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(born December 28, 1937, in Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India) is the

[1]
present Chairman of Tata Sons and therefore, Tata Group , India's largest conglomerate founded
by Jamsedji Tata and consolidated and expanded by later generations of his family. He is also the
chairman of major Tata companies such as Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Power,Tata Consultancy
Services, Tata Tea, Tata Chemicals, The Indian Hotels Company and Tata

Early life

Ratan Tata was born into the famous Tata family, a prominent family belonging to Mumbai's
wealthy Parsi community. He was born to Soonoo and Naval Hormusji Tata. Ratan is the great grandson
of Tata group founder Jamsedji Tata. His childhood was troubled, with his parents separating in the mid-
1940s when he was merely seven and his younger brother Jimmy was five years old. Their mother moved
out and both Ratan and his brother were raised by their grandmother Lady Navajbai.
 
  
Ratan Tata completed his BSc degree in architecture with structural engineering from Cornell
University in 1962, and the Advanced Management Program from Harvard Business School in 1975.[2] He
joined the Tata Group in December 1962, after turning down a job with IBM on the advice of JRD Tata.
He was first sent to Jamshedpur to work at Tata Steel. He worked on the floor along with other blue-collar
employees, shoveling limestone and handling the blast furnaces.[3] Ratan Tata, a shy man, rarely features
in the society glossies, has lived for years in a book-crammed, dog-filled bachelor flat in Mumbai's Colaba
district and is considered to be a gentleman extraordinaire.[4][5]

Career

In 1971, Ratan was appointed the Director-in-Charge of The National Radio & Electronics Company
Limited (Nelco), a company that was in dire financial difficulty. Ratan suggested that the company invest
in developing high-technology products, rather than in consumer electronics.J.R.D. was reluctant due to
the historical financial performance of Nelco which had never even paid regular dividends. Further, Nelco
had 2% market share in the consumer electronics market and a loss margin of 40% of sales when Ratan
took over. Nonetheless, J. R. D. followed Ratan's suggestions.

From 1972 to 1975, Nelco eventually grew to have a market share of 20%, and recovered its losses. In
1975 however, India's Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi declared a state of emergency, which led to an
economic recession. This was followed by union problems in 1977, so even after demand improved,
production did not keep up. Finally, the Tatas confronted the unions and, following a strike, a lockout was
imposed for seven months. Ratan continued to believe in the fundamental soundness of Nelco, but the
venture did not survive.
In 1977, Ratan was entrusted with Empress Mills, a textile mill controlled by the Tatas. When he took
charge of the company, it was one of the few sick units in the Tata group. Ratan managed to turn it
around and even declared a dividend. However, competition from less labour-intensive enterprises had
made a number of companies unviable, including those like the Empress which had large labour
contingents and had spent too little on modernisation. On Ratan's insistence, some investment was
made, but it did not suffice. As the market for coarse and medium cotton cloth (which was all that the
Empress produced) turned adverse, the Empress began to accumulate heavier losses. Bombay House,
the Tata headquarters, was unwilling to divert funds from other group companies into an undertaking
which would need to be nursed for a long time. So, some Tata directors, chiefly Nani Palkhivala, took the
line that the Tatas should liquidate the mill, which was finally closed down in 1986. Ratan was severely
disappointed with the decision, and in a later interview with the Hindustan Times would claim that the
Empress had needed just Rs 50 lakhs to turn it around.

In 1981, Ratan was named director of Tata Industries, the Group's other holding company, where he
became responsible for transforming it into the Group's strategy think-tank and a promoter of new
ventures in high-technology businesses.

In 1991, he took over as group chairman from J.R.D. Tata, pushing out the old guard and ushering in
younger managers. Since then, he has been instrumental in reshaping the fortunes of the Tata Group,
which today has the largest market capitalization of any business house on the Indian Stock Market.

Under Ratan's guidance, Tata Consultancy Services went public and Tata Motors was listed on the New
York Stock Exchange. In 1998, Tata Motors introduced his brainchild, the Tata Indica.

On January 31, 2007, under the chairmanship of Ratan Tata, Tata Sons successfully acquired Corus
Group, an Anglo-Dutch steel and aluminium producer. With the acquisition, Ratan Tata became a
celebrated personality in Indian corporate business culture. The merger created the fifth largest steel
producing entity in the world.

On March 26, 2008, Tata Motors, under Ratan Tata, bought Jaguar & Land Rover from Ford Motor
Company. The two iconic British brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, were acquired for £1.15 billion ($2.3
billion).
Tata Nano car, 2008

Ratan Tata's dream was to manufacture a car costing Rs 100,000 (1998: approx. US$2,200; today
US$2,000 US$2,528). He realized his dream by launching the car in New Delhi Auto Expo on January 10,
2008. Three models of the Tata Nano were announced, and Ratan Tata delivered on his commitment to
developing a car costing only 1 lakh rupees, adding that "a promise is a promise," referring to his earlier
promise to deliver this car at the said cost. However, the price of the car has since been raised. Recently
when his plant for Nano production in Singur, West Bengal, was obstructed by Mamta Banerjee, his
decision of going out of the state was warmly welcomed by the Indian corporate media and the English-
speaking middle class. Banerjee criticised Ratan Tata for forcing people out of their land in collusion with
the Left Front government in the state, which is headed by Budhadeb Bhattacharjee.

On October 7, 2008, after a controversial stay in West Bengal, Ratan Tata and his team shifted their Rs
1-lakh car Nano project to Sanand near Ahmedabad at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion),
declaring that efforts will be made to roll out the world's cheapest car from a make-shift plant to meet the
deadline. The Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi granted him huge subsidy for building the facility,
including free land. Praising Modi for speedy allocation of about 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) of centrally located
land, Ratan Tata said that the company had a great deal of urgency in having a new location and was
driven by the reputation of the state.

The car was launched on March 23, 2009, amid much fanfare with advance bookings that preceded its
launch by months.

[edit]Personal life

Mr. Ratan Tata has a metallic blue Maserati and Ferrari California but prefers to drive himself in an old
model Mercedes sedan much like JRD who seldom used a chauffeur and drove his own Fiat to and from
[6]
work. He sometimes likes to fly his private jet himself. He has an outdatedFalcon Jet, which is no longer
[7] [8]
used for commercial aviation. He has never been married.

He likes to wear Hermès ties and matching handkerchiefs. [1]

Ratan Tata is largely an employee Chairman / CEO of the group and most his own holding in Tata Sons.,
the holding company of the group, is a result of inherited family shareholding. His share is or a little less
than 1%, valuing his personal holding at approximately US$ 1 Billion, if encashed.[

] About 66%
of the equity capital of Tata Sons is held by philanthropic trusts endowed by members of the original
Jameshedji family and the largest share is with the Shapoorji Pallonji Mistry family aligned originally to
Jamshetji's brother in law. The biggest two of the owning trusts are the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Sir
Ratan Tata Trust (different Ratan Tata), which were created by the families of the sons of Jamshedji Tata.
Ratan Tata is on the board of trustees of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, and is the chairman of the board of
trustees of the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.[ 
 ] Ratan Tata is also best known for the face behind
changing India's automotive industry into global climate change era.

Ö Öc 

 On the occasion of India's 50th Republic Day on 26 January 2000, Ratan Tata was honoured with
the Padma Bhushan, the third highest decoration that may be awarded to a civilian.[10]
 In February 2004, Ratan Tata was conferred the title of honorary economic advisor to Hangzhou city
in the Zhejiang province of China.[13]
 On August 30, 2005, it was announced that Ratan Tata was elected to the Board of Trustees of
the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, one of the leading research universities in the
United States.
 In 2006 he received the FIRST Award for Responsible Capitalism.[14]
 In March 2006 Tata was honoured by Cornell University as the 26th Robert S. Hatfield Fellow in
Economic Education, considered the highest honor the university awards to distinguished individuals
from the corporate sector.[15]
 He was one of the recipients of the NASSCOM Global Leadership Awards 2008, given at a ceremony
on February 14, 2008 in Mumbai. Ratan Tata accepted the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007
on behalf of the Tata family.[16][17]
 He was listed among the 25 most powerful people in business named by Fortune magazine in
November 2007.
 In May 2008 Mr Tata made it to the Time magazine's 2008 list of the World's 100 most influential
[18]
people. Tata was hailed for unveiling his tiny Rs. one lakh car 'Nano'.
 On 26 January 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian
decoration.[10]
 On 29 August 2008, the Government of Singapore conferred honorary citizenship on Ratan Tata, in
recognition of his abiding business relationship with the island nation and his contribution to the
growth of high-tech sectors in Singapore. Ratan Tata is the first Indian to receive this honour.[19]
 In 2009 he was appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire[20].
 He has also been conferred an honorary doctorate in business administration by the Ohio State
University, an honorary doctorate in technology by the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, an
honorary doctorate in science by the University of Warwick, and an honorary fellowship by
 [10]
the London School of Economics. He has recently received an honorary Doctor of Law from
the University of Cambridge.[21]