New Delhi:

As tributes poured in to honour legendary industrialist Ratan Tata, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai took to social media to remember his “business and philanthropic legacy”.

Recalling his interaction with Mr Tata, Mr Pichai said the Tata Group Chairman Emeritus “deeply cared about making India better”. He said they talked about Google’s autonomous driving technology Waymo and his vision was “inspiring to hear”. He added that the 86-year-old was ” instrumental in mentoring and developing the modern business leadership in India”.

Among other business leaders who remembered him were Chairman of the Mahindra Group Anand Mahindra and RPG Enterprises Chairman Harsh Goenka.

Mr Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who transformed a staid group into India’s largest and most influential conglomerate, breathed his last at south Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital at 11.30 pm on Wednesday.

My last meeting with Ratan Tata at Google, we talked about the progress of Waymo and his vision was inspiring to hear. He leaves an extraordinary business and philanthropic legacy and was instrumental in mentoring and developing the modern business leadership in India. He deeply…

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 9, 2024

He was born on December 28, 1937 in Mumbai. Educated at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, the veteran industrialist worked on the shop floor at the family-run group after returning to India in 1962. He gained experience in several Tata Group firms before being named director in charge of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co. in 1971.

He became chairman of Tata Industries a decade later and in 1991 took over as the chairman of the Tata Group from his uncle, JRD, who had been in charge for more than half a century.

Under his stewardship, the conglomerate embarked on a massive expansion drive, snapping iconic British assets including steelmaker Corus and luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover. Its two-and-half-dozen listed firms now make coffee and cars, salt and software, steel and power, run airlines and introduced India’s first super app.

After his retirement in 2012, he was appointed Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons.

Mr Tata was the Chairman of Ratan Tata Trust and Dorabji Tata Trust, two of the largest private-sector-promoted philanthropic trusts in India.

He was honoured with the country’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008.

Ratan Tata, the businessman who inherited one of India’s oldest conglomerates and transformed it through a string of eye-catching deals into a global empire, has died. He was 86.

His death was announced in a statement by Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who called Tata “a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation.”

As chairman for more than two decades beginning in 1991, Tata rapidly expanded the 156-year-old business house. It now has operations in more than 100 countries and clocked $165 billion in revenue for the year ended March 2024.

Through more than two dozen listed firms, the conglomerate makes products ranging from coffee and cars to salt and software, runs airlines and introduced India’s first superapp. It has also partnered with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. for a $11 billion chip fabrication plant in India and is said to be planning an iPhone assembly plant.

Under Tata’s stewardship, the conglomerate embarked on an expansion drive that turned the tables on India’s colonial past. It snapped up iconic British assets including steelmaker Corus Group Plc. in 2007 and luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. But the financial crisis roiled global markets soon after, damping car sales in developed economies.

“Ratan Tata imagined big and took the empire beyond India,” said Kavil Ramachandran, executive director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Center for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. “While he thought globally, these turned out to be hasty initiatives.”

Tata helmed the group for 21 years in his first stint and retired in 2012. He returned as interim chief for a few months in 2016 following the acrimonious ouster of his successor, Cyrus Mistry.

Tata also found himself at the center of intense battles for control of the conglomerate not once but twice in his career.

The first battle, when he took over as chairman in 1991, pitted him against long-time executives who had been running fiefdoms within the conglomerate under his predecessor. The second, in 2016 – four years after his retirement – was about preserving his legacy as Mistry sought to reduce debt.

Tata won both. In 2016, Mistry was ousted as the chairman of Tata Sons, the group’s main holding firm, in a boardroom coup. The move triggered a bitter courtroom battle that threatened to end a 70-year partnership with Mistry’s family and stamped Tata’s authority on the conglomerate. In 2020, Mistry’s family signaled its intent to sell an 18% stake in Tata Sons.

2008 MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK

The conglomerate faced another crisis in late 2008 when terrorists targeted the group’s flagship hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace, overlooking Mumbai’s Gateway of India, part of a broader attack on the city. About 31 people, including 11 employees, died during the four-day siege. Guests staying at the hotel today are greeted by a memorial with the names of the victims, each of whose families Tata personally visited.

Tata never married and had no children. His death leaves a vacuum at the helm of the powerful Tata Trusts, a collective of charities. These philanthropic trusts own about 66% of Tata Sons, which in turn controls all the major listed Tata firms. Tata Trusts have traditionally been led by a member of the Tata family and wields control over the conglomerate through its holding in Tata Sons.

