JAMSHEDJI TATA - "FATHER OF INDIAN INDUSTRY" AND "ONE-MAN PLANNING COMMISSION"

JAMSHEDJI  TATA - "FATHER OF INDIAN INDUSTRY"  AND   "ONE-MAN PLANNING COMMISSION"

The legendary Jamshedji (Jamsetji) Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904) is known as "Father of Indian Industry".  His life was inspiration for many entrepreneurs.

 

He was so influential in the world of industry that Jawaharlal Nehru referred to Tata as a "One-Man Planning Commission".

"When you have to give the lead in action, in ideas – a lead which does not fit in with the very climate of opinion – that is true courage, physical or mental or spiritual, call it what you like, and it is this type of courage and vision that Jamshedji Tata showed. It is right that we should honour his memory and remember him as one of the big founders of modern India." —Jawaharlal Nehru

 Alma mater  -  Elphinstone College, Bombay (now Mumbai). 

Jamshedji came out of Elphinstone as a 'green scholar' -- a graduate with the equivalent of a bachelor's degree -- in 1858.

 

Jamshedji Tata was the founder of TATA Group.

In 1868, Jamshedji Tata, a visionary of his time, lit the flame that went on to become Tata and its group of companies.  This business grew into an extraordinary one.  One that some may even call  'the greatest company in the world'.

 

A great visionary that he was, believed in the generation of profit and the creation of wealth upholding the values, ethics and excellence.  

 

He built a  steel plant in Jamshedpur because a developing nation needed to have the ability to produce steel -- the basic industrial material.  He also invested in a textile mill because Indian cotton was being exported to the UK,  being woven into cotton textiles and re-exported back to India.  Jamshedji wanted India to be self-sufficient. He similarly envisaged a hydel power plant to provide electricity to the city of Bombay (now Mumbai) and a modern world-class hotel to create a luxurious environment for visitors.  He did all this for the nation -- not for his family.

Jamshedji was a passionate and religious man.  He was a Parsi, a devout Zoroastrian.  Zoroastrianism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world, and Jamshedji believed that one's admission to 'heaven' depended on how much one improved the lives of others.

 

Jamshedji broke with family tradition by becoming a businessman instead of joining Zoroastrian priesthood like his father and father's father before him.  

 

       Jamshedji Tata, bearded patriarch, with his family (circa 1900)

Jamshedji was the founder of TATA group (1868-2022 present).  He was also the founder of Tata Steel and the City of Jamshedpur.  

 

Jamshedji was a globetrotter and in one of his business trip abroad to Germany he breath his last at the age of 65 years.

Over the decades, the business expanded and prospered under the leadership of the various keepers of the flame, such as Sir Dorabji Tata, J.R.D. Tata and  Ratan Tata, to name a few.  

The highest civilian honour of India the "BHARAT RATNA" was conferred upon J.R.D. Tata by the Government of India in 1992.  He was an industrialist, philanthropist and aviation pioneer.

 

The Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents.  

TATA has a workforce of about 6,95,000 and a broad, palpable global footprint.  

As of March 31, 2022, the market value of the 29 publicly traded Tata Group companies was $311 billion (INR 23.4 trillion).

 

The group gained international recognition after acquiring several global companies. Each Tata company operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors and shareholders. Philanthropic trusts control over 66% of the Tata holding company Tata Sons, while the Tata family is a very small shareholder.

 

As of 2022, the group had an estimated annual revenue of US$128 billion. In 2018, it contributed about 4 per cent to the country’s GDP and paid 2.24% of the total taxation in India, the highest by any corporate group.

 

Significant Tata Group affiliates include Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Consumer Products, Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel, Voltas, Titan Company, Tanishq, Tata Chemicals, Tata Communications, Trent, Tata Elxsi, Indian Hotels Company, Air India, TajAir, Tata Cliq, Tata Capital, Cromā, and Tata Starbucks.

 

The Five-Star Hotel "TAJ MAHAL PALACE" near Gateway of India, Colaba, Mumbai  belongs to TATA Group. Today, the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel has expanded to 20,00,000 sq.ft. 560 rooms, 44 suites, seven restaurants, and two bars, serviced by a staff of 1700, including thirty-five butlers.

The Hotel is back in business after the Pakistani terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba attack on it by the notorious Kasab and gang during Mumbai siege in 26th to 29th November, 2008. 

In 2020, Tata Group has donated INR 15 billion to PM Cares Fund to fight against COVID-19 pandemic in India.

 

In 2010, Tata Group donated INR 2.20 billion (US$50 million) to Harvard Business School to build an academic and a residential building for executive education programs on the institute's campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The building, now known as Tata Hall, is the largest endowment received by Harvard Business School from an international donor.

 

In 1991, Ratan Tata became chairman of Tata Group. This was also the year of economic liberalization in India, opening up the market to foreign competitors. During this time, Tata Group began to acquire a number of companies, including Tetley (2000), Corus Group (2007), and Jaguar and Land Rover (2008).

 

In 2008, the subsidiary Tata Motors launched the Tata Nano which they presented as "the world’s cheapest car".

 

Under Ratan Tata's leadership TATA acquired many companies including the international companies such as Tetley Tea.  With this acquisition Tata Tea became world's second largest tea company.

  

The Zoroastrian faith taught them the duty of creating real happiness by improving the lives of others.

 

In an interview with Damien Whitworth (2006), Shri Ratan Tata said  that "I would love to see the disparity between the rich and poor (in India) reduced.  If you have a billion people that should be our strength".

 

The philanthropist Parsi community was always generous to spread education, sports, healthcare and rural progress and worked towards reducing economic disparity of the Indians between the haves and have-nots.    

 

'Karl Marx's vision was to take from the rich to feed the poor.  Jamshedji's vision was to make the poor rich'  -  Ratan Tata.

 

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the acquisition of the entire shareholding in Air Asia India by Tata owned Air India.

The future strategy of TATA is to focus on healthcare, electronics, and digital.

 

Over the years TATA remained spotless (not tainted) and most trusted brand in India and the world.

 

As the Indians like to put it, Tata is a 'salt-to-software' conglomerate and the most trusted and respected Indian company.

 

The range of the TATA group's enterprise is staggering :  from airlines to automobiles, aerospace, defence products, consumer packaged goods, chemicals and consulting.   In addition, Tata companies provide electric power and broadband service.  They are also in healthcare, engineering, real estate and finance.  They make locomotives and vehicles of all kinds.  And they make steel, with a global presence in the steel industry across five continents.

The new Chairman at the helm of affairs Chandra (Natarajan Chandrasekaran) has been impressive so far.   Chandra's combination of passion and personal discipline is praiseworthy.  He has been awarded "Padma Bhushan" in 2022.

 

Since its founding in 1868, there had only been five previous chairmen of Tata Sons. None had ever been fired.  Three had died in harness (office), and the other two, J.R.D.  Tata and Ratan Tata, were eighty-six and seventy-five, respectively when they have decided to hang up the boot (retired). 

"Do it because you have a passion for it. You have to have the passion to make a success of what you do" -- Ratan Tata

To write about Ratan Tata you need a sizeable space and hence I am leaving it for another Blog post on another date.