Nono to Nano? Or TATA to green environment?

Two very interesting but quite related incidents took place over the past week

• India's vision of seeing a Rs 1 Lakh ($2500) car finally became a reality as the Tata motors delivered the Nano to its first customer. This project went through significant challenges and this event definitley deserves mention amidst this background.
• India's Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh recently signed a declaration at the Major Economies Forum (MEF) in Italy, committing India to curbing its carbon emissions. There is a debate still going on in the India media on whether this has caused india to compromise on its development agenda.

As one can see, these 2 developments seem to be a classic case of the right hand not being aligned to the left hand. The Nano, albeit an engineering marvel is all set to do its damage to the environment in terms of flooding the already bustling indian roads and potentially increase the carbon emissions exponentially. With a 620cc engined, Nano in itself is unlikely to be an issue but imagine the impact of having a million nanos on the roads over the next couple of years. Considering this fact, is the Government really serious on what it is committing to ?

If we step back for a minute, it just seems to be a case of bickering over insignificant spoils. Sure, the western world has contributed to most of the environmental destruction till date but can the developing countries use this an excuse to add their own piece to the pie? At the end of the day, quite a few of these destructions are irreversible damages and it is unlikley that a significant portion of the world population will be able to enjoy the benefits of such ill-conceived development (if it happens).

With a bulging population (that is showing no signs of slowing down) , unplanned development and loose regulatory environment, India is still trying to come to terms with the spoils of globalization. The Nano is something more than just the release of a new model of a car. It possibly is the inflection point in India's growth story as it slowly starts doing for Iwhat the Ford Model-T did for America, more than a 100 years ago. But a Model-T to a 100 million population in 1895 is a far cry from a nano to a 1.2 Billion population in 2009 . So is Nano the begining of the end? I do not want to define what does "end" mean as it is just too scary. Do we have the guts to say NONO to the NANO? Or is it TATA to green environment?