In his last few years, Tata became a passionate backer of startups including Ola Electric Mobility Ltd., which had a bumper listing in 2024, and Goodfellows, a platform aimed at intergenerational friendships.

The origins of the Tata group date back to 1868, when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata set up a trading company that later diversified into cotton mills, steel plants and hotels. The Tatas belong to the Parsi Zoroastrian community, which fled religious persecution in Persia centuries ago before finding refuge in western India.

PARENTS DIVORCED

Born in Mumbai on Dec. 28, 1937, Ratan Naval Tata was brought up by his grandmother after his parents, Naval and Sooni Tata, divorced when he was 10. His father had been adopted into the main Tata family at 13 by the daughter-in-law of Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group.

Usually chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce, Tata attended school in India’s business capital, Mumbai. As a young student, he learned the piano and played cricket but was afraid of public speaking. His younger brother, Jimmy Tata, stayed out of public life, and little is known about him.

“We faced a fair bit of ragging and personal discomfort because of our parent’s divorce, which in those days wasn’t as common as it is today,” Ratan Tata wrote in a Facebook post in 2020. “But our grandmother taught us to retain dignity at all costs, a value that’s stayed with me until today. It involved walking away from these situations, which otherwise we would have fought back against.”

Tata went to college in the US at Cornell University with plans to study mechanical engineering, as his father wished, but he found his calling elsewhere.

“I had always wanted to be an architect, and at the end of my second year at Cornell, I switched – much to my father’s consternation and upset,” Tata recalled in a 2009 interview with Cornell. He graduated in 1962 with a degree in architecture.

IBM OFFER

Tata wanted to settle down in California, but the poor health of his grandmother prompted him to return to India, where he had a job offer from International Business Machines Corp.

The then-chairman of Tata Sons, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, popularly known as JRD, persuaded him to instead work for the group. The two men were distantly related, parts of different branches of the Tata family tree. Groomed by JRD, the younger Tata started his career at the conglomerate in 1962, undertaking several stints at various units before joining management in the 1970s.

In 1991, when Tata was handpicked for the top job at Tata Sons, the group was mostly focused on India. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the software maker that would become a cash cow years later, was still in its infancy. The automotive business hadn’t yet started making passenger cars.

The 1990s was also the decade when India started cutting its notorious red tape, discarding parts of a failed Soviet-style planned economy. That meant private sector companies could compete more effectively in sectors that were dominated by government enterprises, paving the way for faster economic growth and unleashing consumption.

As India allowed foreign automakers from Ford Motor Co. to Hyundai Motor Co. to set up factories and tap burgeoning consumer demand, Tata decided to make cars as well. Tata called the first locally built passenger vehicle – rolled out in 1998 and named Indica – “my baby.”

As India’s economy started to boom in the 2000s, Tata became more adventurous. In 2007, he took on debt to pay about $13 billion for Corus, the British steelmaker. The following year, he acquired Jaguar Land Rover, or JLR, from Ford for $2.3 billion. He also bought Tetley Group Plc and the heavy-vehicles unit of South Korea’s Daewoo group.

NEW CHALLENGES

While the acquisition spree helped bring the conglomerate’s geographical footprint to an entirely new level, it also set up a number of challenges.

The 2008 financial crisis triggered a broad slide in commodity prices, while a steel glut fueled by an increase in Chinese exports depressed prices, sparking criticism that Tata had overpaid to acquire Corus. Tata Steel Ltd. has pared its European operations in recent years in the face of slumping demand and high cost structures, and slashed thousands of jobs in the continent.

JLR also hit a rough patch soon after it was acquired by Tata as the financial crisis pummeled demand for luxury cars as well as the company’s ability to access credit. While the Tata Group managed to turn around the marquee car brand within a couple of years, it soon faced other headwinds, from slumping Chinese demand to Brexit. The pandemic and chips shortage affected JLR in recent years.

Tata oversaw another auto-related setback with the failure of the Nano microcar. He wanted to build a cheap automobile that would retail for 100,000 rupees ($1,190.9), targeted at the millions of Indians who typically used motorcycles to get around and transport their families. Production of the Nano was ended in 2018, about 10 years after its unveiling, amid a lack of demand due to early quality and safety concerns.

