BALENO AND S-CROSS SHARPEN MARUTI’S IMAGE

The second article for Business Standard Weekend

  

Maruti cars have ruled the Indian roads since 1984 and dominate the small and medium car segments but they had never been able to make a serious dent in the larger passenger vehicle segment. Apart from the public perception about Maruti’s small car image there is also a problem with their roughly 700 dealers who were so focused on small cars that they do not provide the classy ambience that big car customers expect. Maruti’s larger cars like the Kaisan, Baleno sedans, SX4 and Vitara SUV were all good cars but failed to make a sufficient impression. Maruti is now trying to change this with the launch of their S-Cross described as a premium crossover in a set of spanking new NEXA showrooms. The new S-Cross, Baleno and other models in the pipeline will be promoted by a set of hungry new dealers trained and staffed to handle premium car customers. It has been a demonstration of faith for the scores of dealers who had to invest small fortunes into building snazzy new showrooms and workshops for unknown new cars. Maruti plans to have 100 NEXA showrooms by the end of 2016.

It has been a very long journey since Maruti Udyog first introduced their little 800 cc Maruti 800 in 1983. This quick, reliable, fuel-efficient and easy to drive little car was like a breath of fresh air after the clunky Ambassadors and Padminis and quickly revolutionized the Indian auto market opening the way for a number of other modern cars. It’s phenomenal success however branded Maruti as a small car maker and the brand persona was not grand enough for many buyers looking for a premium image especially with premium saloons being offered by international companies like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, Ford, Chevrolet, Fiat, Renault, Nissan and Volkswagen. A lack of premium image also affected Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra in their efforts to enter this auto segment. As a Public Sector company the Indian Government gave it such support that it’s phenomenal success raised Suzuki from a minor Japanese auto company to a major global player with India being the production base for the export of many small models.

Apart from numerous test drives I first got to really know the Maruti 800 when I drove my wife’s new car through the mountain tracks of Garhwal and Kumaon. The cute little car was quick and economical on the highways and surprisingly nimble on twisty and rough mountain roads. Being so light I was once even able to bodily lift it, with the help of a few locals, when it got seriously stuck. Maruti owners soon found that the car not only worked well but was easy and cheap to maintain with inexpensive spare parts at the many Maruti dealers. These features also appealed to scores of lady drivers who quickly became fixtures on Indian roads.

In July, Maruti let us drive their new S-Cross. Several `crossover’ cars had earlier successfully widened the market of India’s conventional car segments. 2 wheel drive `crossovers’ were not true SUV’s but SUV styling and bigger tires widened the customer appeal of several conventional hatchbacks and saloons. The Toyota Etios Cross was, for example, much more attractive than the `plain jane’ Etios Liva hatchback. The huge success of cars like the Renault Duster and Ford EcoSport made `crossovers’ very appealing especially for younger buyers and all the auto companies began adding bigger wheels and SUV trims to widen their customer appeal.

The sleek new Maruti S-Cross is roughly the size of a Honda City except for big 16- inch wheels that offer much better ground clearance and road grip. In looks it seems more like a luxury saloon than a SUV and is also provided with numerous luxury car features for excellent ride, comfort and entertainment. Like the Ciaz it has also opted for a curvaceous classic look rather than the angles and bumps that many competitors have preferred. It is also powered by two excellent new diesel engines of 1600 cc and 1248 cc capacity that belt out surprisingly peppy performance with exceptional fuel efficiency. The new platform also soaks up road noise and provides great stability at high speeds. It is not cheap but is great value. It may lack the SUV appearance of a Hyundai Creta but offers so much that there is already a waiting list of some 11,000 bookings.  

The S-Cross saloon will soon be joined by the Baleno hatchback that, at a lower price band, will appeal to a much bigger customer base. Actually, it is not really a hatchback but it’s sloping stretched sporty roof makes it look like one. It will compliment Maruti’s Swift Dezire that has become India’s top selling saloon but with more generous legroom and many very attractive features. No doubt these will make it cost more as well. We will soon know when the Baleno is formally launched near Divali.

