Indian Billionaire Praised For Driving The Country’s Cheapest Car

On social media, Ratan Tata, one of India’s most powerful industrialists, was praised for traveling in the country’s cheapest car.

In a modified electric Tata Nano, the 84-year-old Tata Group chairman emeritus was seen leaving the company-owned iconic Taj hotel in Mumbai city.

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Mr Tata was seen leaving the hotel in a car driven by his personal aide Shantanu Naidu, according to a video shared by paparazzo Viral Bhayani on Tuesday. He was also seen without any bodyguards.

Mr Tata is considered to be a generous and down-to-earth person, and netizens were quick to compliment him.

“Hats off… Ratan ji… You are really a jewel [more] valuable than diamond. I admire your simplicity,” wrote Twitter user Annaji Sekhar.

Author Srijan Pal Singh, who called Mr Tata the epitome of humility, wrote: “Ratan Tata visits Taj Hotel in Tata Nano without bodyguards. He goes in for a dinner without any VVIP treatment. Saluting the simplicity and humility.”

Branded as the world’s cheapest car, the Nano was launched by Mr Tata’s group in 2009 with much fanfare, but it ceased production in 2019 following a sharp decline in demand.

With the burgeoning middle class as the target audience, the car was priced at Rs 100,000 (£1,035).

Ratan Tata during the inauguration of the car in 2008

The custom Nano was reportedly gifted to Mr Tata by an electric vehicles powertrain solutions company Electra EV.

Mr Tata wrote on Instagram last week that the Nano was “always meant for all our people”.

“What really motivated me, and sparked a desire to produce such a vehicle, was constantly seeing Indian families on scooters, maybe the child sandwiched between the mother and father, riding to wherever they were going, often on slippery roads,” he wrote.

Describing the conceptualisation of the jelly bean-shaped car, he added: “One of the benefits of being in the School of Architecture, it taught me to doodle when I was free.”

“At first, we were trying to figure out how to make two-wheelers safer, the doodles became four wheels, no windows, no doors, just a basic dune buggy,” he said, adding: “But I finally decided it should be a car.”

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