Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata has said that the low-priced Nano car would be localised for European markets and would be marketed after two years. He was talking to reporters at Munnar after participating in the silver jubilee celebrations of the High Range School run by Tata Tea.
Regarding affordable housing project, Mr. Tata said the project was already on in Mumbai and the company was looking for projects in Bangalore, Kolkata and Assam.
He said enquiries were also there from foreign countries and the Maldives Government had already signed an agreement to have an affordable housing project.
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About acquiring plantations overseas, R. K. Krishnakumar, Vice-Chairman, Tata group of companies, who was also present, said that the company had already had some plantations in Sri Lanka. It was looking for oil palm cultivation in Indonesia.
The Kanan Deven group has been invited by the Ethiopian and Ugandan authorities for exploring the possibilities of setting up plantations there.
To another query, Mr. Tata said the global economic downturn had impacted some of the global operations of the group, especially in the steel and automobile sectors. He said that the impact had been less in India though he was not in a position to say when the economy would be back on the rails.
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However, the phenomenon of sudden cancellation of orders were not felt in the internal markets and hoped that it would take two to three years for the economy to stabilise at the global level.
Regarding manufacture of a global truck model, he said the Indonesian authorities had evinced interest and there was good market for export to the Middle East. These trucks are of high horse power and high speed which is much sought-after in the developing world.