An expose of bad businesses and their unethical practices

Although not much has been heard of it yet, the introduction of a new $2,500 automobile by Indian manufacturer Tata Sons may bring very important Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) issues along with the low price. The car does not meet the emission standards of most developed nations, and the sales volume expected at that price almost insures that there will be a significant increase in the already prodigious Indian air pollution problems.

At this level of the discussion, the primary issue is what responsibility Tata Motors, and its leader Ratan Tata, have to the people of India and the people of the world for the pollution that is sure to result from the introduction of this vehicle. With large numbers of Indians and Indonesians dying annually from known effects of the greenhouse gases of global warming, is the introduction of such a vehicle ethical in the larger sense?

It remains to be seen how much extra pollution will be added to the skies over India and the world by this vehicle, especially with its below-standard emissions system. If the total is high, as it probably will be once sales ramp up and the roads of India fill with the car, how much of the blame for resulting environmental damage will rest on the shoulders of Tata Sons and Ratan Tata?

Just because the vehicle has lower levels of pollution than the totally uncontrolled vehicles popular in the country today does not mean that the much-increased levels of pollution caused by the pressure of more and more of these vehicles is a good thing for Indians and their society. Perhaps it would have been wiser to sell a $2,600 car with the much more stringent pollution controls of the more developed parts of the world. Dumping huge amounts of greenhouse gases into our current environmental catastrophes seems like Bad Business in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility.