Tatas to take 'nano' housing to more cities

The affordable housing projects launched by Tatas in Mumbai would be extended to more cities since the concept had evinced keen interest from all parts of the country, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has said.

The group was looking for housing projects in Kolkata and Bangalore in the next phase, Ratan Tata, who was here to attend silver jubilee of High Range School run by the company here, said during an interaction with journalists in Munnar, Kerala, on Thursday.

The project had also elicited interest from some foreign countries and the government in Maldives.

Responding to queries on the success of Nano car, he said the company had plans to market localised versions of the low-priced vehicle in European markets.

On the global downturn, he said its fallout was felt less in India compared to many other countries and now positive signals were available of the country recovering from the impact of the crisis. However, its impact was felt in some areas like global operations of steel and automobile sectors.

Asked about the group's expansion plans for plantation sector, he said a proposal to take up oil palm plantations in Indonesia was under consideration.

The concept of running plantations with workers participation, as piloted in Kaanan Devan Plantations in Kerala, had proved to be a success. There were plans to extend this model to some other plantations of the group, he said.

Asked about the hype about austerity measures by the government, he said that the Tatas had always followed austerity principle by avoiding wastage and cutting costs in operations.

The group, however, did not believe in cutting down salaries, he said.