Southern Bluster

Oooh! Is the Indian automotive market finally coming of age? How'd that happen? image credit: autos.ndtv.com | The 2017 Suzuki Dzire I only had to take one look at the 2017 Suzuki Swift Dzire to realise that something had changed in the Indian automotive market. On the one hand,  manufacturers are becoming more conscious of design beyond functionality. Intangibles such as aesthetics and street presence are increasingly coming into play. It may be that research has led them to believe that their customers are becoming more and more design conscious. You know what I think? I think that for both the Indian consumer and the manufacturer, the definition of value has changed. And that’s a good thing: A very, very good thing.  It all started with Tata, mind you. When they took the ageing and slow-selling Aria and updated it into the brilliant Hexa , when they updated the Indica V2 and launched the Zest and Bolt , Tata showed the Indian market something no Indian manufac...

Time to read: 5-7 minutes What do you feel when you watch the video below? This video got over 3 million views on YouTube If you’re like me, the video made you feel very uneasy. There is no doubt in my mind that whoever carried out this campaign had their intentions right. Urinating and defecating in public and on public property is rampant in India. No doubt, it is a major public hygiene issue and one that needs to be addressed. However, is vigilante justice and such a dramatic one at that the answer? To me, it seems almost Batman-esque and gothic in the extreme. Everything about the contents of the video says something: The fact that the men who wield the water cannon wear masks not only says they do not wish to be identified, it also shows they understand that they are executing a form of justice that is not civic-minded and therefore operating outside the law. Off the top of my head, here are some questions to ponder: What could have been done differently? Shouldn...