The Art Of Giving

On 8 February 2007, the Yelahanka Air Station in Bengaluru was filled with aviation enthusiasts and fighter pilots. The biennial Aero India show was back in town. Amid thousands of visitors, an Indian gentleman with a benign air about him, dressed in a flight suit, slowly made his way towards an American fighter jet F-16. Gently waving before settling into the copilot’s seat, the man who held licenses to fly jets and helicopters, powered the single-engined Lockheed Martin machine capable of soaring at over twice the speed of sound. Soon the pilot took to the skies and was ably manoeuvring the combat aircraft over the Indian skies during the half-hour flight. Unknown to the crowds at the Air Station below, the pilot skyrocketing through the clouds was Ratan Tata, India’s best-known businessman and the head of the leading multinational corporation the Tata Group which is respected across all the continents worldwide. Known for much more than his passion for aviation, Ratan Tata was also one of the finest representatives of the minuscule Parsi community on the planet.

Of all the myriad ethnic and religious sets that combine to give India its distinctive flavor, perhaps none has been more significant or gifted for its size than the worldly and sophisticated Parsis, whose forefathers were a tiny band of Zoroastrians who fled religious persecution in Persia in the eighth century. One interesting, perhaps legendary Parsi tale relates the course of the initial meeting between the Indian king in the state of Gujarat and the newly landed migrants. When the Zoroastrians requested asylum, the local King motioned to a vessel of milk filled to the very brim to signify that his kingdom was already full and could not accept migrants. In response, one of the Zoroastrian priests added a pinch of sugar to the milk, thus indicating that they would not bring the vessel to overflowing and indeed make the lives of the citizens sweeter. The Indian king gave shelter to the migrants and permitted them to practice their religion and traditions freely. Centuries later the Parsi community continues to add “sugar” to our lives. The modern city of Mumbai would be inconceivable without the contributions of the Parsis and most of India's Parsis live here. Their land holdings are extensive and statues and buildings pay homage to a glorious past. Their temples, though generally plain and inconspicuous, dot the city. To the Parsis, earth, water, air, and fire are sacred and not to be polluted. The central tenets of the religion are summed up in the phrase, “Humata Hukhta Hvarshta” - Good thoughts, good words, good deeds, and the central purpose of a devout Parsi's life is not to withdraw from the world, but to engage it fully. Their one-time practice of adopting family names related to their occupations added a touch of charm to Mumbai’s life: there are Parsis named Doctor and Engineer and Readymoney, and many others have names ending in "wallah”. The tight-knit community continued to shrink steadily. In 2006 the New York Times reported there were probably less than 190,000 Zoroastrians worldwide. Yet the Parsi community has influenced India well out of proportion to their numbers and they produced leaders in diverse fields.

Nearly a century old, Bombay House the iconic global headquarters of the Tata Group is one of the prominent buildings in the historic business district of Mumbai. The founder Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was born in 1839 into a Parsi family originally settled in Navsari, Gujarat, and many of his forefathers had been Zoroastrian priests. At 29 Jamsetji laid the foundation of the Tata Group and established a trading company in Bombay in 1868. Starting during the high noon of the British Empire, he made his initial fortune trading cotton, tea, copper, and brass and then set up the Empress Mills (cotton textile mill) in Nagpur in 1877. By the nineteenth century standards, the enterprising and nationalist industrialist was well-traveled and fascinated by new inventions. Legend has it that the founder of the group Jamsetji set his mind on building a ‘palace hotel’ in Bombay after being denied entry into the elite ‘for Europeans only’ Watson Hotel. On 16 December 1903, the luxurious Taj Mahal Hotel complete with American fans, German elevators, Turkish baths, and English butlers opened its doors for business and eventually became a well-known global brand in hospitality as Taj Group of Hotels.

From its inception philanthropy was the heart of the Tata empire, Jamsetji’s factories set new standards by investing substantially in employee welfare. Jamsetji also established the J. N. Tata Endowment in 1892 rooted in the belief that India’s finest minds would have to be enriched to alleviate poverty. The Tata scholarships, succeeded to the extent that by 1924, two out of every five Indians joining into the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were Tata scholars. To cap his lifework, Jamsetji dreamed of starting an iron and steel mill. He died before his plans could be carried out, but three years later, in 1907, his sons began such a mill. Informed of their plans, Sir Frederick Upcott, chairman of the board of Indian Railways, said that Indians were incapable of making steel, and swore to eat every pound of rail produced. When British banks refused to finance the Tatas, they turned to their people. Shopkeepers and maharajas stood in line to invest the fabulous sum of $9,000,000 to set up the Tata Iron and Steel Works factory at Jamshedpur. Following in the footsteps of their father, Jamsetji’s two sons left most of their shares in the Tata companies and wealth to charitable trusts.

Jehangir Ratan Dadabhoy Tata (JRD) the second of five children of the prosperous Ratanji Dadabhai Tata and Suzanne, his French wife, was born in 1904 in Paris. Speaking French from early childhood JRD alternated between India, Japan, and France. He was drafted into the French army for a mandatory one-year period just as he was about to go to Cambridge University. After completing National Service in France, he wanted to extend his service in the forces, but the family asked him to return to Bombay and join Tata & Sons, then a modest but expanding industrial house, as an unpaid apprentice. Shortly thereafter, the regiment in which he served was wiped out during an expedition in Morocco. In 1929, at 25, JRD surrendered his French citizenship to embrace the country that would become the central motif of his life.

On his arrival at Bombay House, JRD’s mentor in business was John Peterson, a Scotsman who had joined the group after serving in the Indian Civil Service (ICS). JRD’s role model in management remained the ICS. The workers of Tata Iron and Steel Works went on strike from 1 June to 12 September 1928. The ended in a compromise with the intervention of a young President of the Mazdoor Sangh at Tata Iron and Steel Works factory who was the only Indian to have resigned from the ICS – his name was Subhas Chandra Bose.

