India's informal 'car'
Post script Long before Tata Motor thought of developing a “People’s Car” costing about $2,500, there has been another kind of a car for the masses in socialist India. For over three decades, this indigenously built vehicle has been the mainstay of mass transportation in predominantly rural parts of north India. Reproduced here is my article, “India’s ‘Informal’ Car” , which was originally published on the editorial page in The Asian Wall Street Journal on 26 January 1995. And it remains one of my favourite articles, as it illustrates the tragedy and triumph of India. In “The Other Path,” Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto devoted a whole chapter to detailing how the informal sector provides cheap modes of transportation in poor countries. Here in India, the informal sector is pushing the idea to its limits. We probably have the only informal sector in the world manufacturing its own automobile. If one drives out of Delhi in any direction one is likely to encounter these hybrid vehic...