Tata Nano Singur Controversy refers to the controversy generated by land acquisition of the proposed Nano factory of Tata

Motors at [Singur] in Hooghly district, West Bengal, India. Singur gained international media attention since Tata Motors started constructing a factory to manufacture their $2,500 car, the Tata Nano at Singur. The small car was scheduled to roll out of the factory by 2008. The state government of West Bengal facilitated the controversy by using an old rule to conduct an eminent domain takeover of 997 acres (4.03 km2) of farmland to have Tata build its factory.The rule is meant for public improvement projects, and the West Bengal government wanted Tata to build in its state. The project was opposed by activists, displaced land owners and opposition parties in Bengal. The rapid rise in the population of West Bengal has not been accompanied by significant economic growth. Key indicators such as unemployment rates, poverty rates, infant mortality rates, job growth rates, per capita income, mobile phone penetration rates lag the more industrialized states of India. Local politicians gained power by promising agricultural land to landless farmers, but given West Bengal's population density, the land-holdings are small and the yields are insufficient to sustain poor families. While the shift from agriculture to industrial jobs requires re-training, given India's economic growth, it provides an opportunity for earning higher income. Several other states had offered land to Tata Motors for the project. The people staying in the proposed land were forced to evacuate by the government. The compensation given was considered inadequate and the new housing facilities offered were delayed. This led to the protest of the peasants backed by opposition political parties. The company had made substantial promises. According to their claims, Singur would become a mini-auto city and approximately 70 vendors would set up shop along with the factory. The total investment planned is to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore. The project had, however, generated controversy right from the start, particularly on the question of state acquisition of fertile agricultural land for private enterprise. On 23 September 2008, Tatas decided to leave Singur in West Bengal, the decision is reported to have been made by the Tata management and the Bengal government had been informed. On 3 October it became official that TATA will leave Singur (WB) when Ratan Tata announced it in a press conference in Kolkata. While the ruling party has gone all out for acquisition of 997 acres (4.03 km2) of multi-crop land required for the car factory, questions have been raised about the party forcible acquisition which was made under the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Others say the provisions of this act were allegedly not been met. The law has provisions for state taking over privately held land for public purposes but not for developing private businesses. The illegality of the acquisition has been substantially conceded by the Kolkata High Court. The Tata Motors site is the most fertile one in the whole of the Singur, and the Singur block, in turn, is among the most highly fertile in West Bengal. Consequently, almost the entire local

population depends on agriculture with approximately 15000 making their livelihood directly from it. With the number of direct jobs to be created no more than about 1,000, many of which are expected to go to outsiders, the local populace felt threatened for their livelihood. Environmental degradation is also feared. Chief protesters include the opposition parties spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee and Socialist Unity Centre of India. The movement has received widespread support from civil rights and human rights groups, legal bodies, social activists like Medha Patkar and Anuradha Talwar, Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy and Magsaysay and Jnanpith Award-winning author Mahasweta Devi. Other intellectuals, writers like the poet Ruchit Shah, artists like Suvaprasanna, theatre and film personalities like Saonli Mitra, Aparna Sen etc. have pitched in. The state police force has been used to restrict their access to the area. The Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen supported the idea of factory but he however opposed forcible acquisition of land. The protesters have been attacked, verbally by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) leaders and physically by the party's supporters. Benoy Konar, member of the party's state committee, famously declared that protesting intellectuals would be greeted by women supporters of the party by showing their behinds. Preliminary surveys by officials of the state and Tata Motors faced protests, and manhandling on one occasion, from the villagers organized under the Save Singur Farmland Committee with Trinamool Congress forming its chief component. It is reported that Naxalite elements hold sway over the direction the agitation takes and the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee takes no decisions without consulting them. The state government imposed the prohibitory Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code for initially a month and then extended it indefinitely. The imposition has been declared illegal by the Kolkata High Court While landless peasants and share-croppers fear losing out entirely, sections of the locals, particularly those owing allegiance to the CPI(M) have welcomed the factory. These count chiefly among the owners of bigger portions of the land even as discrimination in the compensation has been alleged. A section of those promised jobs at the factory have boycotted classes while training in protest against the alleged going back on the promise. In the 2011 state assembly elections, while the sitting Trinamool Congress MLA, Rabindranath Bhattacharya retained the Singur seat, Becharam Manna, the convener of Krishi Jami Raksha Samiti, won the adjoining Haripal seat The land earmarked for the project was taken control of by the state administration amidst protests and fencing off commenced on December 1, 2006. Mamata Banerjee, who was prevented from entering Singur by the state police, called a statewide bandh in protest while legislators belonging to her party turned violent in the legislative assembly causing damage to furniture. Later, she went on a 25-day hunger strike .During this period she presented affidavits of farmers apparently unwilling to part with their land.

