CARS, ECONOMY AND PROSPERITY

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A few year's back, when Skoda decided to head to India, they were one of the very few luxury car makers in India. I was discussing about it with a friend when he slowly uttered - "I don't think what India now needs is a luxury car". And he went on to talk about bad roads to poverty and lack of education and such things that need priority addressing than a luxury car. I think you get the drift - he meant good and shared a valid view point.

But that kept me thinking. I put some grey matter into his thoughts and I only ended up feeling that in many aspects it is better to have these cars than not. The primary reason - jobs. Every car rolled out creates 5.3 jobs. And that was just what we needed in the time when Skoda was gearing up for launch. A car sold will relieve a rich man of some of his money. A part of this goes to more rich men, but a lot of people who need money also benefit from it. In the entire life cycle of a car comes the worker in the assembly/manufacturing unit, the workers of the spare parts industry, the people who transport it, the people who sell it and the people who maintain it. Summing up, the number of jobs created is indeed plentiful, which can only do good to the economy and to the standard of living of every one from richest(who buys the car) to the poorest(who does repairs or works at the factory).

That’s about the factors of economy. But there are downsides too. In India's fastest growing city of Bangalore, traffic jams make many people spend more than 3 hours on the road between home and work. The pollution is unbearable. And the question of consumption of too much of resources and energy always has an impact on the environment.

There do exist both downsides and upsides. When Skoda was about to launch four years back, we were in a good position to see more cars on the road. We now probably need better roads before we put more cars on them. But achieving such a balance is easier said than done.