I greatly enjoyed driving fire red Baleno last week around Jaipur. The first impression is naturally the appearance that also has the curvaceous lines of the S-Cross but with a very attractive front face. All car companies have tried to make their grilles distinctive but Maruti has succeeded with a fluid design that gives the impression of the bow wave of a motor boat. The Interiors are not only very attractive but surprisingly spacious for a car that has been squeezed in to measure less than 4 meters. It also follows the new engine philosophy of squeezing huge power and performance out of small engines. In addition to the conventional 5-speed gearbox the top petrol model offers an automatic CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission) that makes city driving very relaxing.

On the road I was immediately impressed by the new platform that not only absorbs road noise and vibrations but is so rigid that the car feels very stable at high speeds over 140 kmph. On the twisty drive up to Jaigarh fort the car handled the curves without a squeak of complaint. The manual, voice activated or steering controlled entertainment and navigation system is brilliant and the dashboard display is a class apart. As in the S-Cross it also has reverse assistance with a rear camera to let you know what lies behind in day or night. The big backlit blue panels not only show speed and engine revs but every other parameter of fuel consumption, temperature, etc., in several different graphic styles. It is powered by 200 cc petrol and 1248 cc Diesel engines. Fuel efficiency and good air-conditioning is a given for any modern car so they are not matters that deserve comment.

Baleno bookings are now open and there seems to be such a rush for them that the NEXA dealers who may have earlier despaired must now be smiling.

Baleno specifications

Engines cc                             1197 (petrol)                          1246 (diesel)

HP /RPM                          84 (62 KW) @6000              74 (55KW) @4000

Max torque                             115@4000                            190 @2000

Transmission                         5 speed MT/ CVT                 5 MT

Price                                      Not announced yet

VOLKSWAGEN DEFLATED BY A CHIP

This was the first article of a new column for Business Standard (Saturday) Weekend

The Volkswagen (VW) factory at Volksburg near Berlin was the first car factory I saw in 1980 before I became an auto scribe. Even back then it was almost fully automated producing a car every two minutes. It was amazing to also see their flexible manufacturing system where one assembly line could be building several different cars with different body shells, engines, colors, music systems, seat covers, etc. The master computer would send out every customer’s specific choices to a huge number of sub assembly stations that would then deliver them sequentially to the main assembly line. An army of robots like giant red insects seemed to be doing all the work and the few human beings would only spring to life if an alarm indicated some malfunction. The line could not stop and the workers would rush to fix the problem or put a magnetic marker showing the difficulty that was later fixed in the rework section at the end of the line. It was interesting to learn that auto technology was not only about cars but about the production technology.

A poor man’s car had been the Holy Grail for several automotive companies. Apart from the VW Beetle there was the older Fiat 500, the British Mini and the French Citroen 2 CV. After the war Japan also promoted a few smaIl very basic cars and one of these was to evolve into the Maruti 800 that revolutionized Indian roads. I first drove a battered Volkswagen Beetle in 1957 when it was being repaired at a workshop next to where I was trying to restore an old 500 cc Jawa 4-stroke motorcycle that I had found junked in Old Delhi. It felt a bit strange driving with a rear engine car but I found the ride and handling very good and the inner space and comfort amazing, The small boot in front of the passenger compartment was also very inadequate. It was however very strongly built and the owner loved it as is the case with most Beetle owners. In 1959 I went to France to study and fell in love with another strange car that too had once sold in millions. This was the Citroen 2-CV that had a compact engine and gearbox in front. I later drove one from Mumbai to Delhi in the monsoons and so fell in love with it that I persuaded Escorts Limited in 1983 to try to make it in India. The Indian government would not approve it as they felt it might affect the Maruti project.

