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Do elections render our government completely ineffectual?
Allow me to explain. As the number of cars on our city streets increase, the flow of traffic, which appears to function solely on the methodology of the chaos theory, continues to get painfully worse and even more unruly.
It would seem that the obvious cure would be strict and effective enforcement of basic traffic rules. If not, things will continue to spiral out of control. This would, however, be unpopular with the general populous – or should I say vote bank.
As a case in point, take the biggest offenders on Delhi roads – buses. When they’re not mowing down pedestrians or cyclists, they’re holding up miles of traffic by stopping in the absolute middle of the road, as if completely oblivious of other road users. Even if someone so much as scratches his or her head on the sidewalk, a kilometer away from a bus stop, the driver stops no matter which lane he’s in. The Traffic Police can’t enforce any rules against them because they’ll take a cue from their fellow truckers (and, as we saw recently, from the public sector oil company employees) and go on strike – bringing public transportation to a grinding halt.
The bottom line is that state governments have to take a hard line stance against traffic violations by one and all – otherwise our already fragile traffic management systems will well and truly collapse. They need to fine violators until they understand what kind of on-road behavior is acceptable, and then use the additional revenue to better train and equip the Traffic Police. Maybe then, it’ll actually be safe to drive a car like the one you see here on our roads.
Moving on to the global automotive scenario, and as a follow up to last month’s column – Fiat Group CEO, Sergio Marchionne, isn’t one to sit still given the current economic slowdown. Fiat has, therefore, signed an agreement with private equity owned Chrysler to form a global strategic alliance, which would see Fiat take a 35% stake in the automaker. Marchionne has plainly said they need larger volumes to offset development costs, which the deal would provide as Chrysler could use Fiat platforms to build their own small cars. The deal would also allow Fiat access to the all-important US market – something they’ve been seeking for some time.
Meanwhile, there’s also good and bad news from Anand Mahindra as he prepares to co-chair the World Economic Forum at Davos this year. The bad news is that he feels things will get worse before they get better. The good news, however, is that he foresees improving sentiment, and therefore demand, in roughly three months time. The world, meanwhile, is still waiting for the Barack Obama effect to kick in sooner rather than later, if not overnight. |
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