In the late hours of October 8, 2024, Ratan Tata passed away aged 86 at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. The Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group was one India’s most significant business leaders and is credited with not only bringing his ‘salt-to-software’ into the 21st century but also played a major role in India’s growth and developments over the last few decades.
Earlier this week, news reports of Tata being admitted into the hospital following health deterioration had surfaced. However, just on Monday, the industrialist released a statement on his social media dismissing cause of concern. And on Wednesday night, Tata Group announced his passing, by releasing a heartfelt statement from N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons.
The news of his passing sent shockwaves in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the barrage of tributes that poured in from around the world.
India’s top business moguls from Mukesh Ambani to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw mourned his loss and resonated the country’s sentiment – his passing feels personal.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai credited Ratan Tata as being “instrumental in mentoring and developing the modern business leadership in India” and stated that “he deeply cared about making India better.”
Early Beginnings
Ratan Naval Tata was the son of Simone and Naval Tata, the adopted grandson of Jamsetji Tata, the founder the Tata Group. After his parents separated when he was 10, he was raised by his grandmother Navajbai Tata.
Tata had a luxurious childhood in Mumbai—he travelled to his alma matter Campion School and Cathedral and John Connon School in a Rolls Royce. However, he soon moved to New York, where he completed his graduation in 1955. When it was time to go to college, he originally enrolled to study engineering at the Cornell University at his father’s insistence. However, he switched his major to architecture two years later, much to his father’s dismay, he revealed in an old interview. It was during this time he realised his love for cars and learnt flying. He returned to India in 1962, when his grandmother fell ill.
When he returned to Mumbai, Ratan Tata had an offer to work with IBM. However, his uncle, JRD Tata, the then chairman of the Tata Group convinced him to join the family business. “I was in the (IBM) office and I remember, he (JRD) asked me for a resume, which I didn’t have. The office had electric typewriters… so I typed it out on their typewriter and gave it to him,” Ratan Tata reminisced in an old interview.
Taking Over The Tata Group
Ratan Tata’s first posting for the Tata Group was in Jamshedpur where he was appointed as the technical assistant to get acquainted with the factory floor. By the 70s, he had been promoted to a managerial position and given two companies to bring back to life. The first was National Radio and Electronics, which achieved success, however another textile company failed.
JRD Tata named him his successor in 1991, much to the contention of senior company aspirants who were eyeing the position. In fact, JRD was scrutinised heavily for favouring Ratan Tata on the basis on nepotism. In hindsight, the latter’s vision and extraordinary determination that he took over this century-old company were key driving factors towards turning it into a conglomerate with over 100 companies, employing over 660,000 people and generating an annual revenue of well over 100 billion dollars.
JRD’s passing, Ratan Tata’s appointment as Chairman and liberalisation, all hit India in the same year. And during the 21 years that he led the Group, revenue grew over 40 times and profit increased 50 times over.
He served twice as the Chairman of the Tata Group. First from 1991 to 2012 and then from 2016 to 2017. In his first tenure, he founded Tata services, brought many structural changes to the companies under the Tata Group, sacked a lot of the senior leadership, introduced a retirement age, brought in policies that were targeted towards consolidating power, prioritised innovation and delegated tasks to young talent and leaders.
Landmark Projects
In the 2000s, Ratan Tata led the largest takeover of an international brand by an Indian company when he acquired Tetley Tea which subsequently made Tata Tea the world’s second largest tea company.
However, his most talked about acquisition still remains the takeover of British car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover in 2004, which appeased to the anti-colonial sentiment buried deep inside the heart of every Indian. Another one of his successful acquisitions was that of the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, Corus. These deals helped reposition Tata from being perceived as a largely India-focused company to a global business with over 65 per cent business coming from international sales and operations.
In the same year, he took Tata Consultancy Services public. Today, TCS is India’s largest information technology services company. It accounts for the lion’s share (90%) of Tata Sons’ total profits and returns over $4 billion in dividends every year. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan award.
However, not all of Tata’s projects were successful. The group’s venture into the telecom industry failed majorly and cost them a lot of money. And then, he overtook an ambitious project—one to manufacture a car for the Indian middle class that would only cost a lakh, making it the cheapest car in the world, which would become a symbol of affordability and innovation.