Perhaps the final business battle Tata fought was his most gratifying.

In 2021, Tata Sons regained control of Air India Ltd., the nation’s flagship carrier, almost 90 years after it was taken over by the state. Heavily indebted and a shadow of its former glory – Salvador Dali once designed ashtrays as gifts for the airline’s guests – the deal meant Tata was able to welcome home to the group an airline originally founded by his mentor, JRD.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ratan Tata, the businessman who inherited one of India’s oldest conglomerates and transformed it through a string of eye-catching deals into a global empire, has died. He was 86.

His death was announced in a statement by Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who called Tata “a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation.”

As chairman for more than two decades beginning in 1991, Tata rapidly expanded the 156-year-old business house. It now has operations in more than 100 countries and clocked $165 billion in revenue for the year ended March 2024.

Through more than two dozen listed firms, the conglomerate makes products ranging from coffee and cars to salt and software, runs airlines and introduced India’s first superapp. It has also partnered with Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. for a $11 billion chip fabrication plant in India and is said to be planning an iPhone assembly plant.

Under Tata’s stewardship, the conglomerate embarked on an expansion drive that turned the tables on India’s colonial past. It snapped up iconic British assets including steelmaker Corus Group Plc. in 2007 and luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover in 2008. But the financial crisis roiled global markets soon after, damping car sales in developed economies.

“Ratan Tata imagined big and took the empire beyond India,” said Kavil Ramachandran, executive director of the Thomas Schmidheiny Center for Family Enterprise at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. “While he thought globally, these turned out to be hasty initiatives.”

Tata helmed the group for 21 years in his first stint and retired in 2012. He returned as interim chief for a few months in 2016 following the acrimonious ouster of his successor, Cyrus Mistry.

Tata also found himself at the center of intense battles for control of the conglomerate not once but twice in his career.

The first battle, when he took over as chairman in 1991, pitted him against long-time executives who had been running fiefdoms within the conglomerate under his predecessor. The second, in 2016 – four years after his retirement – was about preserving his legacy as Mistry sought to reduce debt.

Tata won both. In 2016, Mistry was ousted as the chairman of Tata Sons, the group’s main holding firm, in a boardroom coup. The move triggered a bitter courtroom battle that threatened to end a 70-year partnership with Mistry’s family and stamped Tata’s authority on the conglomerate. In 2020, Mistry’s family signaled its intent to sell an 18% stake in Tata Sons.

2008 MUMBAI TERROR ATTACK

The conglomerate faced another crisis in late 2008 when terrorists targeted the group’s flagship hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace, overlooking Mumbai’s Gateway of India, part of a broader attack on the city. About 31 people, including 11 employees, died during the four-day siege. Guests staying at the hotel today are greeted by a memorial with the names of the victims, each of whose families Tata personally visited.

Tata never married and had no children. His death leaves a vacuum at the helm of the powerful Tata Trusts, a collective of charities. These philanthropic trusts own about 66% of Tata Sons, which in turn controls all the major listed Tata firms. Tata Trusts have traditionally been led by a member of the Tata family and wields control over the conglomerate through its holding in Tata Sons.

In his last few years, Tata became a passionate backer of startups including Ola Electric Mobility Ltd., which had a bumper listing in 2024, and Goodfellows, a platform aimed at intergenerational friendships.

The origins of the Tata group date back to 1868, when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata set up a trading company that later diversified into cotton mills, steel plants and hotels. The Tatas belong to the Parsi Zoroastrian community, which fled religious persecution in Persia centuries ago before finding refuge in western India.

PARENTS DIVORCED

Born in Mumbai on Dec. 28, 1937, Ratan Naval Tata was brought up by his grandmother after his parents, Naval and Sooni Tata, divorced when he was 10. His father had been adopted into the main Tata family at 13 by the daughter-in-law of Jamsetji Tata, founder of the Tata Group.

Usually chauffeured around in a Rolls-Royce, Tata attended school in India’s business capital, Mumbai. As a young student, he learned the piano and played cricket but was afraid of public speaking. His younger brother, Jimmy Tata, stayed out of public life, and little is known about him.

“We faced a fair bit of ragging and personal discomfort because of our parent’s divorce, which in those days wasn’t as common as it is today,” Ratan Tata wrote in a Facebook post in 2020. “But our grandmother taught us to retain dignity at all costs, a value that’s stayed with me until today. It involved walking away from these situations, which otherwise we would have fought back against.”

