon Valley,
now is the city of Nasik in the state of Maharashtra becoming the
Indian Napa Valley?

According to this article in the New York Times, "Eight years ago, Mr.
Dhuru, who made his fortune in the software business, bought land
outside Nasik, a city about 100 miles northeast of Mumbai that has
become the center of India's rapidly expanding wine industry.

This year, with the help of a consulting oenologist from Bordeaux, Mr.
Dhuru expects to produce about 300,000 bottles of white and red wines.
By next year, he estimates that a million bottles will bear the
Chateau d'Ori label.

The aggressive optimism of entrepreneurs like Mr. Dhuru is easy to
understand. In Maharashtra state in central and western India, where
Nasik is, more than 40 wineries are in varying stages of development.
Government officials say that investment in wine increased by 74
percent over the last year.

"In the next 10 years there will be 300 million upwardly mobile
Indians who can afford wine and for whom it will be a lifestyle
choice," Mr. Dhuru said. "A lot of them will be drinking Indian
wines."

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/dining/04india.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y

Who says newspapers are dying?

A point of discussion in the media industry lately has been the slow
demise of the newspaper industry in the US relative to the upswing of
the newspaper and media industry in "developing" nations like India.
In India within the last couple of years, several business media have
cropped up and are doing fairly well. "While gloom haunts the
newspaper industry in the United States and Europe, the business is
flourishing in much of the developing world," says an article in
today's New York Times.

Another excerpt from this article--
"Executives in India, one of the fastest growing newspaper markets,
say reading a newspaper is something to aspire to instead of a
throwback to a bygone era as it is perceived in much of the West.

"Anyone who can read or write is still looked at with a bit of awe" in
many markets in India, said Rajesh Kalra, a veteran journalist who is
now chief editor of Times Internet, the Internet arm of the Times
Group, which publishes The Times of India. The paper has a circulation
of 3.5 million, more than 10 percent higher than a year ago, and says
it is the biggest English-language paper in the world. Times Group, a
part of Bennett, Coleman and Company, is introducing editions of the
paper in three Indian cities this spring.

When people first learn how to read, they want to let people know, Mr.
Kalra said, and "the first thing you want to do is be seen to be
reading a newspaper."

The literacy rate in India hovers at about 61 percent, according to
Unesco, but the number of literate youths (ages 15 to 24) is above 76
percent, signaling that education is improving. The number of daily
newspapers grew to 287 in 2006 from 185 in 2005, according to the
World Association of Newspapers."

In fact several media companies like CN18 that only had a broadcast
presence are also branching out into print publishing to round out
their offerings, "Media companies in emerging markets, though, are
enjoying growth their Western counterparts can only envy. "Unlike the
developed markets, India is at a fundamentally different stage of its
life" when it comes to media consumption, said Haresh Chawla, group
chief executive of Network 18, a media conglomerate. The company also
has a joint venture with CNBC, as well as with Viacom, which brings
MTV and Nickelodeon to Indian audiences. "There is a huge synergy in
news gathering," and owning a newspaper will round out Network 18's
media offerings, Mr. Chawla said."

Read the full article at--
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/business/worldbusiness/20newspapers.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

Has Baseball Arrived in India?

Baseball has never been a popular sport in India. College kids,
especially girls play some softball, but for some reason baseball
never caught on, not until now...

"Rinku Singh, 18, and fellow javelin thrower Dinesh Patel began a
year-long training stint in Los Angeles last week after winning an
India-wide pitching contest, "The Million-Dollar Arm."
The boys, from poor families, used their natural shoulder strength to
take the top two spots from among 8,000 participants.
Another teenager, Manoj Shukla, will receive a month's training after
he came third of the 27 finalists.
The winners, who were handed their visas in a ceremony at the U.S.
embassy in New Delhi, will get an opportunity to be assessed by
professional baseball scouts at the end of their one-year stint.
Their U.S-based promoters are hoping the youngsters can make it as
professionals, saying such success would boost baseball in India in
the same way that Yao Ming's move to the NBA created a fan base for
basketball in China," reports Reuters.

Over the last few years, I have seen sports like bowling, football,
triathlons, formula one racing and others picking up steam in India,
sports that many of us never even knew about until we came to America.
It'll be interesting to watch and see how baseball catches on, if it
catches on at all, what with stiff competition from Cricket!

Reuters also reports that, "India, world cricket's commercial hub, has
become a big draw for other sports hoping to tap into its booming
economy. Golf is taking giant strides and India staged its first
European Tour events this year while soccer authorities are pushing to
revive the game in the country. The Australian Football League (AFL)
announced plans this month to push the game in India in their search
for new markets."