VW began life before the Second World War in 1937 and its first car was a very basic car designed to be cheap to make and cheap to run. It had a small air-cooled engine in the rear to make place it close to the transmission for reducing the fuel consumption and increasing space in the passenger compartment. It evolved in a number of models to ultimately become the famous `Beetle’ that became one of the most popular cars in the world. 15 million units were produced at Volksburg upto 1972 until new safety and emission norms made it necessary to shut down. I continued to however be made in Mexico till 2003 by which time it had a record production of 21.5 million units. Though VW also made many other successful cars a demand for the iconic brand resulted in a modern new Beetle but it was not however a great success. In 2014 VW was neck to neck with Toyota as the largest automaker with a global production of just over 10 million cars and commercial vehicles.

Despite a formidable pedigree VW got off to a slow and shaky start in India. For many years it dismissed India as being an unsuitable production centre until they saw that several international brands, including their own fully owned subsidiary Skoda, were doing very well. Then in 2005 one of their senior representatives got into an ugly bribery scandal in Andhra Pradesh so VW ended up as being the last major auto company to set up shop in India. In 2007 they began production and today have a big plant at Chakan near Pune and investments of Rs. 4000 Crores to make 200,000 units per year.

The Polo hatchback is their most popular model but they also make the Vento, Jetta and Passat saloons. In 2014-15 VW sold 42,827 units making them India’s ninth largest automaker. VW also market several imported models like the Taureg SUV the new Beetle and the luxury Phaeton saloon but these imports are not very popular. Despite their great reputation, competitors led by Maruti-Suzuki but including Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Tata, Ford and GM have done much better. In a highly competitive market customers want the best cars their money can buy and the magic of the great VW name has become a bit tarnished.

In the last two decades auto technology has steadily moved from mechanical engineering to electronics. Even small cars have over a dozen microprocessors and chips to control engine management, suspension, braking steering, climate control, lighting and almost every function. These are essential for the constantly increasing demands of safety, fuel efficiency and pollution control. Modern cars now have more chips in them than a packet of wafers. The most important component is probably the electronic control unit (ECU) that calibrates the fuel supply to meet every road and load condition with sensors to measure the temperature, oxygen levels, speed and every other parameter.

VW however took its technology a bit too far. Since 2009 VW began introducing an secret code into its diesel vehicle software to track the steering and pedal movements when these indicated that the car was being tested for nitrogen oxide emissions and the car would automatically turn its pollution controls on. The rest of the time, the pollution controls were off. The regulators had no way of knowing about this technical ruse. The problem was discovered by the International Council on Clean Transportation, which wanted to investigate why there was such a huge discrepancy between laboratory tests and real-road performance for several of VW's diesel cars. Investigators stuck a probe up the exhaust pipe of some VW's clean diesel cars and drove them from San Diego to Seattle and found that VW's Jetta and Passat were emitting many times as much nitrogen oxide as was found in lab tests.

In May 2014, both California's air pollution regulator and the EPA ordered Volkswagen to fix the problem but the road performance still didn't match lab tests. VW finally cracked and admitted the existence of these pollution defeat devices, which had been carefully hidden in their software codes. VW admitted that some 11 million clean diesel vehicles were affected. The models expected to be recalled and rectified include: The 2009-2015 VW Beetle 2.0L TDI; 2009-2015 VW Golf 2.0L TDI; 2009-2015 VW Jetta 2.0L TDI; 2009-2015 Audi A3 2.0L TDI; and 2014-2015 VW Passat 2.0L TDI. It has been the biggest ever scandal of the global auto industry that will cost the company a fortune in recalls and fines. It took generations to build the great VW reputation and one little chip was to completely deflate a great company.

When the scandal broke in September 23, 2015 Martin Winterkorn the CEO of Volkswagen AG said…”I am shocked by the events of the past few days. I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group. As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.” Everyone loves a good disaster and there are now reports that Hollywood is planning to do a film on this corporate disaster.

