Veteran industrialist Ratan Tata died on Wednesday at the age of 86 in Mumbai. The Tata Group veteran was earlier admitted to intensive care at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital.
On Monday, Tata said he was undergoing routine medical investigations due to his age and related medical conditions.
Apart from being known as one of India’s most successful business tycoons, Tata was also one of the biggest philanthropists in the country.
Born to Naval and Soonoo Tata on December 28, 1937, Tata and his younger brother, Jimmy, were brought up by their grandmother, Navajbai R Tata, in a baroque manor called Tata Palace in downtown Bombay [now Mumbai].
Ratan Tata went to Cornell University in the United States where he studied architecture and structural engineering, and those years in America from 1955 to 1962 would influence Ratan Tata tremendously.
He travelled the country and got so charmed by California and that West Coast lifestyle that he was ready to settle down in Los Angeles. But when Lady Navajbai’s health deteriorated, Tata was forced to return to a life he thought he had left behind.
Journey at Tata Group
Back in India, Tata had a job offer from IBM but JRD Tata wasn’t amused.
“He called me one day and he said you can’t be here in India and working for IBM. I was in [the IBM office] and I remember he asked me for a resume, which I didn’t have. The office had electric typewriters so I sat one evening and typed out a resume on their typewriter and gave it to him,” Ratan Tata had mentioned in an interview.
And that was how Tata came to be offered a job, in 1962, with Tata Industries, the promoter company of the group (he would go on to spend six months at Telco, now called Tata Motors, before joining Tisco, now Tata Steel, in 1963).
During his tenure, the group’s revenues grew manifold. Tata was the chairman of major Tata companies, including Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Chemicals, Indian Hotels and Tata Teleservices. He is also associated with various organisations in India and overseas. Tata is on the international advisory boards of Mitsubishi Corporation and JP Morgan Chase.
Ratan Tata took over as the chairman of Tata Sons in March 1991.
Less than a decade from the new millennium, the Tata group was a bloated, unevenly managed and excessively bureaucratic behemoth operating in an India that had only begun jettisoning the jargon of socialism and the shibboleths of policy-making that had promised plenty but delivered little. More than 30 years later, Ratan Tata has changed the group for the better in a more substantial manner than any of the luminaries under whose care the organisation evolved since its inception in 1868.
Ratan Tata: Moving the Tata Group Beyond India
That he has done this while staying true to the traditions and tenets of the group — in an environment where so many have succumbed to the allure of the soft buck — make his accomplishments exemplary. By coincidence or destiny, Tata becoming chairman got synchronised with the opening up of India’s economy, and he seized the day.
Ratan N Tata was the chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, from 1991 till his retirement on December 28, 2012.
After retirement, Tata was conferred the honorary title of Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons, Tata Industries, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Chemicals.
He was the chairman of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust and Allied Trusts, and the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts. He was the Chairman of the Council of Management of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
He also served on the board of trustees of Cornell University and the University of Southern California.
After serving in various companies, he was appointed director-in-charge of the National Radio and Electronics Company in 1971.
In 1981, he was named Chairman of Tata Industries, the group’s other holding company, where he was responsible for transforming it into a group strategy think tank and a promoter of new ventures in high-technology businesses.
The government honoured Tata with the nation’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2008 and Padma Bhushan in the year 2000.
He has also received honorary doctorates from several universities in India and overseas.
Tata began restructuring the Tata group at a time when the liberalisation of the Indian economy was under way.
He played an instrumental role in the business expansion of popular cars including the Tata Nano and Tata Indica. He got Tata Tea to acquire Tetley, Tata motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel to acquire Corus in 2004.
Watch: When Ratan Tata became emotional while speaking about his dream project
When Ratan Tata Became Emotional While Speaking About Dream Project | Interview With Navika Kumar
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