The Tata Nano was released in 2009 with a lot of fanfare and after an initial short-lived success, the company began losing out to competitors due to production issues and a negative public image. In an interview, Ratan Tata had acknowledged that it was a “huge mistake” to label Nano as the world’s cheapest car as no one wants to be seen driving the world’s cheapest car. The last Nano was produced in 2018.
His last memorable project before stepping down was the 50/50 joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Consumer Products, with the first Starbucks store opening in Mumbai’s Elphinstone Building in October, 2012.
As he turned 75, Ratan Tata stepped down in 2012, having named Cyrus Mistry as his successor. Cyrus was a relative of Ratan Tata and the heir of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, one of the largest shareholders of the Tata Group. His appointment was met with strong criticism and rejected by the company’s Board of Directors. In 2016, he was ousted from the company, following a high-profile boardroom coup and that’s when Ratan Tata returned as interim chairman for a year. The following year, N Chandrasekaran, who was then the Chief Executive of TCS, was named as the chairman of Tata Sons by a selection committee.
A bold risk taker, Ratan Tata cemented his company’s status as a force to be reckoned with globally. This was reaffirmed when Tata group reacquired the debt-ridden Air India in 2022, which was originally founded by them in 1932 and was nationalised in 1953.
Philanthropy and Investing In India’s Future
While ups and downs remained a part of his journey as Chairman, one of the darkest days of his career remains the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai. The Tata Group’s marquee hotel, the Taj Mahal Palace, came under attack and was under siege for 60 hours, which resulted in the death of 33 people, including 11 hotel employees. In response, Ratan Tata pledged that the families of the employees who were killed or injured will be taken care of. He paid the grieving families of those killed an amount that would equate how much they would have earned their entire life.
It was this nobility and kind-heartedness that made Ratan Tata stand apart from other business leaders of his stature. And while his business accomplishments have been legendary, his philanthropic efforts touched countless lives.
Tata was a huge supporter of education, rural development, medicine and animal welfare. He inaugurated several research facilities and education initiatives aimed at resolving issues from finding sustainable food sources to disease control. Under his leadership, donations were made to top universities like Harvard, UC San Diego, Carnegie Mellon, MIT and his own alma matter, Cornell. Back home, they not only endowed IIT Bombay with the Tata Center for Technology and Design, which develops projects suited to the needs of people with limited resources, but also gave them their biggest donation of a staggering Rs 950 million.
In fact, Tata invested a lot of his own wealth into startups founded by young entrepreneurs, mentored them and cultivated a while new generation of leaders. From Snapdeal to CashKaro.com, Ola Cabs, Ratan Tata was an early investor in many business that have become successful today.
He never got married, but self-admittedly, he came close to it four times in his life. However, he found companions in his two German Shepards, Tito and Tango. His love for animals and interest in ensuring their welfare, especially dogs, was evident throughout his lifetime. In fact, his office, Bombay House was a haven for street dogs of the area who always had water, food and shelter accessible on grounds. In 2022, Tata inaugurated Tata Trusts’ Small Animal Hospital in Worli, which has state-of-the-art facilities and is India’s largest tertiary care hospital for pets. His Instagram was always populated with pictures of dogs more than anything else.
It's easy to assume that someone who is a business tycoon, billionaire, chairman emeritus would have a bold personality or be shrewd, have high-flying interests and expensive taste. But Ratan Tata wasn’t any of that. He was kind and soft-spoken, he made sure that his country was growing with his company, he never wore flashy clothes or made any obscene displays of wealth. He was among those billionaires you wish for—the ones that sincerely attempt to make the world a better place. Perhaps that’s why he was among India’s most loved and followed business leaders (with over 13 million followers on X and 10 million on Instagram.) It’s no wonder that today, his loss feels person to every Indian, regardless of their age and social background.
His mortal remains will be kept at the NCPA for public viewing and the Maharashtra government has declared a day of mourning statewide. Ratan Tata is survived by his brother Jimmy Tata, two half-sisters Shireen and Deanna Jejeebhoy, and a half-brother, Noel Tata.