Read the full Reuters article at--
http://uk.reuters.com/article/UK_WORLDFOOTBALL/idUKDEL24903820080513?pageNumber=4&virtualBrandChannel=0

Vijay Mallya and Force India

The arrival of the newest and tallest motor homes in the Formula One
paddock is an overt statement of intent by the sport's youngest team,
Force India," says the New York Times. Owned by Vijay Mallya, he says
to NYT that his Force India team and auto racing can appeal to a
growing segment of young and affluent Indians.

The Times reports that Force India's hospitality suite is airy, easy
to move around in and full of smiling team members and visitors, and
Mallya says to the Times, "I am very proud of my new motor home, but
this motor home with a slow car means nothing," said Vijay Mallya, the
Indian billionaire who owns the racing team, as well as Kingfisher
Airlines, Kingfisher beer and other companies. "The car is performing,
the motor home is adding to it all, and I think that the message is
that on the track and off the track, we are serious in this business."

Anotehr excerpt from the article --
"Cricket, which is a religion in India, is for everyone," Mallya said.
"It's for your staff, for your chauffeur, for your boss, for your
maid, for everyone. But there is this breed of youngsters in India who
are proud of their success — we call them upwardly mobile and
aspirational Indians — they are earning well, they want to show their
wealth, they want to show that they are different."
The way they do that, he said, is by dressing differently, eating
differently and having different sporting interests.
"And that is where we felt, and research showed, that F1 could be
absolutely the ideal platform," he added.
But for the plan to succeed, Mallya said, the team must succeed.

Mallaya's who attends all of the teams races says to the Times, "The
leader of the team has to be leading the team," Mallya said. "The fact
that I'm here in the same uniform as the guys, walking around in the
garage and being wherever else I need to be, it inspires confidence.
It shows I'm committed. If I am demanding commitment from others, I
need to show I'm committed myself."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/11/sports/othersports/11prix.html&tntemail0=y

Rafta, Rafta...

"Scott Elliott's production of Ayub Khan-Din's "Rafta, Rafta ...,"
which opened last night at the Acorn Theater, is intimate in a way
that prying video cameras can never be. Set in a working-class
neighborhood of transplanted Indian families in Bolton, England, this
tale of a beleaguered honeymoon exposes its characters' foibles, and
very little of their flesh, with gentleness and compassion," says a
New York Times review.

"And the plot of "Rafta, Rafta ...," adapted from "All in Good Time,"
a Bill Naughton comedy from the 1960s, sounds like an extended blue
joke, or the basis for a sniggery sitcom: Young man takes virginal
bride home to live with the family, then finds himself unable to
consummate the marriage because Mom, Dad and Little Brother keep
interrupting and distracting him.

The title translates from Hindi as "slowly, slowly." And this
production understands it takes time for people to get to know and
accept one another. That includes an audience and a set of onstage
characters. In an era of faster-is-better entertainment "Rafta, Rafta
..." is notable for its winningly slow hand," writes the reviewer Ben
Brantley in this review titled, "No Sex, Please, We're British
Indians."

For those that enjoy theater, this promises to be a good show...

Read the full review at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/05/09/theater/reviews/09raft.html&tntemail0=y

Outsourcing Scientific Discoveries

An article in the New York Times titled, "How Scientific Gains Abroad
Pay Off in the U.S." asks the questions, "AT a time of economic
belt-tightening, might cheap science from low-wage countries help keep
American innovators humming?"

While outsourcing is the name of the game, to cut costs and increase
growth, it has been widely adopted in various segments of
manufacturing and industry. "Americans have long profited from
low-cost manufactured goods, especially from Asia. The cost of those
material "inputs" is now rising. But because of growing numbers of
scientists in China, India and other lower-wage countries, "the cost
of producing a new scientific discovery is dropping around the world,"
says Christopher T. Hill, a professor of public policy and technology
at George Mason University," says this article in the New York Times.

Another excerpt from this article--
"We shouldn't fear the rise of science in Asia and other poorer
countries. We should figure out how to take advantage of it," says
Patrick Windham, a lecturer in technology policy at Stanford and a
former staff member of Congressional science committees.
Optimism about scientific globalization is a wrinkle on the familiar
story of outsourcing. Just as United States companies have contracted
out physical production, they can do the same for scientific "goods,"
which range from formulas and ideas to the results of experiments.
In the short-term at least, higher spending on scientists by India and
China could create a glut of them in these countries, driving wages
down further and making the costs of acquiring science even lower.
"Science is the ultimate global activity," says Richard B. Freeman, a
labor economist with the National Bureau of Economic Research. "You
can outsource research."
Mr. Freeman, among others, questions whether there is a shortage of
scientists in the United States. He cites evidence suggesting that
American dominance in science will decline over time and that we
should worry less about purported shortages at home and more about
"developing new ways of benefiting from scientific advances made in
other countries."

