Lucknow:

The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal from the Tata Sons to build a ‘museum of temples’ in Ayodhya at a cost of Rs 650 crore, officials said. Sharing details about the decision, Tourism Minister Jaivir Singh said the tourism department would provide the company land for the international-level museum on a 90-year lease for a token money of Re 1.

“Tata Sons had proposed the project through the central government, offering to build the museum at a cost of Rs 650 crore under its corporate social responsibility fund,” Mr Singh said at a press meet in Lucknow after the cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The cabinet also okayed the company’s proposal for other development works in the temple town for additional Rs 100 crore, he added.

Tata Sons is the principal investment holding company and promoter of Tata companies.

Other proposals approved during the cabinet meeting included the launch of helicopter services in Lucknow, Prayagraj and Kapilvastu under the public-private partnership (PPP) model by building helipads, Mr Singh said.

The cabinet also cleared a proposal to develop dormant heritage buildings into tourist spots, the minister said.

Three such heritage buildings – Kothi Roshan Dulha in Lucknow, Barsana Jal Mahal in Mathura and Shukla Talab (pond) in Kanpur – were selected for development as tourist spots, he said. He added that researchers would be selected under the Mukhya Mantri tourism fellowship programme for the purpose.

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

Representational image of a Vistara flight
| Photo Credit: PTI

Two trade unions of Air India pilots joined cause with Vistara’s cockpit crew and said in a letter addressed to Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran that concerns over a revised pay structure and hectic rosters extended to all Tata Group airlines, where crew were being treated as “bonded labour”.

“It is crucial to recognise that the concerns expressed by the Vistara pilots are not isolated incidents but rather indicative of systemic issues that extend across various Tata Group aviation entities,” read a letter from the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association (ICPA) and Indian Pilots’ Guild (IPG). The unions urged that the CEOs of Air India, Vistara and Air India Express must have a dialogue with pilots to address their grievances. The ICPA represents the pilots of Air India’s narrowbody fleet, and the IPG of that of the airline’s widebody fleet.

The National Company Law Tribunal will evaluate the impending merger of Vistara into Air India on Friday. This is the final nod awaited for the consolidation of Tata’s two full-service carriers.

The missive comes a day after Vistara CEO Vinod Kannan, following over 150 flight cancellations between March 31 to April 2, held a townhall with its pilots on the same concerns where he extended an apology for mismanagement of rosters and assured them of better work-life balance without backing down on the issue of revised pay contracts announced in mid-February.

The issues reiterated by the two trade unions are cutting down of the 70-hours guaranteed flying allowance to 40 hours, approval of leaves, adequate rest periods, unstable roster, stretching pilots to maximum flight duty, botched roster practices and an unsupportive work environment, including issuing threats to pilots on “potential disruptions to their future”.

The two trade unions said that such an environment impacted safety culture. “Pilots who feel threatened or intimidated may be reluctant to report safety concerns or speak up about issues that could impact flight operations,” the letter added.

New Delhi:

Tata Sons may be looking at a mega monetisation drive for the first time to raise funds for new businesses. It recently offloaded a 0.65% stake in IT giant Tata Consultancy Services to raise Rs 9,300 crore, a first in the direction the Tatas seem to be heading.

Tata Group had so far avoided monetising assets as a strategy but has now modified its policy and the recent stake sale in TCS was part of this new strategy, a senior executive told NDTV Profit.

Prior to this, Tatas had divested their stake in TCS only twice – in 2006 and 2007. TCS, the biggest software services provider in India, has also bought back shares worth Rs 83,000 crore since 2017. Tata Sons received nearly Rs 60,000 crore from the buybacks.

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However, the group may need more funds to foray into new businesses like clean energy and semiconductors.

Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, during his speech at NDTV Indian of the Year 2024 event last Saturday, emphasized the foray into electric mobility, new energy and semiconductors.

Tata Companies Likely To Bring IPO

The group may divest its stakes via stakes sale and share market debuts by initial public offerings (IPOs). Tata Play, the group’s DTH provider, has already made a confidential filing for an IPO with the share market regulator.

Read | Tata Plans To Build iPhone Plants, Tapping Apple’s India Production Plans

Financial services like Tata Capital, Tata AIG and Tata AIA are also expected to be in the mega IPO drive. In infrastructure sector, Tata may look to divest its stakes in Tata Realty, Tata Housing and Tata Projects. Tata Digital’s brands like Tata Cliq, Tata 1mg, Big Basket and Croma, are among the potential candidates as well.

Creating Value

Tata Sons, which has been phenomenal in creating value from its investments, had invested Rs 61,453 crore in its listed companies as of March 2023, while the combined value stood at Rs 11.2 lakh crore. Its investment in unlisted subsidiaries was Rs 56,646 crore, including Rs 18,942 crore in its digital ventures and Rs 7,497 crore in Tata Capital.

India’s Tata Sons, the holding arm of Tata Group, plans to sell shares in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) worth up to 93.62 billion rupees ($1.13 billion) on Tuesday, a term sheet showed.

Tata Sons plans to offload 23.4 million shares in the country’s top IT services provider, representing 0.65% of TCS’ outstanding shareholding, according to the term sheet.

It holds a 72.4% stake in TCS as of Dec. 31, according to exchange data.

The stake sale comes as domestic stock markets hover at record highs, with TCS and the blue-chip Nifty 50 index, of which it is a part, hitting 10 and 15 record highs this year, respectively.

TCS shares will be sold at a floor price of 4,001 rupees apiece, a 3.7% discount to its Monday closing price of 4,152.5 rupees.

J.P. Morgan and Citigroup will be joint bookrunners for the stake sale.

Tata Sons and TCS did not immediately reply to Reuters’ requests for comment, while Citigroup and J.P. Morgan declined to comment.

Major shareholders of ITC, Paytm and Zomato have sold their stake in the companies via block deals – where more than 500,000 shares are traded in a single transaction – in the past few months.

Shares of TCS closed 1.6% lower on Monday ahead of the news, amid a broader tumble in IT stocks.

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