Kindly read the responses of some of the readers to my following comments I posted to the article below:
I commented:
1. I agree that something needs to be done, but road tax is not a fair PPP (polluter pays principle) enforcement, as the actual pollution does not get cleaned by paying higher road tax, a tax that the government would not do anything about, or will it utilize the same to any useful purpose? We have manufacturers of REVA on the other hand that have no government subsidies or funding to cheapen the REVA or to further conduct R&D for the manufacturers to come up with bigger cleaner cars. India is an economy owned by the oil barons. We need Obama like initiatives to free India from the OPEC clutches and thereby reducing inflation across the board. CNG / PNG will never lead India into an era of energy self reliance. Only utilizing geo-thermal, wave, and ocean-current energy besides solar energy can make that dream possible. But there is little or no allocation whatsoever in any union budget towards any spending towards unconventional clean sources of energy. It is a shame to be facing OPEC and IAEA dependency when India, the vast nation it is has so many alternate sources of energy.
2. The problem is that we as a nation think in terms of aping the west as a show-off of status and consider that our sole aspiration. People want to purchase Tag Heuer watches running on environmentally damaging technologies whereas they could simply opt for the Citizen EcoDrive (solar powered watches). Honda should have sold more hybrid Civics had our priorities been right. The CIVIC HYBRID did not sell even after the price was slashed to Rs.14 lacs. Instead the fuel guzzler VW Jetta sold more, that ran even on diesel engines. It is just ingrained in the psyche that personal profit should surpass global interest. TATAs were the first to start off with diesel cars just when Delhi pollution was reducing with DTC going the CNG way. Today the state is that Delhi has become as polluted due to diesel car pollution as in the pre-DTC-CNG era. Petrol, all said and done, is a far cleaner fuel than diesel. Indians have never chosen cars for their fuel efficiency, but for their lower running cost, thus the move towards diesel. As for cheapness of cars, TATAs can experiment on Indian roads with Indian customers; no need to go to other countries to launch hybrids, BUT they do realize that the Indian customer would fail them. TATAs' move to purchase JLR is also worth noting. JLR produces one of the most polluting cars. They are the Chevys and Chryslers of UK. They could have instead used that money to fund R&D towards meaningful research like Honda has. Enough said ...
I do not think that people understand what I am saying, but my context has always been the climate change and our higher commitment to its prevention. India has never been and seems to never commit to the greater cause. The Indian government does not see beyond its "developmental goals", OR perhaps is so overwhelmed by the Indian oil barons' influence in their decision making!?
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