Chapter 12H: Nira Radhia tapes have extensive conversations with the Tatas. It is about getting vehicles banned to reduce useful life of vehicles so as to sell more vehicles – especially those with very high govt subsidies.
Citibanks progress on their stranglehold over the Indian judiciary is seen in the contrast from Shamit Mukherjee (sexual gratification leading to resignation, arrest and acquittal) to Yashwant Varma (ATM cash van delivery, no resignation, no arrest, just a transfer).
Even very recently a sitting judge of Delhi High Court announced in open court that “Citibank will not do such things.” And this was in a matter where the Citibank Custodian was printing counterfeit shares to cover up the migration of a dead Citicorp to a Chawri Bazaar company morphed into a new Citicorp.
The Apple playbook is to sell the same person a new device every 24 months. Not because the old device has gone bad. But because it more profitable to sell more. And more cost effective to sell twice to the same customer than to go looking for a new customer. To avoid the traded in devices from going back into the market – they are destroyed.
The Citi war room MBAs had a brilliant idea. Why not do the same for cars. Problem was why would someone trade in a perfectly good car for a new similar car.
The answer was FORCE. Force it by regulation. So a whole series of litigation and research reports were created to scrap all old vehicles so that they could not go into the second hand market and reduce sales of new vehicles.
Replacing engines hardly gives any margin. Electrifying old cars doesnt sell new cars either.
Retired people saw their cars being snatched and scrapped. Taking away their emergency use vehicle which probably ran 200 kms a month. People saw their favourite luxury cars being forcibly scrapped.
Tata decided to set up ten vehicle scrapping units. The largest one was inaugurated in 2024.
It was a national shame. Vehicles could have been upgraded to any engine. Any level of clean combustion. Where was the need to scrap. Rs 100,000 crores of perfectly good vehicles have been forcibly scrapped. It got worse.
The state tranport corporations were bankrupt. They were highly subsidised. The scam of all scams was to electrify them. The service was anyway not viable at a Rs 40 lacs cost of bus. So why not replace the fleet with a Rs 2 crore bus. Rs 80 lacs subsidy per bus. Rs 50 lacs profit.
We have zero evidence to show that the combined GHG release from manufacturing a new bus plus running it electrically is less polluting than running an existing CNG bus.
But logic and science be damned. Even air pollution is a chance to make money. DTC fleet has been changed. Rs 100,000 crore or vehicles have been un necessarily and forcibly scrapped. Rs 50,000 crore spent on electric bus subsidy.
And now. Delhi air this year is more toxic than ever before.
Tata is the largest recipient of subsidy.
HDFC made the most from vehicle financing.
