Ratan Tata or Ratan Naval Tata Biography; End of an Era

Ratan Tata or Ratan Naval Tata was a prominent Indian businessman and dedicated philanthropist. He served as the chairman of the Tata Group and Tata Sons from 1991 to 2012 and he held the position of interim chairman from October 2016 to February 2017. In 2000, he received the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour, followed by the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian honour, in 2008.

Ratan Tata has been awarded several state civilian honours, including the ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ in 2006, which recognises his contribution to public administration in Maharashtra, and the ‘Assam Baibhav’ in 2021, which recognises his efforts in enhancing cancer care in Assam. Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata, who was adopted by Ratanji Tata, son of Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata. He obtains a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, New York United State.

He joined the Tata Group in 1962, starting with the Tata Steel factory. He later became chairman of Tata Sons in 1991 upon the retirement of J.R.D. Tata. During his tenure, the Tata Group acquired Tetley, Jaguar Land Rover, and Corus, transforming Tata from a largely India-focused conglomerate into a global business. Throughout his life, Tata invested in more than 40 start-ups, primarily in a personal capacity, with additional investments through his firm, RNT Capital Advisors.

Ratan Tata studied at Campion School in Mumbai until the 8th grade. He then continued his studies at the Cathedral and John Connon School in Mumbai, Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, and Riverdale Country School in New York City, from which he graduated in 1955. After high school, Tata enrolled at Cornell University, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in architecture in 1962. During his tenure at Cornell, Tata become a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity.

In 2008, Tata made a gift of $50 million to Cornell, becoming the largest international donor in the university’s history.

In 1961, Ratan Tata met architect A. Quincy Jones, who spent three weeks as an architecture design critic at Cornell. After completing his Cornell University New York United State studies, Tata briefly joined Jones’s firm Jones & Emmons in Los Angeles. While Tata was planning to settle in Los Angeles, his grandmother called him back to India.

In the 1970s, Ratan Tata was given a managerial role within the Tata Group. He achieved initial success by turning around subsidiary National Radio & Electronics (NELCO), but saw it collapse during the economic recession. In 1991, J.R.D. Tata resigned as chairman of Tata Sons and named him as his successor.

Initially, Ratan Tata faced stiff resistance from the heads of various subsidiaries, who had enjoyed a large degree of operational freedom during the senior Tata’s tenure. In response, Ratan Tata implemented a number of policies to consolidate power, including enforcing a retirement age, requiring subsidiaries to report directly to the group office, and requiring subsidiaries to contribute their profits towards the enhancement of the Tata Group brand.

Tata prioritized innovation and assigned many responsibilities to young talent. Under his leadership, overlapping operations between subsidiaries were streamlined into company-wide operations, with the group exiting unrelated businesses to embrace globalization. During the 21 years Ratan Tata led the Tata Group, revenue grew more than 40-fold and profits more than 50-fold.

When he took over the company, sales consisted mainly of commodity sales, but toward the end of his tenure, most sales came from brands. He let Tata Tea acquire Tetley, Tata Motors acquire Jaguar Land Rover, and Tata Steel acquire Corus. These acquisitions transformed Tata from a largely India-focused conglomerate into a global business.

He conceptualised and led the development of the Tata Nano car after the spectacular success of the diesel Tata Indica, which helped bring cars within the reach of the average Indian consumer. Tata Motors has rolled out the first batch of Tigor electric vehicles from the Sanand plant in Gujarat, which Tata has described as “accelerating India’s electric dream”.

On turning 75, Ratan Tata resigned from his executive powers at the Tata Group on 28 December 2012. A leadership crisis over his succession attracted intense media scrutiny. The company’s board of directors appointed his successor, Cyrus Mistry, a relative of Tata and son of Pallonji Mistry of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group, the largest individual shareholder of the Tata Group.

On 24 October 2016, Cyrus Mistry son of Pallonji Mistry was removed as Chairman of Tata Sons and Ratan Tata was appointed as interim Chairman. Later in December 2019, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal found that Cyrus Mistry’s removal as chairman of Tata Sons was illegal, and ordered his reinstatement. On appeal, the Supreme Court of India upheld Cyrus Mistry’s dismissal.

Tata invested in several companies from his own wealth. He invested in Snapdeal India’s leading pure-play value e-commerce websites. In January 2016, he invested in Teabox, an online premium Indian tea seller, and CashKaro.com, a discount coupon and cash-back website. He made small investments in both early and late-stage companies in India, such as investing Rs 0.95 crore in Ola Cabs. In April 2015, it was announced that Tata had acquired a stake in Chinese smartphone startup Xiaomi, which has the largest market share of smartphones sold in China.

In 2016, he invested in Nestaway, an online real-estate portal, which later acquired Zenify to launch Dogspot, an online real-estate and pet-care portal. Tata also launched a companion startup for senior citizens called Goodfellows to encourage inter-generational friendships. Shri Ratan Tata never married, in 2011, he said, “I have considered getting married four times, but each time I hesitated, either out of fear or for other reasons.”

Shri Ratan Tata was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in a critical condition and was put in intensive care. He died on 9 October 2024 at 23:30 IST due to age-related problems at the age of 86. Following his death, the Maharashtra government and the Jharkhand government declared a day of mourning. On 10 October, Shri Ratan Tata was given a state funeral with full state honours. He was cremated at the Parsi crematorium in Worli. He was given a military and 21-gun salute during his funeral. The Mumbai Police gave a ceremonial guard of honour and his body was draped in the Indian flag.

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