For a while now, the critics were wary of this, of innovation moving
away to these fast growing economies of China and India. Lack of focus
on immigration policy, and increase in Reverse Brain Drain, add to
this phenomenon of outsourcing innovation and scientific discoveries,
but as the article says either way it seems like a win-win situation.

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/04/20/technology/20ping.html&tntemail0=y

Ethically Produced Bamboo Fabric!

Hear this, so now we have fabric that is ""ethically produced" and "is
not only resistant to the sun's damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation
but also has anti-bacterial properties."

According to the IANS --
"As "sustainable" become the new global buzzword among ethical
dressers, it is boom time for eco-friendly bamboo-based fabrics.` And
now giving such fabric the extra edge are Indian American chemists
Subhash Appidi and Ajoy Sarkar of Colorado State University.

They have discovered a way of making bamboo fabric - the current
leading option in the "ethically produced" clothing market - that is
not only resistant to the sun's damaging ultraviolet (UV) radiation
but also has anti-bacterial properties.

Raw bamboo fabric lets damaging UV radiation pass through and reach
the skin. And while many tout bamboo's inherent anti-bacterial
properties, Appidi found that untreated bamboo fabric did not live up
to anti-microbial expectations.

"All cellulose fibres allow more moisture to leak in and provide more
food for bacteria to eat. That's why bacteria grow more on natural
fibres rather than synthetic fibres," said Appidi.

Bacteria can lead to unpleasant odours and unsanitary clothing, noted
the chemist, who has ambitions of creating bacteria-free bamboo
garments for use in hospitals.

The duo, who presented their new and improved fabric at a meeting of
the American Chemical Society Sunday, said they increased the
UV-protecting abilities of fabric by colouring pieces of
commercially-available bamboo cloth in a dye laced with UV absorbing
chemicals."

Read the full article at--
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/indian-american-scientists-design-bamboo-based-fabrics_10035208.html

A Peek at the Indian Peoples Phone

India is by far one of the fastest growing consumers of cell phones. The new peoples phone is going to be even more accessible especially for the lower income groups, and it will be interesting to see how this is adopted.

"The new cellphone model unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will sell for below $20 per device. The aim is to meet surging demand for cheap phones in emerging markets, beginning with India but Spice is also targeting the high end of the market," reports Reuters.

Really Nice GE Ad...

A Gastronomic Visit to South India?

Have immigrants to the US affected what Americans eat? Sure it has but
it has also spawned new kids of tourism and travel packages. Forbes
reports that culinary trips are becoming very popular. "Though
traditional tasting trips to Napa Valley wine country or the heart of
Provence are still popular, more and more travelers are exploring
cuisine in countries like India, Turkey and New Zealand," says the
magazine.

Forbes says that, "An ambitious tour of four South Indian states, for
example, takes travelers from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu
and Kerala in pursuit of the finest cuisine. No meal is spurned:
participants sample the best street food, join community feasts,
peruse spice markets and dine at high-end restaurants. The day ends at
a local four- or five-star Taj Hotels property, which customizes the
tour. Michael Whiteman, of the international restaurant consultant
company Baum & Whiteman, says this newfound culinary bravery,
particularly among American travelers, comes partly from immigration
to the U.S. over the past 30 years."

Read the full article and see pictures of the worlds top tasting trips at --
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2008/03/15/travel-vacation-tasting-forbeslife-cx_rr_0317travel.html

Leela comes to Sesame Street

A new caharacter n Sesame street is an Indian American, Leela. Indian
Americans are appearing in ever facet of life it seems.

An excerpt from an article in India West magazine --
"The newest neighbor on Sesame Street just happens to be Indian
American, because the role was originally dreamed up with no
particular ethnicity in mind.

"It was incidental," actress Nitya Vidyasagar told India-West by phone
last week from New York City, where she is currently taping the 39th
season of the award-winning PBS children's show. "The casting notices
said nothing of ethnicity."

But the New York-based stage actress made such a strong impression on
the show's producers that they found themselves willing to create her
role from scratch.

Vidyasagar plays Leela, a young Indian American woman who runs the
local laundromat. Unlike many of the other actors on the show, who use
their own first names as their character's names, she felt more
comfortable with the name Leela. "My name is hard for some people to
say," she explained."