THE MYSTERIOUS TEMPLE OF MASRUR

Every summer many thousand people drive on holidays to Kulu, Manali or Daharamshala but very few know that a small detour from their usual destinations will take them to one of the most amazing temples of India. It is also perhaps the oldest Hindu temple in north India. India’s earliest temples were cut inside caves of hewed out of living rock until the south Indian technology of building with prefabricated pillars, beams and panels became popular after the 9th century AD.

The Kailash temple at Ellora is the biggest and most famous temple of this type that was cut from top down out of a huge single rock face. Masrur is the only such temple in north India and is roughly dated to the 8th century. It is also built in the classic old style with fifteen shikaras and a big water tank in front of it. The shikaras like the peaks of the mythical Mount Meru look remarkably similar to the famous Hindu temples of Ankor Vat in Cambodia.

You will need about fours to reach Masrur from Mandi so it is recommended that you break your journey to spend the night at Kangra or Dharamshala and then do an easy day trip to Masrur and back. After driving on the national highway towards Mandi on the road to Kulu there is a excellent road to Pathankot that runs just south of Dharamshala. You can also go via Jullundur, Hoshiarpur and Una to connect to this road. You then drive west for just over an hour. It is 32 Kms west of Kulu on the Nagotra – Surian link road. It is a very picturesque drive through rocky Shivalik hills and small patches of cultivation with the majestic Dhauladar mountain range to the north. The drive is through some very rugged country with deep ravines and thorny trees that look as if dinosaurs are lurking in the shadows but visitors will bee struck speechless when they see the magnificent edifice.

As there is no inscription or mention in any ancient text, nobody knows who built this great structure or when. It is also a mystery as to why this gigantic symbol of devotion was built in such a remote and unfertile area. There is no record of what king was the patron to build such a large temple that must have needed millions of man hours of devoted labour to say nothing of huge funds that could not have been squeezed out of farmers in such a rugged area.

The elaborate carvings despite huge damage from the 1905 earthquake show that it was originally a Shiva temple that had been completely abandoned because wandering priests quite recently made it into a Ram Lakshman temple with three black stones representing Ram, Lakshman and Sita inside the inner sanctum. The drive is a little off the beaten track but it is a most picturesque and rewarding experience with lovely spots for a picnic on the way.

ANCIENT PEOPLE COULD NOT CALCULATE TIME

UPDATE

The dates of ancient events and legendary personages like Buddha, Jesus, Muhanmmad, Ram, or Krishna greatly agitate people concerned with religion and history. All such dates are however very dubious because till fairly recently people had no way to accurately measure the passage of the years. Thus the dates of the Mahabharat, Ramayana, Iliad, yugas or kalpas were impossible to calculate.

Calculating the passage of time had always been very difficult as one orbit of the earth around the sun takes precisely 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds while one orbit of the moon needs exactly 27 days, 7 hours, 17 minutes and 28 seconds. 

People in every land had been very conscious of the moon and had marked their changing seasons according to moon cycles. They had roughly noted the orbit of the sun to make a year but found it absolutely impossible to divide this by the lunar months because they had no means to divide or multiply until the discovery of the `Zero’, a concept that is attributed to an Indian mathematician named Aryabhatta dated to about 500 AD. In 628 AD another Indian mathematician named Brahmagupta is believed to have developed the symbol for Zero that had been first recorded as a dot under other numbers. This concept of Zero only reached Europe in the 11^th century through the Muslim scholar Ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avisenna. He is reported to have learned his mathematics from an Indian grocer in Baghdad.

Till the Zero people could only count with the fingers of their hands and all ancient cultures like those of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome as well as ancient India had therefore been unable to of conceive of time beyond ten thousand years. There was also a slow shifting of the historic dates with leap years or extra months every four years in many ancient cultures. The methods of measuring time kept changing over the ages.

