Is equity sustainable?

The next time I hear the word ‘equity’ I am going to take it with a pinch of salt especially after what Ratan Tata has done for ‘equity’ for the Indian.

The story goes that he was ensconced in his nice AC car well protected from the vagaries of the weather when he happened to pass a family on a scooter – soaked – bearing the brunt of the rains. His heart immediately reached out to them with a thought ‘a would car protect them from the rain’ and there and then he resolved to build a car that would be affordable by ahem those who are, as some would have it. ‘less affluent’.

Now this Johnny be good could have thought some of the following thoughts

1. Hmmm! I have a vehicle manufacturing unit, I wonder how much do my vehicles contribute to carbon emissions?
2. Hmm! My companies proudly trumpet their CSR, why don’t I donate buses to cities to improve public transportation.
3. Hmm! I wonder why there are so many vehicles on the road and what can I do about it?

But no the ‘great one’ made a promise to himself that he would create a peoples car (a term coined for the Maruti 800). And when he unveiled the car he loudly proclaimed ‘a promise is a promise’. He is being equated to Henry Ford because he, in a way, like Ford did to America is putting India on wheels. Unfortunately the comparison rings hollow - Ford was a true pioneer because he initially used hemp for his car, Ford was a pioneer because he bettered the assembly line which was being used in the meat packing industry to enhance car production, Ford was a pioneer because he built a car that had to deal with almost no roads. But today things are different. The criteria to equate Tata to Ford would be if Tata were to create a cheap solar powered car or if he were to improve the public transport system or if created a car that was a cradle-to-grave product or manufactured out of recycled material.

If at all Ratan Tata goes down in history it is because he has made the idea of ‘equity’ unsustainable.

It is truly surprising that the person every one believes is one of India’s astute businessmen (with a conscience at that) is myopic enough to select a ‘cheap car’ as a solution for a lack of protection and mobility.

His attempt to bring equity was through the ‘consumption route’. He has provided a car that is cheap (not actually if one considers the subsidies he has been gifted) and therefore those who were not able to purchase car can now do so, I don’t use the term ‘afford’ because their income remains the same.

So where the problem is actually of transportation he provides a solution of choice. This means that more people will be able to buy things which they actually would not need if they were provided with a suitable alternative. The idea of increasing ones consumption as a process of equity is nothing new it was earlier called ‘keeping up with the Joneses’. But now there is need for morality and the facade of conscience because at the end of the day it is just another business proposition which leaves the world a little more uninhabitable.

All debate about the Nano and its possible deleterious effects are cut short with questions ‘how can you deny people their right to buy a car?’. Tata rides the high horse of giving those who did not have a chance to own a car to now own one, he wears the bullet and barb proof jacket of the Nano enhancing equity because those without a car (a sure sign of inequity) can get one.

This short sighted view of how the problem of inequity should be solved is not very good for sustainability, for one more resources are going to be used and more energy will be required to produce and to run it and its production is going to generate waste not only in the factory but in the mining of resources required for it.

Phew! This is just the beginning, then there is the question of durability - not only of the parts but also of the car itself. And no matter how fuel efficient the car there will still be carbon emissions.

If equity was his concern (as he claims it to be) then he could have

1. Paid the real cost for the land in Singur
2. Made transportation accessible to all.

-for a start

There will be those who say that there are other companies who are doing the same thing – producing, polluting and providing cheap things thereby making it accessible to everyone – so what is Tata doing wrong. There is no denying this and such companies make no bones about it being a good business proposition. The fact of the matter is Ratan Tata is at heart a businessman who had a brilliant idea - no not of a cheap car but of wrapping the car in the cloak of ‘equity’.

It frightens me to think of what he will think of as a solution when he sees the plight of the uneducated, the hungry, the sick and the unemployed.