The launch of the Tata Nano, the ridiculously low-priced car that could open a floodgate of new drivers in India and elsewhere, is undoubtedly one of the milestone innovations marking the early years of the 21st century. This is not just because of the unprecedented feat of technological and design innovation it represents but because of the huge rift it exposes in the public debate over the linkages between two crucial concepts, poverty and environment.

Will the Nano be a leap forward in quality of life standards for the BoP? Will it be an environmental train wreck of snarling traffic, suffocating levels of air pollution and unsustainable resource use? These questions have made the Nano so much more than a car - it has become a symbol for the collective tension over two trends that will define global growth for the foreseeable future: the impact of unmitigated environmental risks and the steady ascent of millions of people into the global middle class.

And so the story of the Nano begins with a simple car design and ends with a mess of contradictory statistics and competing ideas over what poverty is and how it relates to the well-being of the natural environment. I hardly need to go too in-depth on these narratives* as a simple Google search reveals the sheer number of them colliding and intermingling in the NGO/development space.

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