The seven day week was probably first defined in the old Babylonian calendar where the roughly 28 day lunar month was divided into four. It later became part of the Jewish, Julian, Gregorian and Islamic calendars but had been completely alien to ancient India. 

With the advent of the Zero, Indian legends suddenly become astonishingly old as more and more zeros were added during each retelling of legendary stories. The dates of the Yugas, Mahabharata, Ramayana and other legends therefore have very little historic basis. Even the religious sanctity attached to the days of the seven day week is alien to ancient Indian texts. If there were no week days there could not have been any auspicious or inauspicious week days in ancient times. Thus the sacredness of fasting on Tuesdays or of not buying metals on a Saturday cannot have any scriptural sanctity.

The old Babylonian calendar used to also have a 60 hour day because the number 60 had been considered to be a sacred number that could be divided by 2, 3 and 5 (the largest number of prime numbers). Ancient Sanskrit texts in India used to also follow this system and measure the day in 60 ghatas (hours) of 24 minutes each. These used to be measured by water clocks where a small earthen pot (ghara) with a small hole that was designed to take exactly 24 minutes to fill up and sink after which a bell (ghanti) would then be struck to announce the `ghanta’ or hour. The apparatus was called a `ghari’. Today, except for Indian astrologers, nobody remembers this old Indian system but it was very precisely detailed in the Persian traveler al - Baruni’s chronicle that is dated to 1020 AD at about the time when Mahmud Ghazni was looting Indian temples.

Indian astrology however went beyond the 12 planets of the zodiac and measured the year with 27 (sometimes 28) Nakshatras of 13.5 days each. They were linked not only to constellations but to many other stars that each had beneficial of malefic influences. This astrological system is not mentioned in the Rig-Veda or early Vedas but only in the Artha-veda that seems to have included a large number of pre Vedic traditions. All these created a very complicated system of astrology. Though this system has mesmerized the gullible in India over the years it is clear that none of it had any intrinsic scriptural sanctity. All people are entitled to their beliefs but they should know that many popular beliefs cannot stand the scrutiny of empirical science or unbiased historical research

COW SLAUGHTER IS MAINLY BULL

UPDATE 

The recent lynching of a poor Muslim at Bisada near Dadri for allegedly possessing beef has been justified as being a matter of religious passion but it also transpires that the poor family got the beef from butchers who kill stray cattle that makes the meat very cheap. Religious sentiments had earlier triggered the meat ban imposed during the Jain festivities though the Bombay High Court passed an interim order lifting the ban imposed by a municipal corporation. The Jains then came to the Supreme Court where Justices Thakur and Kurian bluntly told them "a meat ban cannot be forced down citizens' throats... be tolerant to diversity."

Although there is nothing remotely spiritual in the things people eat beef has become a red rag igniting unprecedented communal fury.The bigots need to however understand that there is much more to beef than just sentiment. The image of `Gaomata’... the white `Mother Cow’ with soulful eyes ... is beloved to many Hindus but the RSS, BJP and other opponents of cow slaughter would be shocked to know that cows account for only 12% of all the bovines in India. They are not also the main producers of milk because female buffaloes account for 66% of India’s milch cattle that produce over 75% of the milk.

The recent 19^th Livestock Census of India, 2012 also shows that India’s cows and other female bovines are in no great danger. This census shows that their numbers increased by 7.16% to 216 million since the previous census of 2007. It is the males of the species that are threatened as their numbers declined by 18.6% to 84 million in the same period. As male bovines today account for just 30% of the cattle population it clearly shows that it is the bulls and not cows that are being butchered.

Cattle are a huge economic asset to almost every rural family and the meat industry including bovines, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry put money into the pockets of nearly every rural household and they will suffer great economic loss if the India’s legislators ban or restrict the slaughter and sale of meat products. Some 40% of the value of livestock comes from meat. Beef, that costs a third of mutton, is also the poor man’s protein and is consumed by some 200 million Dalits and other tribal communities. Religious ideologues do not understand that there will be a strong political backlash if religious sentiments take precedence over economic realities. Anyone familiar with rural India knows that while there are many Muslims in the meat business the majority are Hindu.

