Carpe Diem - Indian Auto Industry

Well well well. Yesterday all the 24/7 news channels for once were not showcasing Salman's Wax replica or latest Sanjay Dutt story. Instead what was showcased was the Indian Auto Industry and how its coming of age in this very prestigious and glamorous world of Automobile Manufacturing. The stakes are high, the tensions are real with people living and dying by their choice of automobile.

Yesterday the Indian Auto sector captured the world's imagination in two important ways.

1) Launching of the Worlds Cheapest Car - Tata Nano

2) Launching of India's Formula 1 team - Force India F1 Team

So much hype and controversy has shrouded the Tata 1 Lakh car that I feel Tata Motors marketing people have their jobs made easy. Its been hailed,trashed,talked about, debated,philosophised. Named Impossible to achieve, Saviour of the Middle Class, Destroyer of Environment, India's Frugal Engineering Genius and the list is endless. I would be happy as a marketing guy to work on this Car now. The need so clearly identified,segment so precisely defined, the market so ready that once i make the distribution channels streamlined my job as a marketeer is done. The car will sell itself. Almost.....

Knowing so many examples of over hyped products becoming such let downs that I'm still not willing to bet my mullah on TATA for now. But if the Car delivers anywhere near what it claims to, well then ,get ready for a revolution - A Nano Takeover of the Indian roads and possibly the World's.

The Second was the official launch of the India's Formula 1 car. Vijay Mallya's -Force India F1 Team . This is at the the diametrically opposite end of the spectrum of Nano. The World of F1.

Formula 1- The most glamorous of the glamorous ,the most hi tech of the hi tech, the most expensive of the expensive,the best of the very best.

I still don't know what was the business motive behind co-owning Spyker F1 team by Mallya was but I'm sure like me all the Indian F1 fans just don't give a flying fart. We always desired- No let me rephrase that-We desperately needed to see India on the F1 Map.

Maybe it's the biggest publicity stunt by Mallya ever. Maybe he is thinking really far ahead of all the mullah he will rake in once India has it own GP circuit and race. Honestly but at heart I feel is a true hot blooded Indian racing enthusiast and wanted to prove a point. His words;"It is an expensive sport, big budgets, very glamorous and something that Indians perceived was in a different orbit and where India would never be. " He clearly intended to change that.

Still F1 has been a niche sport in India. Maybe this will help bring it to the masses as we see in the streets of Maranello and Barcelona. And if he gets to make a handsome buck out of it - Go for it dude. After all you are a business man. Just praying you playing the long gamble on this and not selling off Force India in 2009 as its history has shown time and again.

So with Tata Nano and Force India F1 Team becoming the toast of the Nation and with the possibility of Tata Land Rover/Jaguar Acquisition looming large in the not so distant future its Carpe Diem -Indian Auto Industry. Hats off Ratan Tata and Vijay Mallya.