Tata went to college in the US at Cornell University with plans to study mechanical engineering, as his father wished, but he found his calling elsewhere.

“I had always wanted to be an architect, and at the end of my second year at Cornell, I switched – much to my father’s consternation and upset,” Tata recalled in a 2009 interview with Cornell. He graduated in 1962 with a degree in architecture.

IBM OFFER

Tata wanted to settle down in California, but the poor health of his grandmother prompted him to return to India, where he had a job offer from International Business Machines Corp.

The then-chairman of Tata Sons, Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata, popularly known as JRD, persuaded him to instead work for the group. The two men were distantly related, parts of different branches of the Tata family tree. Groomed by JRD, the younger Tata started his career at the conglomerate in 1962, undertaking several stints at various units before joining management in the 1970s.

In 1991, when Tata was handpicked for the top job at Tata Sons, the group was mostly focused on India. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., the software maker that would become a cash cow years later, was still in its infancy. The automotive business hadn’t yet started making passenger cars.

The 1990s was also the decade when India started cutting its notorious red tape, discarding parts of a failed Soviet-style planned economy. That meant private sector companies could compete more effectively in sectors that were dominated by government enterprises, paving the way for faster economic growth and unleashing consumption.

As India allowed foreign automakers from Ford Motor Co. to Hyundai Motor Co. to set up factories and tap burgeoning consumer demand, Tata decided to make cars as well. Tata called the first locally built passenger vehicle – rolled out in 1998 and named Indica – “my baby.”

As India’s economy started to boom in the 2000s, Tata became more adventurous. In 2007, he took on debt to pay about $13 billion for Corus, the British steelmaker. The following year, he acquired Jaguar Land Rover, or JLR, from Ford for $2.3 billion. He also bought Tetley Group Plc and the heavy-vehicles unit of South Korea’s Daewoo group.

NEW CHALLENGES

While the acquisition spree helped bring the conglomerate’s geographical footprint to an entirely new level, it also set up a number of challenges.

The 2008 financial crisis triggered a broad slide in commodity prices, while a steel glut fueled by an increase in Chinese exports depressed prices, sparking criticism that Tata had overpaid to acquire Corus. Tata Steel Ltd. has pared its European operations in recent years in the face of slumping demand and high cost structures, and slashed thousands of jobs in the continent.

JLR also hit a rough patch soon after it was acquired by Tata as the financial crisis pummeled demand for luxury cars as well as the company’s ability to access credit. While the Tata Group managed to turn around the marquee car brand within a couple of years, it soon faced other headwinds, from slumping Chinese demand to Brexit. The pandemic and chips shortage affected JLR in recent years.

Tata oversaw another auto-related setback with the failure of the Nano microcar. He wanted to build a cheap automobile that would retail for 100,000 rupees ($1,190.9), targeted at the millions of Indians who typically used motorcycles to get around and transport their families. Production of the Nano was ended in 2018, about 10 years after its unveiling, amid a lack of demand due to early quality and safety concerns.

Perhaps the final business battle Tata fought was his most gratifying.

In 2021, Tata Sons regained control of Air India Ltd., the nation’s flagship carrier, almost 90 years after it was taken over by the state. Heavily indebted and a shadow of its former glory – Salvador Dali once designed ashtrays as gifts for the airline’s guests – the deal meant Tata was able to welcome home to the group an airline originally founded by his mentor, JRD.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of one of India’s biggest conglomerates, Tata Sons, has died at 86. Just on Monday, the industrialist in a social media post had dismissed speculation surrounding his health and had said he was undergoing routine medical investigations due to his age.

“It is with a profound sense of loss that we bid farewell to Mr. Ratan Naval Tata, a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation,” said N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons, in a late night statement. 

“For the Tata Group, Mr. Tata was more than a chairperson. To me, he was a mentor, guide and friend. He inspired by example. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, integrity, and innovation, the Tata Group under his stewardship expanded its global footprint while always remaining true to its moral compass,” said Mr Chandrasekaran.

Remembering Mr Tata’s contribution to philanthropy, Mr Chandrasekharan said “from education to healthcare, his initiatives have left a deep-rooted mark that will benefit generations to come”.

As news broke, tributes poured in from the industry and beyond. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes, hailing the industrialist as ” a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being”.

