New Delhi, Oct 9,2024: Ratan Tata, veteran industrialist and the chairman emeritus of the Tata group, passed away at a Mumbai hospital late on Wednesday night.
He was 86.
Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran, in a statement, confirmed the death of Tata.
A pivotal figure in Indian industry, Ratan Tata’s leadership had transformed the Tata Group into a global powerhouse.
Born on December 28, 1937, Ratan Tata was the great-grandson of Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the death of Rata Tata and said, “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,” he wrote on twitter handle X.
Born in 1937 to a family of Parsis, an ethno-religious group of Persian descent in India who follow the Zoroastrian religion, Tata graduated from Cornell University where he studied architecture and structural engineering.
He returned to India in 1962 and joined the family firm, which was founded by Jamsetji Tata, Ratan Tata’s great grandfather, in 1868. He joined as an assistant and spent six months training at a company plant in Jamshedpur.
JRD Tata, who had led the group for over half a century, appointed Ratan Tata as his successor.
Ratan Tata took over as chairman in 1991, the same year India unleashed major economic reforms, including devaluing the rupee, to open its economy to the world. And as India looked increasingly outward, so did Tata.
The industrialist rose to global prominence with a series of high-profile international deals. In 2008, he famously oversaw Tata Motors’ purchase of British car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford (F).
In 2000, the group acquired British firm Tetley, owner of one of the largest global tea brands, for $432 million. Seven years later, Tata Steel prevailed in a $12.1 billion battle for control of Corus, a British steel company.
Tata retired as group chairman in 2012 and was chairman emeritus of holding company Tata Sons before his death. Since stepping down from day-to-day duties, the businessman had been throwing himself into improving the lot of India’s many stray animals.
“I think the one thing the family has done is it created a lot of industries in the early days, prior to independence, which were national industries,” Tata told CNN’s Sara Sidner in a rare interview in 2011. “And then gave most of it away in philanthropic grants. And that’s been something that’s been carried on by their successors through the years.”
In 2008, the Indian government awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second-highest civilian honour.
