ONE of India’s most prominent and respected businessmen, Ratan Tata, has died at age 86.
Mr Tata was part of the Tata family of industrialists and the great grandson of the founder of the 156-year-old Tata Group.
In the automotive industry, he is known as the head of Tata Motors which owns car-makers including Jaguar Land Rover. He oversaw the purchase of JLR from Ford in 2008 for almost $A3.5 billion, then the largest-ever acquisition by an Indian car company.
Ratan Tata
He also instigated production of the Tata Nano, a low-cost micro-car designed for India but sold in other markets from 2009 to 2018. At launch it was the world’s most-affordable new car (equivalent to $A2700 at the time) but never achieved expected sales volumes.
After attending various schools in Mumbai, Mr Tata finished high school in New York City in 1955. He then entered Cornell University in New York where he earned a Bachelor of Science (1962) in architecture before returning to India.
He acquired his business training on the job, gaining experience in a number of Tata Group companies and was named director in charge (1971) of one of them, the National Radio and Electronics Co.
Named chair of Tata Industries a decade later, Mr Tata later succeeded his uncle, J.R.D. Tata in 1991 to become chair of Tata Sons, the parent company of the Tata Group.
In 2000 the group acquired London-based Tetley Tea for $A645 million, and in 2004 it purchased the truck manufacturing operations of South Korea’s Daewoo Motors for $A153 million.
Tata Steel completed the biggest corporate takeover by an Indian company when it acquired the giant Anglo-Dutch steel manufacturer Corus Group for $A17 billion in 2007.
A year later Mr Tata oversaw Tata Motors’ purchase of car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company.
Mr Tata belonged to the Indian community known as the Parsis, followers of the Zoroastrian faith and well known for their public service work.
He was greatly admired for his philanthropic interests, which included supporting research and improvements in education, medicine, and rural development.
As well as establishing and enhancing hospitals and research centres that helped advance cancer care, he was committed to reducing social and economic inequality.
In 2024 the Tata Group announced plans to build India’s first indigenous semiconductor manufacturing facility in the state of Assam as a part of Ratan Tata’s vision for the state.
The investment would generate employment for more than 25,000 local residents.
Donations by the Tata Group and the related philanthropic collective called Tata Trusts have led to the establishment of a variety of institutions and scholarships, including a science research facility at the University of California, an executive centre at Harvard Business School, and an endowment to Cornell University to provide financial aid to students from India.
The Tata Center for Technology and Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology works on providing solutions to challenges faced by communities that have limited access to electricity, low income, and poor literacy.
In December 2012 Mr Tata retired as chair of the Tata Group. He briefly served as interim chair beginning in October 2016 following the ouster of his successor, Cyrus Mistry.
Mr Tata returned to retirement in January 2017 when Natarajan Chandrasekaran was appointed chair of the Tata Group.
In 2021 the Tata Group won the bid to take over Air India, an airline that was originally started and owned by the conglomerate since 1932 and subsequently nationalised in 1953.
Mr Tata never married and had no children. In 2011, he stated: “I came close to getting married four times and each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another.”
By Neil Dowling
