Business in India
印度商事
Nano wars
Nano之战
Aug 28th 2008 | KOLKATA
From The Economist print edition
Tata threatens to make the world’s cheapest car somewhere else
塔塔威胁说它可以在其它任何地方建厂生产这种世界上最便宜的Nano汽车
THE peasantry were a source of disappointment to Karl Marx. Smallholders had about as much collective spirit as “a sack of potatoes”, he once complained. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has governed the state of West Bengal since 1977, also believes the state’s future lies in industry, not just farming. In 2006, as proof of its ambition, it succeeded in luring Tata Motors to the state to build the Nano, the world’s cheapest car. But it is facing some spirited opposition.
对于卡尔马克思来说，小农阶级实在让人失望，以至于他曾一度悲叹道：小农阶级犹如”满满一袋土豆”对内紧密团结，对外坚不可摧。印度共产党从1977年开始就统治西孟加拉邦，它坚信工业而不是农业才是本州的未来。为了证明它的雄心，在2006年印度共产党成功地吸引塔塔汽车到本州投资生产号称世界上最便宜的汽车–Nano。但是现在它正面临着一些坚决地抵制。
On August 22nd Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata group, threatened to move the Nano plant from the state if the company was not wanted. His warning came in response to a mounting protest against the project, which will occupy 997 acres, much of it former farmland, in Singur, about an hour’s drive from Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). The plant’s tormentors have mustered rallies, blocked roads and even assaulted an employee of a Tata supplier, all in the name of the smallholders who unwillingly lost their land to the project.
8月22日，塔塔集团主席拉丹·塔塔威胁说，如果公司在那里不受欢迎，塔塔将把Nano的生产工厂搬到别的州去。拉丹·塔塔此番警告是回应那些对Nano 项目表示抗议的人群。Nano工厂项目位于Singur，据加尔各答一个小时车程，它计划占地997英亩，而这其中大部分是农田。于是被侵占土地的那些人集合起来，封锁道路，甚至袭击一名塔塔供应商的员工，他们声称不想因为这个项目而失去土地。
The West Bengal government wanted the Nano plant both for the jobs it would bring and the message it would send. Though the state’s capital has streets named after Lenin and Ho Chi Minh, its government has opened its arms to private capital. It beat stiff competition from rival states to win the Nano project, which has become a symbol of India’s industrial ambitions. “The world is eagerly waiting for this car to come out on the streets,” says Nirupam Sen, the state’s industries minister.
西孟加拉邦州政府既希望Nano工厂带来新的就业机会，同时也希望传递出一个信号。尽管西孟加拉邦首府还有一些以列宁和胡志明命名的街道，但是政府已经张开双臂欢迎那些私人资本。通过与其它州激烈的竞争，西孟加拉邦赢得了Nano汽车项目，这个项目已经成为展示印度工业雄心的标志。西孟州工业部长 Nirupam Sen表示，”世界正期待着这款小车上路呢”。
The government expropriated land for the factory using the 1894 Land Acquisition Act, introduced by the British to build railways and canals, which obliges private owners to part with land required for a “public purpose”. Supreme Courts in several American states have ruled that governments cannot expropriate land for private development, but Kolkata’s High Court has judged differently. What counts as a public purpose, it has noted, is a “socio-economic question” that should be left to local governments to answer.
西孟州政府为新工厂征用土地是根据1894年的土地征用法。这部法案是英国在修建铁路和运河时引入的，它规定私营业主有义务为了”公共目的”的需要而部分出让自己的土地。美国一些州的高等法院规定政府是无权为了私人的发展而征用土地的，但是加尔各答高等法院却有不同的判定。哪些应该算作土地征用法案里提到的公共目的，这是一个”社会经济问题”，还是应该留给地方政府去回答吧。
Tata could not buy the land itself, Mr Sen argues. West Bengal is a crowded state, which went further than most to return land to the tiller. As a result, landholding is fragmented. Over 13,000 people held claims on the land acquired for the Nano. It would have been impossible for Tata to negotiate with all of them one by one.
Sen先生表示，塔塔不可能购买那些土地。西孟加拉邦人口众多，在将土地分给农民经营这方面它比其它州更进一步。结果就是土地所有权分散。超过13000人声称对Nano所占土地拥有所有权。而对塔塔来说不可能和那些人一一谈判。
Of these 13,000, about 2,250 refused to accept the government’s compensation, even though it comfortably exceeded the market rate before the plant arrived. In some cases, the owner’s tenure was muddy. But in others, the owners felt genuinely aggrieved, sorry to lose fertile cropland that yielded as many as three harvests a year. These lost acres proved equally fertile grounds for a political fight. The cause was quickly seized by the Trinamul Congress party, the main opposition in West Bengal, led by the tempestuous Mamata Banerjee.
在这13000人中，约有2250人拒绝接受政府的补偿，尽管这个标准已经大大超过了塔塔到来以前的市场补偿价格。对于一些土地所有者来说，他们的土地使用权是模糊的。而对另一些人来说，他们感受到了切身利益的损失，他们不情愿的放弃了那些一年可以获得三次大丰收的肥沃土地。而这些土地作为政治斗争的土壤被证明同样肥沃。草根国大党很快抓住了这个机会，此党是西孟州的主要反对党，由Mamata Banerjee领导。
Ms Banerjee wants the government to return 400 acres to those who refused compensation. That would leave room for the plant, but not Tata’s suppliers, which should relocate nearby, she says. But her demand cannot be met without losing the project, Mr Sen says. Any extra distance between the mother plant and its offspring will add to the cost of production, he points out, jeopardising the “one-lakh” price tag (100,000 rupees, or $2,300) that has made the Nano famous. Besides, the disputed holdings are scattered throughout the site, and by law, the government cannot give the aggrieved farmers land that was expropriated from someone else.
Banerjee希望政府能够归还400英亩土地给那些拒绝接受补偿的人。这会给塔塔汽车工厂留下足够空间，但是塔塔的供应商所需要的土地就没了，这需要在附近重新选址。Banerjee的这个要求是不可能得到满足的，除非西孟加拉邦失去整个项目，Sen 先生表示。它同时指出塔塔工厂和它供应商之间任何额外的距离都会增加生产成本，危及Nano”十万卢比”的标价（100000卢比约合2300美元），而这个标价正是Nano成名的原因。此外，有争议的土地分散在各个地方，而根据法律，政府不可能把从别人那里征用的土地还给那些土地利益真正受到侵犯的人。
Tata has already invested 15 billion rupees in the project. But other states are queuing up to welcome it if it decides to move. The first Nano was scheduled to go on sale as early as October, around the time of the Durga Puja, a festival devoted to a fierce goddess who carries a trident, a sword and other weapons in her many hands. That deadline now looks in doubt, a casualty of Ms Banerjee’s weapons: the bandh (general strike), the gherao (human blockade), and the dharna (fast).
塔塔已经在这个项目上投资了150亿卢比。而如果它决定搬迁，其它一些州正排队欢迎。第一辆Nano原计划在十月初上市，那时正值杜加节，这是一个为敬拜手持三叉戟、一把剑和其它一些武器的女神的节日。现在看来塔塔的最后期限还是个疑问，Banerjee女士也有三个武器：全面罢工，人墙封锁和静坐绝食。
译者：jyjnl http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13695&extra=page%3D1