Tata’s Nano

 From Vision to Failed Project Ratan Tata’s 2003 Vision to his engineering team, led by 32-year-old star engineer Girish Wagh, was this:

Create a $2,000 “people’s car.” It has to be safe, affordable, all weather transportation for a family. It should adhere to regulatory requirements, and achieve performance targets such as fuel efficiency and acceleration.

The result of this vision was Nano, a compact “city car,” that was to appeal to motorcycle and scooter riders. The rear-engine hatchback was launched in 2008 in India for one lakh rupees, or approximately US$2,500. It got 50 miles to the gallon and sat up to five people. Unfortunately, there were delays in manufacturing and early instances of the Nano catching fire (Tata maintained that it was foreign electrical equipment that was placed on top of their exhaust system that caused the fires). In March 2012, Mr. Tata stated that the original vision for the Nano had been achieved, and that the vision had now shifted to further upgrading and refinement of the product.109 In 2018, Cyrus Mistry, chair of the Tata Group, called the Tata Nano a failed project and production ended in May.

Change Vision for the “Survive to 5” Program Save the Children, World Vision, UNICEF and other not-for-profits, have taken up the challenge posed by the World Health Organization, to reduce child mortality by two-thirds, by 2015. Mortality rates had been reduced by 41% between 1990 and 2011, but the refugee crises that have been created by wars and environmental disasters were complicating efforts, giving rise to a call for the United Nations for a redoubling of efforts.111 Vision: We believe all children should live to celebrate their fifth birthday.

The Survive to 5 campaign supports Millennium Development Goal 4—to reduce child mortality by two thirds by 2015 and save the lives of over 5 million children under 5 who are dying of preventable and treatable diseases.

In order to help reduce preventable deaths, Survive to 5 will work in countries where basic health care is inaccessible to large numbers of children. Working with government and private sector health care systems, we will develop policy environments that are conducive to community-based care and train a cadre of local health care workers to increase health care coverage and ensure linkages and referrals to facilities for more complicated cases. Research shows that simple interventions—including vaccines, oral rehydration therapy, antibiotics for pneumonia and sepsis and medicine to treat malaria—could save some two- thirds of the children who currently do not survive. Clean practices at birth and improved immediate newborn care, such as breastfeeding and special care for low birth weight babies would also contribute to saving young lives.