Hummer hums to its grave

Hummer faces shutdown! (Read full story here...)
Hummer - the ultimate American SUV(Sports Utility Vehicle) icon is at its last leg of life so to speak. With the collapse of talks between its prospective new owner - Chinese heavy equipment maker Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co and its current owner GM(General Motors Co), its time this beast breathed its last for good.

Americans egos are mostly reflected by their wordly possessions, which loosely explains how it rose to be the ultimate icon. Examplifying the American way of living - consuming more than needed - this innovation was an well known gas guzzler.

One of the most important fact missed out by the Americans was that any over consuming idea/idealogy can not & will not survive the test of time. With GM almost bust, Hummer was one of the most likely candidate to be taken out off the list. An wise decision indeed by GM's think tank to wake up & realign themselves with the sensibilites of important issues - one of which being the mega fuel consumption of these vehicles. All around the globe most oil sites are either fully exhausted or are on the verge of drying up. Reactively we humans are now looking to alternatives of conventional fuels. Hope we've learnt our lessons - though compelled and the hard way.

Looking away from the job loses & the dent in revenue for GM, this comes as a welcome news. Because it is not about who owns this monster - Americans, Chinese or may be the Indians(a distinct possibilty). No matter who owns it, but resurrecting this beast would mean paying too high of a price for all of us as human beings!

That is the lesson to be learnt from this case study.

Amen!

Tiger bites the Dragon's tail

India beats China in auto exports(Read full story here...)

Here is the Tiger (@ India) taking another jab at the Dragon(@ China). Though the Dragon is well placed and this being an well known fact; this article talks about how the Tiger is pulling all strings to get even with the Dragon. The tiger is growing strength-to-strength with some smart moves like the decently competitive excise duty, % of FDI allowed and to top it up - the abundantly available cheap labor.

Though the Indian automobile exports shot up 18% while China's market saw a slowdown of 60%, it would be foolish to say(or think) that the Tiger has an upper hand in this game over the Dragon. Reason being that the Dragon is way ahead in this game and its only now that the Tiger has woken up from its slumber and realizing its potential is taking a stance to stake a claim of this pie.

The way forward to keep this growth and momentum going the Tiger needs to sincerely look into its strong point and iron out its short comings like that of local union, political wrestling (the Nano drama) and provide a shot in the arm for infrastructure buildup to usher the growth of this sector.

For now the Tiger has got the Dragon by its tail. But with the above issues taken care of the Tiger can indeed step into the ring, take on the Dragon in a one-on-one showdown, hopefully deliver that fatal blow and emerge winner.

Let us raise a toast to that.

Amen!