Eminent industrialist Ratan Tata passed away on 9 October 2024. He was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai due to age-related problems, where he breathed his last. Being a part of the group, he took the group to new heights. In the year 2000, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India, and in the year 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan award. The decisions taken by him from Nano car to Jaguar changed people’s perspective.
He has been such a person, whose stories have been heard by generations and there is hardly any person who has never traveled in a vehicle made by his company. From children to the elderly, everyone knows the name of Tata Motors.
Ratan Tata Important Details
Name – Ratan Naval Tata
Date of Birth – 28 December 1937
Death – 9 October, 2024
Born – Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
(Present-day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)
Education – Cornell University, Harvard Business School
Profession – Industrialist, philanthropist, and investor
Position – Honorary Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Group
Tenure – (1991–2012) and (2016–2017)
Predecessor – JRD Tata
Successor – Cyrus Mistry (2012 -2016); Natarajan Chandrasekaran (2017–Present)
Parents – Naval Tata
Relatives – Tata family
Awards – Assam Baibhav (2021), Padma Vibhushan (2008), Maharashtra Bhushan (2006), and Padma Bhushan (2000)
Life Story of Ratan Tata
Born on 28 December 1937 in Bombay, British India, Ratan Tata was the son of Naval Tata and Sooni Commissariat. They got separated when Ratan Tata was 10 years old. He was then adopted by his grandmother Navajbai Tata from the J. N. Petit Parsi Orphanage. Tata was brought up with his half-brother Noel Tata (son of Naval Tata and Simone Tata).
Ratan Tata was educated at the Campion School, Mumbai, the Cathedral and John Connon School, Mumbai, the Bishop Cotton School, Shimla, and the Riverdale Country School, New York City. He is a former student of Cornell College and Harvard Business College.
Ratan Tata Career
He joined Tata Children in 1962, where he worked on the floor. It was a tough job, but he gained experience and an understanding of the family business.
In 1971, he was made the director-in-charge of NELCO (National Radio and Electronics Company Limited). The company was going through a financial crisis. Ratan Tata worked hard to build a better consumer electronics division, but due to economic recession and union issues, he could not succeed.
In 1977, he was shifted to Empress Mills, another struggling unit of the Tata Group. He made a plan for the revival of the mill, but it was rejected by other company officials and the mill was shut down. Ratan Tata was again sent to Tata Industries.
In 1991, when JRD Tata surrendered as Executive of Tata Children, he delegated Tata Goodbye as his replacement. He faced stiff resistance from many company heads who had worked for decades in their respective companies. Tata started replacing them by setting the retirement age. He made it compulsory for every company to report to the group office. Under his leadership, the overlapping companies of Tata Sons were streamlined into a coordinated unit.
He is an active member of the AIDS Initiative Program of India.
He is also a member of the International Advisory Board of Mitsubishi Corporation, JPMorgan Chase, Booz Allen Hamilton, and American International Group.
Ratan Tata resigned as the Chairman of Tata Sons on 28 December 2012 upon attaining the age of 75. Cyrus Mistry was named his successor, however, the board of directors and the legal division voted to remove him on 24 October 2016 and Ratan Tata was made the interim chairman of the group.
Retirement does not hold them back as they still actively invest in new promising business ventures. He is a committed humanitarian and contributes fundamentally to different worthy missions in the country.
Philanthropic Works of Ratan Tata
As a supporter of education, medicine, and rural development, Ratan Tata supported the University of New South Wales Faculty of Engineering to provide better water in challenged areas.
Tata Education and Development Trust awarded the Tata Scholarship Fund of $28 million to enable Cornell University to provide financial assistance to graduate students from India. The annual scholarship provides support to about 20 students at a time.
Tata Gathering organization and Tata Noble Cause gave $50 million to Harvard Business Colleges (HBS) in 2010 to construct a leadership place.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) donated $35 million to Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) to research cognitive systems and autonomous vehicles. This is the largest donation ever made by a company and the 48,000-square-foot building is called TCS Hall.
The Tata Group loaned $950 million to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2014 and established the Tata Centre for Technology and Design (TCTD). This was the largest donation ever received in the history of the institute.
Tata Trusts also provided a grant of Rs 750 million to the Neuroscience Centre, Indian Institute of Science to study the underlying mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and develop methods for early diagnosis and treatment.
The Tata Group also established the MIT Tata Centre of Technology and Design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to address the challenges of resource-constrained communities, with an initial focus on India.
Ratan Tata Wife
Ratan Tata said in 2011, “I came close to getting married four times, but each time I backed out due to fear or for some reason or the other.”
While working in Los Angeles, he fell in love with a girl and had to return to India because a family member was ill. The girl’s parents did not allow him to go to India. Tata remained steadfast in his commitment and remained celibate throughout his life.
Ratan Tata Family Members
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata– Founder of India’s largest conglomerate company Tata Group. He was married to Hirabai Daboo.
Dorabji Tata – eldest son of Jamsetji Tata and second chairman of Tata Group. His wife was Meherbai Tata, aunt of renowned nuclear scientist Homi J. Bhabha.
Ratanji Tata– Younger son of Jamsetji Tata. He was a pioneer of poverty studies. He was married to Navajbai Tata. His wife adopted an orphan, Naval, who was Hirabai Tata’s grandson, and raised him as her son.
Naval Tata– Adopted son of Navajbai Tata. His biological father was Hormusji Tata. His maternal grandmother was Hirabai Tata’s sister. Director in several Tata companies, ILO member, and Padma Bhushan awardee, Naval Tata had three sons from two marriages – Ratan Tata (5th chairman of Tata Group), Jimmy Tata, and Noel Tata (Chairman of Trent Limited).
Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata– He was one of the earliest stalwarts to serve the Tata Group. His father Dadabhoy and his mother Jamsetji Tata, Jeevanbai, were siblings. He married Suzanne Briere and had five children, including JRD Tata and Silla Tata.
JRD Tata– He served as the 4th Chairman of the Tata Group. He is the founder of Tata Airlines(after Air India).
Cilla Tata- JRD Tata’s elder sister was married to Dinshaw Maneckji Petit, the founder of the first textile mill in India. His sister-in-law, Ratanbai Petit, was married to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah’s only child Dina Jinnah was married to Neville Ness Wadia.
Ratan Tata Death
Ratan Tata was admitted to Mumbai’s famous Breach Candy Hospital for the last few days due to age-related ailments. A team of expert doctors were treating him, however, he breathed his last on the night of 9 October 2024. Many senior leaders and industrialists including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have condoled his demise.