Ratan Tata passes away: The business world was left in mourning on Wednesday as news broke of the passing of Ratan Tata, a titan of Indian industry. The former chairman of the Tata Group, who had been instrumental in guiding the conglomerate to unprecedented success, died at the age of 86 in a hospital in Mumbai.
Tributes poured in from across the country, with Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited, describing Tata as “one of India’s most illustrious and kind-hearted sons.”
Below is the full text of Mukesh Ambani’s statement on the passing away of Ratan Tata:
“It is a very sad day for India and India Inc.Ratan Tata’s passing away is a big loss, not just to the Tata Group, but to every Indian.
At a personal level, the passing of Ratan Tata has filled me with immense grief as I lost a dear friend. Each of my numerous interactions with him left me inspired and energised and enhanced my respect for the nobility of his character and the fine human values he embodied.
Ratan Tata was a visionary industrialist and a philanthropist, who always strove for society’s greater good.
With the demise of Mr Ratan Tata, India has lost one of her most illustrious and kind-hearted sons. Mr Tata took India to the world and brought the best of the world to Bharat. He institutionalised the House of Tata and made it an international enterprise growing the Tata group over 70 times since the time he took over as Chairman in 1991.
On behalf of Reliance, Nita and the Ambani family, I send my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved members of the Tata family and the entire Tata Group.
Ratan, you will always remain in my heart.
Om Shanti.
Mukesh Ambani”
Ratan Tata assumed leadership of Tata Sons in 1991, succeeding his uncle J.R.D. Tata, just as India initiated significant economic reforms that opened the country to global markets and catalyzed a period of substantial growth.
One of Ratan Tata’s initial actions was to assert control over the heads of Tata Group companies, implementing mandatory retirement ages, elevating younger individuals to leadership roles, and strengthening oversight of the various entities.
He established Tata Teleservices, a telecommunications company, in 1996 and led the initial public offering of Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s most profitable venture, in 2004. However, the group recognized that to achieve meaningful growth, it needed to expand beyond India’s borders.
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In an interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2013, he said, “It was the quest for growth and changing the ground rules to say that we could grow by acquisitions which earlier we had never done.”
The group acquired Tetley, a British tea company, for $432 million in 2000 and Corus, an Anglo-Dutch steelmaker, for $13 billion in 2007, which was, at the time, the largest acquisition of a foreign company by an Indian enterprise. In 2008, Tata Motors purchased the British luxury car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co for $2.3 billion.
Ratan Tata’s personal projects at Tata Motors included the Indica, the first car designed and manufactured entirely in India, and the Nano, which was promoted as the most affordable car in the world. He provided initial design sketches for both vehicles.
