Food For Thought - India

Nov 1996
In India a third of the population suffers from silent starvation - but not through lack of food.

Local politics, the caste-system and greedy landlords all conspire to keep millions of peasants on the breadline. At dawn shimmers through Tamil Nadu, Nayagam starts collecting laundry. Because she belongs to the 'Dalith' or 'Untouchable' caste, she washes clothes from dawn until dusk to earn rice for her son and handicapped husband. Today as on all other days, her family will eat rice and rice only. They have no money to buy any other kind of food. Despite three harvests a year, the lowest of the low go hungry. Even agricultural labourers don't get paid their ration of rice until the harvest is over. But despite the odds, local aid organisations have enabled a group of former laundry workers to set up a small brick making factory. For once, 'Untouchables' can earn a reasonable salary, a little self respect and go to bed with a full stomach. By accruing some economic power, they can change the society in which they live. This report shows how unfair distribution rather than food shortages creates hunger problems.

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• Poverty
• Starvation
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• Nadu
• Dalits
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[SINGHXLb]

its not only brans its advance designs and technology ! and TATAs is not in loss. You cant even imagine what kind of money TATA SONS has. By the way Rover books just turned black hurrrray !!

[RayaAmmani]

You tell tell them Imtiazmt !!! India's biggest shame : THE CAST SYSTEM AND THE TREATMENT AND DISCRIMINATION OF THE UNTOUCHABLES !!!!!!!!!!

[hobgoblin1216]

None of the British icons r British any more. Lotus is now Malaysian, Rolls Royce is US. Range Rover is popular with special forces thruout the world. If defens forces purchase these vehicles, they purchase in bulk. Hence, they r anything but failing. If u c the number of luxury cars n SUVs in Indian roads u will b stunned. With Indians earning in $ the demand will grow. Something both Bush, Clinton n Obama acknowledge. Cheap production lines r in China, so, why open another in India?

[imtiazmt]

yes but they were British icons, hence you bought British failing icons. Audi BMW and Merc are coming to India to set up production lines, ie CHEAP production lines, Luxury cars never have a HUGE market, anywhere in the world, and in this day and age and the coming 4 - 5 years (even more) even fewer people can afford a luxury. yes TATA is shrewd, but in this decision they let their emotions do the talking.

[hobgoblin1216]

Jaguar n Rover belonged to Ford a US company, not British. They sold these brands coz they r in financial doldrums.

These brands will sell like hot cakes in India. There is a huge market for Rover n Jaguar in India. Why do u think Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Ford etc r making a beeline 2 India?

Tatas r very shrewd bizmen. They have taken this step after careful calculation not out of emotion. U need 2 know their mgt dev progs 2 understand Tatas collective intellectual capital n org capabilities.

[hobgoblin1216]

Oil is non renewable source of energy. We dont have much oil reserves. We depend on imports which will cost around 200 $ a bl in near future. Except cold seeps there r hardly any untapped energy sources left. Nuclear power is the way to the future.

Like I said b4 space has other applications like education, communication, remote sensing etc. which are worth several billions of $. India has the capability to launch satellites at a cost that few countries can match.

[imtiazmt]

In todays trends , Jaguar and Rover will no longer be icons, they are icons but of the past. The British successfuly sold Tata failing brands, in other words, Tata was taken for a ride. And the fact that Tata has been around for 100 yrs and failed to release an iconic global brand shows that this transaction was made out of desperation rather than good business judgement. Tata would be way better off without the losses its being made to incur because of these two brands.

[hobgoblin1216]

Can you deny that both Jaguar and Rover are icons n command high brand equity? In era of globalization, Tatas can gain higher acceptance thru such brands. Also Tata got access to technologies which would have taken decades to master. U have financial value and real value. The real value of these acquisitions will yield dividends in time. It has taken decades 2 build brands like Jaguar n Rover. Tatas will leverage these aspects 2 the hilt. Just wait n c. Tatas have been around 4 more than 100 yrs

[imtiazmt]

i said look at the numbers of Jaguar and Rover, and tell me if it was a good financial decision or an emotional decision. can you tell me the source of your information i mean i would like to see the statistics of your space industry. so you decide to leave all the untapped energy resources on earth and go to space to somehow get helium 3 which is still in the reasearch stage, , I still maitain that this is just not development, its i want to be part of the 'league' mentality.

[hobgoblin1216]

I live in India n I know my country better than a muslim living in a God foresaken country. Space is the next mega bucks. Ur comments reflects ur ignorance. India earns several 100 million dollars by selling remote sensing data n launching satellites. Helium3 is abundant in space which India needs for her energy supply. Jaguar n Rover opened up several markets in the western world which would have been difficult under Tata brand. Tata also got into luxury segment thru these acquisitions.