Dare to Copy?

In one of our all employee meets, also called "Townhall" meetings for reasons oblivious to me , Our top brass discussed about piracy of almost anything in China. He specifically was mentioning the blatant copying of vehicles designs by Chinese vehicle manufacturers. These vehicles definitely cannot match the quality of their original counterparts but in some cases come close in terms of looks and appeal. They are much cheaper because a lot less is spent on RnD of the vehicle. Most of the things are just copied verbatim without too much indepth understanding of the underlying systems. However, I can proudly tell that there is one car which the chinese cannot dare to copy. That is because the car is already the cheapest. If anyone can make it any cheaper then it would be a miracle.

Yeah, I am talking about the Tata Nano. The Nano which is offered in three variants will cost less than the cheapest car in India ( i.e. Maruthi 800) for the Lx version which is equipped with power windows, AC and body colored bumpers. I had never believed that Tata would really pull this one off but as a matter of fact the Tata's have done it. So have the Tatas done a Chinese act....or will the car really deliver to the Indian needs....Only time will tell....

Mantriji was once heard quoting on the issue of plagiarism

"If you copy from one person then we call it plagiarism, if you copy from many then it is research"