“Shri Ratan Tata Ji was a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being. He provided stable leadership to one of India’s oldest and most prestigious business houses. At the same time, his contribution went far beyond the boardroom. He endeared himself to several people thanks to his humility, kindness and an unwavering commitment to making our society better,” the Prime Minister posted on X in a series of tweets along with pictures.

Shri Ratan Tata Ji was a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being. He provided stable leadership to one of India’s oldest and most prestigious business houses. At the same time, his contribution went far beyond the boardroom. He endeared… pic.twitter.com/p5NPcpBbBD

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 9, 2024

Rahul Gandhi said: “Ratan Tata was a man with a vision. He has left a lasting mark on both business and philanthropy. My condolences to his family and the Tata community.” 

Hailing the industry giant, Gautam Adani said “legends like him never fade away”.

“India has lost a giant, a visionary who redefined modern India’s path. Ratan Tata wasn’t just a business leader – he embodied the spirit of India with integrity, compassion and an unwavering commitment to the greater good. Legends like him never fade away. Om Shanti,” posted Mr Adani.

India has lost a giant, a visionary who redefined modern India’s path. Ratan Tata wasn’t just a business leader – he embodied the spirit of India with integrity, compassion and an unwavering commitment to the greater good. Legends like him never fade away. Om Shanti pic.twitter.com/mANuvwX8wV

— Gautam Adani (@gautam_adani) October 9, 2024

Industrialist Anand Mahindra said he is “unable to accept the absence of Ratan Tata”.

“I am unable to accept the absence of  Ratan Tata. India’s economy stands on the cusp of a historic leap forward. And Ratan’s life and work have had much to do with our being in this position. Hence, his mentorship and guidance at this point in time would have been invaluable. With him gone, all we can do is to commit to emulating his example. Because he was a businessman for whom financial wealth and success was most useful when it was put to the service of the global community,” said Mr Mahindra. 

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, founder of Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics, tweeted a throwback picture remembering Mr Tata.
 

This is a picture I will cherish forever. Such a great man and a great mind. Blessed to have known him. Om Shanthi pic.twitter.com/c5LDTgzw8o

— Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (@kiranshaw) October 9, 2024

Ratan Tata became chairman of the $100 billion steel-to-software conglomerate in 1991 and ran the group founded by his great-grandfather more than a hundred years ago until 2012.

He founded telecommunications company Tata Teleservices in 1996 and took IT company Tata Consultancy Services public in 2004.

In a role reversal in 2004, Tata Group, an Indian company, having acquired iconic British car brands – Jaguar and Land Rover – found itself cast as reverse colonialists.

In 2009, Ratan Tata fulfilled his promise to make the world’s cheapest car accessible to the middle class. The Tata Nano, priced at Rs 1 lakh, became a symbol of innovation and affordability.

Mr Tata was twice the Chairperson of the Tata Group conglomerate, from 1991 to 2012 and from 2016 to 2017. Although he stepped back from the company’s day-to-day running, he continued to head its charitable trusts.

Cyrus Mistry, who succeeded Ratan Tata as chairman of Tata Sons but was later ousted in India’s most high-profile boardroom coup, died in a car crash in 2022. The bitter feud between the two remained unsolved.  

After stepping down, Ratan Tata became chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.

Long after retirement, Mr Tata remained a popular figure on social media, with heartfelt posts about animal rights (particularly dogs) and appeals to Indian citizens.

Carrying on a tradition dating back to the time of Jamsetji Tata, Ratan Tata ensured that Bombay House, the Tata group’s headquarters, remained a haven for stray dogs.

With over 13 million followers on X and nearly 10 million on Instagram, he was the ‘most followed entrepreneur’ in India, according to the 360 ONE Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2023.

Early Life
Born in 1937, Ratan Tata was raised by his grandmother, Navajbai Tata, after his parents separated in 1948.

He studied architecture at Cornell University, and followed it up with a management course at Harvard.

By his own account, the bachelor industrialist came close to getting married on four occasions.

He once admitted that he fell in love while working in Los Angeles. But because of the ongoing 1962 Indo-China War, the girl’s parents refused to let her move to India.

Honours
In 2008, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second- highest civilian honour. He had received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest, in 2000.

Largest Shareholder In Tata Group
The largest shareholder in Tata Group is another Parsee businessman Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry, whose 18% stake is worth 5 billion pound. His son-in-law, Noel, is also Ratan Tata’s half brother.