Cheap car shows poorer nations won't accept role as the First World's 'factory'

Two or three hundred journalists from around the world rushed to the stage, pushing and shoving each other to get a glimpse. Although the car had been announced more than three years earlier, such was the excitement.

The Nano, unveiled at the New Delhi Auto Show on Jan. 10, has redefined the rules of the global manufacturing industry. Emerging countries are no longer satisfied to merely duplicate products from the industrialized world, albeit with varying degrees of success. Nor are they happy to remain the cheap-labor "factory" for advanced nations. They intend to innovate, to respond to needs in emerging markets — and to set the global agenda whenever possible.

The world's cheapest car, and the masterful media campaign that heralded it, has certainly inspired competitors the world over. Almost every automaker — including Toyota and Nissan in Japan, as well as Ford and GM in the United States — are seeking a new, low-cost mobility solution. Or, more precisely, a modern, low-cost mobility solution.