The fenced off area has been regularly guarded, besides large contingents of policemen, by cadres of the CPI(M) party. They were accused of the multiple rape followed by burning to death of teenage villager Tapasi Malik who was active in the protests, on December 18, 2006. Negligence and political interference in the probe into her death have been alleged. Later, CPI(M) activist Debu Malik and based on his statement, CPI(M) zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the crime. Intermittent attacks by villagers have since continued on the fence. However, continuing agitations against the project appeared to have proved ineffective and a farmer who lost land committed suicide On the other hand the pro-factory villagers siding with the CPI(M) have made accusations against the Naxalite faction of the Save Singur Farmland Committee of threats and violence against them.

SANAND (GUJARAT): Tata Motors today inaugurated the world's cheapest car, the Nano's, manufacturing facility here, nearly two years after it was forced to shift the plant out of West Bengal over a land row. The new plant at Sanand was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, who seven years ago dreamt of making an affordable family car for the common man.

When I came here first on an industry visit invited by Gujarat Chief Minister, I was told that if it (the Nano plant) is not in Gujarat, I will be a stupid. "I am no longer stupid after investing on the plant in Gujarat," Tata said while inaugurating the plant. Spread over about 1,100 acres, the plant in Sanand has been created at n investment of about Rs 2,000 crore. Speaking on the occasion, Modi said: "The revolution brought by Ford in the early 20th century with its small car is being replicated now by Ratan Tata with his Nano." Every middle-class family's dream to own a car is being fulfilled at Sanand with the inauguration of the Nano plant, he added. Ratan Tata's dream of making a car costing only Rs 1 lakh (rpt)Rs 1 lakh had to face challenges -- both technical and political --ever since it was conceived in 2003. At a time when input costs were soaring, keeping the cost of production of a comfortable mini car powered by a 623cc engine giving a competitive mileage, was a challenge big enough for the engineers of Tata Motors.

While Tatas were able to overcome it, the group was unable to beat political challenge from Trinamool Congress and had to shift manufacturing base from the original location at Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008. Tatas, by then, had already put over Rs 1,000 crore in Singur. It delayed not only the original plans for the commercial launch of Nano by about five months, but also affected its availability. Till the time the Sanand facility was ready, the company went ahead with limited production of Nano -- touted as the world's cheapest car with a factory gate price of Rs 1,00,000 (little over USD 2,000) -- from Pantnagar in Himachal Pradesh. Bookings for the car opened in April 2009 and deliveries began in July that year. It has so far delivered over 35,000 units. However, only the first 1,00,000 customers are assured of getting the car at an ex-factory price of Rs 1,00,000. The Sanand facility has the capacity to manufacture 2.5 lakh units annually, which can subsequently be increased to 5 lakh units per annum. Pilot commercial production of Nano at Sanand has already begun. Sanand Plant is a passenger vehicles manufacturing facility located in Sanand, Gujarat, India, and manufactures the world's cheapest automobile, the Tata Nano; and is owned and operated by Tata Motors, it is also their newest automotive manufacturing facility. Tata Motors plant for the Tata Nano at Sanand, located in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. The capacity of the plant, to begin with, will be 250,000 cars per year to be achieved in phases, and with some balancing is expandable up to 350,000 cars per year. Provision for further capacity expansion has also been incorporated in this location. Built in a record time of 14 months starting November 2008, the integrated facility comprises Tata Motors own plant, spread over 725 acres, and an adjacent vendor park, spread over 375 acres, to house key component manufacturers for the Tata Nano. In line with latest world-class manufacturing practices, the Sanand plant has been equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. They include sophisticated robotics and high speed production lines. The plant has energy-efficient motors, variable frequency drives, and systems to measure and monitor carbon levels. These are supplemented with extensive tree plantation, sustainable water sourcing through water harvesting and ground water recharging and using solar energy for illumination; all of this helps the plant to be more sustainable. In June 2010, the first Nanos made at the plant rolled out from its main manufacturing plant at Northcote Cattle Farm. The construction time was a record breaking 14 months. The cost amounted to 20 Milliard Indian Rupees (Ca. 20 Milliard Euro). During the starting period the production plant employed 2.400 staff. Including the indirect jobs around the plant there were about 10.000 people depending on the initial production. The plant has a capacity to manufacture 250,000 cars a year in the first phase, which will be scaled up to 500,000 cars a year. The project, including the main plant, vendor facilities and a railway transportation hub

