New Delhi: Tata Sons chairman and prominent industrialist Ratan Tata passed away. He was 86 years old. He died at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. Many political leaders and industry leaders have expressed shock and grief over Ratan Tata’s death.
Ratan Tata – few names carry more weight and evoke more reverence amongst India’s 145 crore people and, in a land no stranger to scandals, fewer still do so with such little blemish. Born December 28, 1937, Ratan Tata was the eldest son of Naval Tata, who was the adopted son of Sir Ratanji Tata. He was educated at some of India’s finest schools and he graduated with a degree in architecture from Cornell, an Ivy League institution, in New York.
His parents separated when he was 10 years old and young Ratan was brought up by his grandmother, Navajbai Tata, a redoubtable figure by all accounts and one who instilled in him a sense of dignity and a strong moral core. He began his career on the Telco (now Tata Motors) shopfloor – an unglamorous job scooping limestone into blast furnaces. It was hot, sticky, and back-breaking work.
But his grandmother taught him well; Mr Tata persevered, and, in 1991, he replaced JRD Tata as Chairperson of Tata Sons, the Tata Group’s parent company. He held that position twice – from 1991 to 2012, when he retired the first time, and from 2016 to 2017, when he was an interim appointee following the sacking of Cyrus Mistry.