Read the full article at --
http://www.indiawest.com/view.php?subaction=showfull&id=1206034606&archive=&start_from=&ucat=7

Is India Flushed With Venture Capital Money?

"Never in its history has India been so flushed with venture capital money. In 2007, 50 new VC firms sprouted in India. There are about 500 in total now, a far cry from the mid-1990s, when I started my career as an entrepreneur doing business in India. In 2007, close to $1 billion in venture capital funds washed through India.

That's led to a problem oddly familiar to Silicon Valley investors: too much money, not enough worthy entrepreneurs. In VC parlance, fundable deals are few and far between. Why?" asks Sramana Mitra in a commentary in Forbes.

"India's meteoric rise in the tech world has been driven by providing back-office services. That work puts a premium on skills such as engineering management and coding. Someone else--somewhere else--writes the specifications for the projects. Again, someone else, somewhere else does the market studies analyzing the potential of a new product.

Indian managers have had scarce opportunities to learn the nuances of how global technology markets work. That means that local entrepreneurs can try to position products, but they do so without detailed and disciplined marketing knowhow," she says.

Read the full commentary at --
http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/03/06/mitra-india-venture-tech-enter-cx_sm_0307venture.html

India is an emerging market to watch

Another columnist who reiterates that India is an emerging market that should be watched.

"India has been the second-biggest spender on infrastructure in Asia over the past year. The country was planning to lay long fixed-line telephone connections to rural communities when wireless and cell phone technologies flew right past them," says Bill Donoghue, on Dow Jones Marketwatch.

Read the full piece at--

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/india-indonesia-two-emerging-markets/story.aspx?guid=%7B98305398-5071-4200-83FC-C1B7F33F896B%7D

Off the beaten path...

These are not just your typical vacations to the Caribbean or to
Europe or to Las Vegas. These are very unusual trips off the beaten
path that sound fascinating and exciting. A great article in the New
York Times about Regent Seven Seas Cruises whose President Mark Conroy
says in the New York Times article, "It's all about creating memories
in many respects. Our customers always like to go back home and tell
their friends that they got to do something that most people haven't
had a chance to do."

Read the full article at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/17/travel/17land.html&tntemail0=y

The biggest American release ever for a Hindi film...

A nice article about Aishwarya Rai and her latest talked about release
"Jodhaa Akbar" in the New York Times.

An excerpt from this article by Anupama Chopra:
"Jodhaa Akbar" focuses on that quintessentially Indian subject:
arranged marriage. Set in the 16th century, it explores the marriage
between the great Mughal Emperor Akbar, a Muslim, and his Hindu wife
Jodhaa.

Historians have described the union as a political alliance, but in
the hands of Ashutosh Gowariker, the film's director, the story has
become "an epic romance with its share of battles, harem politics and
intrigue," he said in a telephone interview. Mr. Gowariker, whose 2001
period film, "Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India," was nominated for an
Oscar for best foreign film, isn't claiming factual accuracy but
insists that the film is "embedded in historical truth."

He cast Ms. Bachchan as the queen (a figure some Indian historians
dispute ever existed) because, he said, "Aishwarya is a comic book
princess with a certain dignity, elegance and sense of purity." For
the role of Akbar, Mr. Gowariker wanted someone with "the physique of
a warrior and the face of a romantic," and selected another Bollywood
superstar, Hrithik Roshan."

Read the full article at--
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/10/movies/10chop.html&tntemail0=y&oref=slogin

Lighten up...

For years and years stereotypes are used to make ads, movies etc.
mostly with the intent of laughing together rather than laughing at
someone. In the US the swedish, germans, french everyone is
stereotyped, and have been for decades and decades. Accents are made
fun of by everyone. Everyone makes fun of the South Indian accent,
South Indians make fun of the North Indians accent. In the US we make
fun of the Bostonian accent, the southern accent, the list goes on and
on...

I don't understand why the 2 superbowl ads featuring Chinese and
Indians have been drawing a lot of criticism. I personally thought
they were funny, and the the characters came across as smart and
proactive, acting quickly achieving their goals and becoming
successful. If the characters were portrayed as losers then it is
something else. All I can say is people lighten up... You don't like
it don't watch it. Stop making something of nothing, just because...

Read the full article about the "offensive" superbowl ads at --
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2008/02/06/business/media/06adco.html&tntemail0=y

Mac or a PC? Which one do you plan to vote for?