The census clearly shows that two-thirds of India’s cattle are female. This is because the value of male bovines that used to be valuable as draft animals or for meat is declining very rapidly. Few people are aware that it is male animals (or birds) that are mostly used for meat as the females are more valuable as breeders and for milk or eggs. If males are not being used for ploughing or transport they are only useful for their meat or hides. This gender imbalance is increasing rapidly and a recent report from the Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering Bhopal shows that the share of draught animals for farm power on Indian farms declined from 44% in 1971-72 to a shocking 4% in 2012-13 as tractors and electric and diesel pumps had replaced them. Bullock carts are now rare in many rural areas.

The census data shows that millions of male animals have been quietly culled. Male buffaloes declined 17.8% to 16 million while females increased 7.99% to 92 million. There are therefore nearly 6 female buffaloes to every male. It is only in the states where beef is being eaten that this gender imbalance is less pronounced. Paradoxically, the keepers of India’s cattle themselves perpetuate the worst cruelties against cattle. As the females are valuable and the males are worthless but they need food and fodder that costs over Rs. 100 a day. They are therefore killed for meat where it is allowed but in other states they are callously driven away to be devoured by dogs or wild animals.

Several million pregnant female bovines are brought into Indian cities for fresh milk. Half the calves they deliver are males that are an economic liability so they are callously killed as soon as the milking steadies. They are not humanely slaughtered but are usually tied in the sun to slowly die of thirst and hunger. Meat from stray cattle are the cheapest meat in India. The state wise data shows that that economic compulsions outweigh religious sentiment in almost all urban and rural areas despite claims to the contrary.

India also has a serious problem with roughly 80 million old and unproductive cattle that are callously driven away until they die of hunger or illness. They do not harmlessly forage on barren land but, driven by hunger, raid productive farms and face the wrath of farmers who mercilessly beat and even kill them. They are a huge economic liability that takes food and economic opportunities away from millions of needy people. India’s 299 million cattle also need roughly 30 million hectares for their grazing as well as an equal amount of additional land for their fodder requirements. This is a huge chunk out of India’s 190 million hectares of cropped land. If states legislate against beef consumption if will add many more unproductive cattle demanding land that is not available.

There is no Hindu scripture that is opposed to the eating of meat or even beef. In fact Indra, the tawny bearded supreme Vedic god, was specifically offered the best sides of beef. The Vedas, Mahabharat, Ramayana, Shastras and other ancient texts all endorse eating meat and beef was even specified as the daan, or offering, reserved for Brahmins.   

The sentiment against beef is essentially political and not religious. There had been no problem with beef eating till 1870. It was soon to become a defining icon of Hindu and Muslim identity. Cow protection became a religious statement when the first movement to protect the cow was started by the Sikh Kuka (Namdhari) sect in 1870. In 1882, Dayanand Saraswati founded the Gorakshini Sabha that challenged beef eating provoking a series of communal riots in the 1880’s and 1890’s. These led to further communal clashes where many were killed in Azamgarh in 1893, Ayodhya in 1912 and Shahabad in 1917. Beef eating thus quickly moved from being a matter of diet to an icon of Hindu versus Muslim identity. Hindu chauvinism could however also make the ban on beef into an symbol of Brahmin tyranny over Dalits for whom beef is their main protein source. There is a strong religious sentiment but politicians as well as officials, and intellectuals need to consider this complex subject before rushing into hasty legislation.

About 40% of the economic value of livestock is from the sale of meat. If the sale of meat or beef is banned the livelihoods of some 100 million of India's poorest mainly rural families will be devastated. They already face problems with GM seeds and a widespread drought and this may tip lakhs of them into suicides.

Please share this mail with all your friends so that it reaches the religious bigots and make them reconsider the full impact of banning beef.