near Nidhrad Village, will together generate over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs. This plant uses land from Gujarat Agricultural University which was in the name of the Government of Gujarat. The 1100 acres of land which was allotted to Tata Motors falls in the villages of Khoda and Bol in Sanand Taluka. According to one report.

Immediately after the Sanand Plant deal was sealed, Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation had notified six villages for acquisition in Sanand. Farmers initially were under the impression that the authorities would take away their land for free. In distress, about 3,000 of them protested. The government explained that it was not trying to get their land for free, declared the price of the land at Rs 1,200 per square meter (US$ 108,000 per acre), four-times better than the market price. The opposition crumbled, farmers enthusiastically cooperated with the government, and agreed to the acquisition. Post-acquisition, the locals claim one of the biggest gains to come out of the Nano project is that the environment in our village has improved drastically. The Gujarat government has placed significant efforts into preventing pollution and improving environmental quality in Sanand. It has given notice to factories, small as well as large, that emit high levels of pollution in the area to either leave or treat the pollutants. This has been well received by rural communities around Sanand.

Tata Motors paid Rs 900/sqm (US$ 81,000 per acre) to the Gujarat Government for the land in Sanand. Automotive manufacturing is a globally competitive industry. For context purposes, the price paid by Tata may be compared with land prices elsewhere in the world:

According to The Financial Times, in 2008, the farmland prices in France were Euro 6,000 per hectare ($2,430 per acre; IN Rs. 1,09,350 per acre). According to the United States Department of Agriculture, as of January 2010, the average farmland value in the United States was $2,140 per acre (IN Rs. 96,300 per acre). The farmland prices in the United States varied between different parts of the country, ranging between $480 per acre to $4,690 per acre. According to a July 2011 report from the Government of India, the average land productivity from farming in India is less than Rs 22,500 per year per acre (USD 500 per acre per year). The average rural household per capita expenditure/income in 2010, was IN Rs. 11,136 per year (US$ 252 per year).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TATA Nano is the cheapest car in the world. It is manufactured by TATA Motor Limited, the largest automobile company in India. Its chairman, Mr. Ratan Tata envisions that Tata Nano to become a Peoples car which is affordable by almost everybody. Tata Nano is scheduled first be launched in India on 1st April 2009 and expected to be in Indian market by July 2009.

From the first moment that Tata Nano project was published, a huge buzz has been created all over India. It has already received 3000 bookings.

What makes Tata Nano so cheap? Basically, by making things smaller, lighter, do away with superficial parts and change the materials wherever possible without compromising the safety and environmental compliance. It is said that Tata Nano has better millage than Toyota Prius and same gas emission as a scooter.

Tata Nano will be manufactured totally in India. It will be assembled in its two factories at Pantnagar and at Uttarakhand and, also, a mother plant has been proposed for Sanand Gujarat.

Regarding the distribution of the car, we have called it "open distribution" innovation because it mobilizes large numbers of third parties to reach remote rural consumers, tailor the products and services to more effectively serve their needs, and add value to the core product or service through ancillary services.

There will be three types of Tata Nano car available i.e. Tata Nano, Tata Nano CX and Tata Nano LX. The selling price of the three models will be 2,185 Euro (Rs. 153,000), 2,585 Euro (Rs. 181,000) and 2,985 Euro (Rs. 209,000) per unit, respectively. Our financial projection for Year 1 is a net loss after taxes of 637,000 Euro. It is estimated that gross profit for the second year would yield 880,000 Euro and the third year 1,097,000 Euro. Estimated monthly installment payment is 10,000 Euro for five years period. With this price, the target market is very wide