Ratan Tata is a popular Indian
industrialist, philanthropist, & former chairman of the Tata Group, known
for his contributions to the business landscape & his philanthropic
efforts. Ratan Tata was passed away at the age of 86.
Birth, Age, Family Education
Born on 28 December 1937 in
Bombay, British India, Ratan Tata is the son of Naval Tata & Sooni. They
got separated when Ratan he was 10 years old. He was adopted by his grandmother
Navajbai Tata. Ratan Tata grows up with his half-brother Noel Tata.
The 84-year-old attended Campion
School, Mumbai, Cathedral & John Connon School, Mumbai, Bishop Cotton
School, Shimla, & Riverdale Country School in New York City. He is an
alumnus of Cornell University & Harvard Business School.
Ratan Tata as Chairperson
When JRD Tata resigned as the
chairperson of Tata Sons in 1991, Ratan Tata named as his successor. He faced
resistance from many companies’ heads who spent decades in their respective
companies. Tata began replacing them at retirement age. It is mandatory for
each company to report to the group office. Under the leadership of Ratan Tata,
the companies of Tata Sons were streamlined into a whole.
During his 21 years of leadership,
revenues grew over 40 times, and profit over 50 times. He got Tata Tea to
acquire Tetley, Tata Motors to acquire Jaguar Land Rover, & Tata Steel to
acquire Corus, turning the organization from a largely India-centric group into
a global business.
He also conceptualized the Tata
Nano car. The car was within the range of the middle class Indian consumer.
At the age of 75, Ratan Tata
stepped down as the Chairperson of Tata Sons on 28 December 2012. Cyrus Mistry
was named his successor, however, the Board of Directors & Legal division
voted for his removal on 24 October 2016 & Ratan Tata was then made the
group's interim chairman. He died on 9 october 2024.
A committee of Ratan Tata, Amit
Chandra of Bain Capital, former diplomat Ronen Sen, TVS Group head Venu
Srinivasan, & Lord Kumar Bhattacharya was formed to find the successor of
Ratan Tata.
Ratan Tata invested his money in Xiaomi, Nestaway, Ola Cabs, & Dogspot, etc.
Ratan Tata Wife
"I came close to getting married four times & each time I backed off in fear or for one reason or another," said Ratan Tata in 2011.
He once loved a girl in Los Angeles while working there & had to return to India as his family member was ill. The parents of girl didn’t allow her to go to India. Tata stood by his commitment & is unmarried to date.
Philanthropy Work of Ratan Tata
Being a supporter of education,
medicine, & rural development, Ratan Tata supported the University Of New
South Wales Faculty Of Engineering.
Tata Education & Development
Trust donated a $28 million Tata Scholarship Fund that will allow Cornell
University to provide financial aid to undergraduate students from India. The
annual scholarship will support 20 students at a given time.
Tata Group companies & Tata
charities donated $50 million in 2010 to Harvard Business School for the
construction of an executive centre.
Tata Consultancy Services donated
$35 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a facility to research cognitive
systems & autonomous vehicles. It was the largest donation received by a
company & the 48,000 square-foot building is called TCS Hall. Tata Group
donated INR. 950 million to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2014 &
formed Tata Center for Technology & Design. It was largest donation
received in the history of the institute.
Tata Trusts provided a grant of INR 750 million to the Centre for Neuroscience, the Indian
Institute of Science, to study mechanisms underlying the cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
Tata Group also formed the MIT Tata Center of Technology and Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology to address the challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India.