Is it just me, or are there others out there who believe that this is
such an apt comparison of the two democratic contenders. I find this
slick and simple, yet has so much depth. This makes me wonder about
the South Asian angle, yes the South Asian angle I believe is that
South Asians are usually PC people, at least the ones that I know are
and I know a few of them. Personally I am a Mac person, or a
worshipper I might say. In fact that is what I am using to type this
blog item. BUT... that is not to say that is what my political slant
is... Like my 4 year old says, "that my friend, is a big secret!"

Excerpt from the NYT article --
" STYLES make fights — or so goes the boxing cliché. In 2008, they
make presidential campaigns, too.

This is especially true for the two remaining Democrats, Hillary
Clinton and Barack Obama. Reporters covering the candidates have
already resorted to traditional analysis of style — fashion choices,
manner of speaking, even the way they laugh. Yet, according to design
experts, the candidates have left a clear blueprint of their personal
style — perhaps even a window into their souls — through the Web sites
they have created to raise money, recruit volunteers and generally
meet-and-greet online.

On one thing, the experts seem to agree. The differences between
hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way:
Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC."

Read the full article at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/technology/04link.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin

Gender Politics?

An excellent Op-Ed piece by Gloria Steine,co-founder of the Women's
Media Center, in the Jan *th issue of the New York Times, throws light
on gender politics and how one tends to see it. Read on ...

Women Are Never Front-Runners
By GLORIA STEINEM

THE woman in question became a lawyer after some years as a community
organizer, married a corporate lawyer and is the mother of two little
girls, ages 9 and 6. Herself the daughter of a white American mother
and a black African father — in this race-conscious country, she is
considered black — she served as a state legislator for eight years,
and became an inspirational voice for national unity.

Be honest: Do you think this is the biography of someone who could be
elected to the United States Senate? After less than one term there,
do you believe she could be a viable candidate to head the most
powerful nation on earth?

If you answered no to either question, you're not alone. Gender is
probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the
question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White
House. This country is way down the list of countries electing women
and, according to one study, it polarizes gender roles more than the
average democracy.

That's why the Iowa primary was following our historical pattern of
making change. Black men were given the vote a half-century before
women of any race were allowed to mark a ballot, and generally have
ascended to positions of power, from the military to the boardroom,
before any women (with the possible exception of obedient family
members in the latter).

If the lawyer described above had been just as charismatic but named,
say, Achola Obama instead of Barack Obama, her goose would have been
cooked long ago. Indeed, neither she nor Hillary Clinton could have
used Mr. Obama's public style — or Bill Clinton's either — without
being considered too emotional by Washington pundits.

So why is the sex barrier not taken as seriously as the racial one?
The reasons are as pervasive as the air we breathe: because sexism is
still confused with nature as racism once was; because anything that
affects males is seen as more serious than anything that affects
"only" the female half of the human race; because children are still
raised mostly by women (to put it mildly) so men especially tend to
feel they are regressing to childhood when dealing with a powerful
woman; because racism stereotyped black men as more "masculine" for so
long that some white men find their presence to be
masculinity-affirming (as long as there aren't too many of them); and
because there is still no "right" way to be a woman in public power
without being considered a you-know-what.

Read the full piece at --
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/opinion/08steinem.html?ex=1215493200&en=07809ff6a3077b3b&ei=5087&excamp=GGOPgloriasteinem&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_ev=click&WT.mc_id=OP-S-E-GG-NA-S-gloria_steinem

The $2500 Car!

From the New York Times, dated Jan 8th, 2008

MUMBAI, India — What does it take to build the world’s cheapest car?

For Tata Motors of India, which will introduce its ultra-cheap car on Thursday, the better question was, what could it take out?

The company has kept its new vehicle under wraps, but interviews with suppliers and others involved in its construction reveal some of its cost-cutting engineering secrets — including a hollowed out steering-wheel shaft, a trunk with space for a briefcase and a rear-mounted engine not much more powerful than a high-end riding mower.

The upside is a car expected to retail for as little as the equivalent of $2,500, or about the price of the optional DVD player on the Lexus LX 470 sport utility vehicle.

The downside is a car that would most likely fail emission and safety standards on any Western road, and, perhaps, in India in a few years, when the country imposes tougher environmental standards.

But Tata is not looking to ply California’s highways. Instead, the company wants to provide four-wheel transportation for the first time to people accustomed to getting around on two, including hundreds of millions of Indians and others in the developing world.

Even so, the “People’s Car” (a nickname, since Tata has kept the real name under wraps, too) may ultimately affect what many people drive around the world, since it is part of a broader trend among carmakers to try to build less expensive cars.

Read the full article at
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/business/worldbusiness/08indiacar.htmlem&ex=1200027600&en=4f4c63f8f95cc705&ei=5087%0A