Ratan Tata, who took India’s largest industrial house Tata Group to great heights, said goodbye to the world on 9 October. Today his body has also merged into the five elements. Ratan Tata, one of the world’s most influential industrialists, was famous for his decency and simplicity but he never appeared in any list of billionaires. He was the founder of more than 30 companies spread across more than 100 countries across six continents but he lived his life like a saint.
Tata was a corporate giant with a simple personality, while he lived like a saint due to his decency and honesty. His demise has left a vacancy at the top of Tata Trusts, which owns 66 per cent of the group’s holding company Tata Sons. Ratan Tata’s half-brother Noel Tata is being seen as a strong contender to succeed him. But it is not easy to express the sadness that Ratan’s fans in India and around the world feel about his demise.
If parents get divorced, stay with grandmother
Ratan Tata was born in 1937 in a traditional Parsi family. After his parents Naval and Suni Tata got divorced, his grandmother brought him with her. Ratan was 10 years old at that time. Ratan Tata received a BS in Architecture from Cornell University, New York in 1962. After obtaining his degree, he joined the family company. He wanted to settle in California but returned to India due to his grandmother’s ill health.
JRD Tata offered to work in the group
Ratan Tata, who returned to India after studying abroad, was offered a job by IBM company. But seeing Ratan’s talent and his dedication towards business, his uncle Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata asked him to work with him. Following his uncle’s advice, he initially gained experience in various Tata Group businesses, after which in 1971 he was appointed Director in-charge of ‘National Radio and Electronics Company’ (a group firm).
After a decade, JRD handed over the responsibility of the group to Ratan Tata
A decade later he became Chairman of Tata Industries and took over as Chairman of the Tata Group from his uncle JRD Tata in 1991. JRD Tata held this post for more than five decades. This was the year India opened up its economy and the Tata Group, which had started as a small textile and trading establishment in 1868, quickly transformed itself into a global enterprise whose empire expanded from salt to steel, cars to Software, power plants and airlines.
Rapidly expanded the group’s business
Ratan Tata was the chairman of the group’s main holding company ‘Tata Sons’ for more than two decades, during which the group expanded rapidly, buying London-based Tetley Tea for $431.3 million in 2000, South Korea’s Tetley Tea in 2004. It bought the truck-manufacturing operations of Daewoo Motors for $102 million, bought Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus Group for $11.3 billion, and bought the famous British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Company for $2.3 billion.
Ratan was not only an industrialist but also a philanthropist.
His personal involvement in philanthropy began very early. In the year 1970s, he initiated the Aga Khan Hospital and Medical College project, which laid the foundation of one of India’s premier healthcare institutions.
Following his appointment as Chairman of Tata Sons in 1991, Tata’s philanthropic efforts gained new momentum. He actively led the Tata Trusts, established by his great grandfather Jamsetji, to address critical social needs. Ratan Tata established excellent institutions like Tata Institute of Social Sciences. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian honour.
Took retirement in 2012 at the age of 75
In December 2012, Ratan Tata handed over the responsibility of Tata Sons to Cyrus Mistry, who was his assistant till then. However, Tata group owners began to have problems with the way Mistry, the first member outside the Tata family, operated, and in October 2016, Mistry lost control of the Tata group. Ratan Tata was a shareholder in the company at that time and he disagreed with Mistry on several projects. These included Mistry’s decision to stop production of Ratan Tata’s ambitious project ‘Nano’ car. After Mistry stepped down, Ratan briefly took over as interim chairman from October 2016 and retired in January 2017 after Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman of the Tata Group.
Ratan became investor for new industrialists also
Since then he was the chairman emeritus of Tata Sons. During this time, he helped some of the young entrepreneurs of the 21st century, investing in several technology-based innovations and start-ups. Tata has invested in more than 30 start-ups in his personal capacity, including Ola Electric, Paytm, Snapdeal, Lenskart and Zivame.
It was just a few months ago. It was a wet monsoon evening. Ratan Tata, who has great love and affection for dogs, told all his colleagues and employees to open the doors of the Tata Group headquarters located in a luxurious area of Mumbai for abandoned dogs. Many dogs that took shelter at the Tata Group headquarters ended up staying there due to the love of their owner Ratan Tata. But now Ratan Tata, who loved and loved him, has gone on an eternal journey.
