There is bipartisan support for the view that the 1L car will be a disaster for our roads, traffic, oil bills and our carbon use, and the salvation for India lies in public transport.

I disagree. I think that there is an ideal end-state where most Indians live in reasonably dense cities, commute to work using efficient metros and use their cars only rarely. If that end-state could every be achieved, it would be stable from then on. 

But I don’t think that there is any path to reach that end-state that is economically, politically and socially feasible. Any attempt by a non-Omniscient, non-Omnipotent government to reach that goal will lead us through a lot more misery than we will ever be willing to take.

I will explain this in one or two posts, probably cross-posted at the Indian Economy blog.