The car that will drive India out of its recession blues

Looks like Nano fever is about to be the homegrown antidote to beat recession blues. Well, the wonder car from Tata Motors is already a runaway hit with India Inc. Companies like Shree Cement, Linc Pen to even leading lights of the country’s financial spectrum are gunning for bulk bookings of Nano, which will be offered to employees as a reward option. Employees in the IT sector too, who’ve been pummelled by the recession, have chosen Nano as their preferred car and are aggressively making a dash for it.

Leading the pack is Shree Cement, which booked a record 1,000 Nanos on Wednesday. Shree Cement managing director HM Bangur “I decided to book Nano not because it is a cheap car but due to its fuel efficiency. We want to burn minimum fuel. I too intend to leave my golden silver BMW and ride the first Nano which drives into our office. Of the total 1,000 cars booked, we hope to get about 200 cars between July 2009 and June 2010. The balance 800 cars will be allotted to us later.” “The cars will be given to the employees as part of the company’s HR strategy,” Mr Bangur added.

The economic downturn notwithstanding, Shree Cement has decided to upgrade employees entitled to two-wheeler allowances. These employees will now get car allowance under a new HR category, the Nano car eligibility. The company has also decided to increase its employees strength this year and hire another 400 people across the country. Anil Bagaria, managing director of KB Motors, a Tata Motors dealer said: “Apart from Shree Cement, Linc Pen too has gone in for bulk Nano bookings through us. The pen major has booked 11 Nanos.”

According to HR consultants, sectors like FMCG, pharma, telecom and, healthcare which are going ahead with employee reward schemes could look at Nano as an employee satisfaction and motivation tool. “Instead of rewarding top performers with incentives like foreign holiday tours, Nano is emerging as an alternative reward option. Even for those in sales function, gifting Nano could be a way to upgrade them from two-wheelers to four-wheelers,” said Ma Foi Management Consultants CEO E Balaji.

Employees from the IT sector are also making a beeline for booking Nano, which fits their pocket at a time when uncertainty looms largely on the sector. Binod Agarwal, director, Lexus Motors said: “Individual employees from Wipro, TCS, IBM and other IT companies are booking Nano. There is good response from the IT sector.” It is expected that bookings will gather greater momentum in the next three days before Nano booking closes. A senior official of RD Motors said: “Negotiations are on with companies in the financial sector and corporate for bulk booking. It is expected that within a day or two, we will receive bulk booking for some 1,000-1,500 Nanos.