In 1932, the youthful JRD caught India's imagination by flying solo on the first ever civil flight in the history of Indian aviation from Drigh Road in Karachi (now in Pakistan) to Ahmedabad and on to Bombay in a Puss Moth aircraft. With a humanitarian vision to knit India close together, JRD launched the Tata Aviation Service, the forerunner to Tata Airlines and Air India. By 1938, at the age of 34, JRD was elected Chairman of Tata & Sons making him the head of the largest industrial group in India. When JRD took over as Chairman from Sir Nowroji Saklatvala, he was the youngest member of the Tata Sons board, and he took the Tata Group to unassailable heights by the time of India’s independence. On 15 August 1947, the national dailies ran a Tata Industries advertisement, stating, “In this great hour of India’s destiny we offer our homage to those who fought and suffered so that she may be free … With freedom’s battle won, let us dedicate ourselves to creating a happier and fuller life for the people of India and building a land in which, as the Poet has sung, ‘the mind is without fear and the head is held high.’ Then alone shall we be worthy of our great heritage.” The advertisement ended with listing all of the nine Tata Group companies in 1947, all in India. The chairman J.R.D. had earlier refused a knighthood that had been offered by the British Government.

While the Japanese and Korean companies achieved miraculous global success in the post-WW2 era, Indians shot themselves in the foot with the socialist license-permit raj. JRD held two factors chiefly responsible for retarding India's industrial growth - the socialist policies of the prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, which he said contributed only to redistributing poverty, and India's astronomical population growth. Prime Minister Nehru once told JRD that he hated the word profit. "Jawaharlal, I am talking about the need of the public sector making a profit," JRD protested. "Never talk to me about the word profit; it is a dirty word," Nehru replied. Both chose to agree to disagree, and they remained friends. But JRD persisted and Wall Street bankers opened their doors to the distinguished Indian tycoon. In the years that JRD led the sprawling industrial giant, he molded it into India's most diverse and respected industrial empire. As one Tata manager put it, you can find Tata almost everywhere: “From tea to IT.” The company played on its reputation - one of its ads jokingly boasted: “We also make steel!”. More importantly, it prides itself on its ethics - 66% of the business is owned by charities and its slogan became ‘growth with ethics’. On one occasion, a senior executive of the Tata Company tried to save on taxes. When faced by JRD the executive said: “But, Sir it is not illegal.” “Not illegal, yes, but is it right?” inquired JRD. With an admirable reputation in the financial circles and investment banking community of the world, JRD was ultimately vindicated when India opted for a market economy in 1990. Under his leadership over five decades, the company assets grew from USD 100 million to over USD 5 billion the Tata Group was a conglomerate of over ninety-five enterprises.

In 1991, after voluntarily stepping down as Chairman of Tata & Sons, JRD sold more of his shares and an apartment in Bombay to establish the JRD and Thelma Tata Trust, which works to improve the lot of India's disadvantaged women. Known to be a man of great sensitivity, under his guidance, the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust Trust established Asia’s first cancer hospital, the Tata Memorial Center for Cancer, Research and Treatment, Bombay, in 1941. It also founded the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, 1936 (TISS), the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, 1945 (TIFR) – India’s greatest gift to the scientific world, which became the cradle of India’s atomic energy program; and the National Center for Performing Arts. He was the prime mover behind the founding of the International Institute of Population Studies in collaboration with the United Nations in 1956. in 1992, because of his selfless humanitarian endeavors, JRD was awarded India’s highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna – one of the rarest instances in which this award was granted during a person’s lifetime. When informed about the award JRD is known to have remarked, “Oh, my God, why me? Can't we do something to stop it?” After accepting the award he said, “I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country.” The doyen of Indian industrialists, JRD passed away in his sleep in Geneva State Hospital on 29 November 1993. An epoch had ended.

Earlier on 25 March 1991, Ratan Tata, who belonged to a different branch of the Tata family had taken over the leadership of the conglomerate. After graduating from New York State’s Cornell University in architecture studies and initially working in Los Angeles, Ratan Tata learned the ropes on the steel shop floor in Jamshedpur starting in 1962 and later moved into senior management. In 1984 Ratan Tata announced that the future belonged to IT and twenty years later Tata Consultancy Services had gone public and was powering the IT revolution in India. Under Ratan Tata’s visionary leadership, the Tata Group ventured abroad and soon employed more than 350,000 people worldwide with a presence in over 100 countries. Founded under British colonial rule it became Britain’s biggest manufacturing employer by buying out British carmaker Jaguar Land Rover from Ford for $2.3bn in 2008. The reacquisition of the national carrier Air India in 2022, which was founded by JRD Tata but nationalized in 1953, was another feather in his cap. On turning 75 in 2012, Ratan Tata retired from his executive role in the Tata Group. During Ratan Tata’s 21 years as chairman from 1991 to 2012, the company remained at the forefront of multiple new businesses in India from electric vehicles to renewable energy. The Tata Group grew from USD 5 billion to USD 100 billion and profits multiplied fifty times. The Tata Trusts, India’s largest private-sector philanthropic organisation continued charitable work in multiple arenas from education, education, and skill development to healthcare, and disaster relief and rehabilitation. With a genteel demeanour, he was celebrated as India’s ideal tycoon and admired for his unpretentiousness. He proved that it was possible to succeed and even reach the top in India with honest and ethical business practices.

On 10 October 2024, India woke up to the news that Ratan Tata had died. He was 86. His survivors include his stepmother, Simone; his younger brother, Jimmy; a half-brother, Noel; and two half-sisters, Shireen and Deanna Jejeebhoy. Ratan Tata was one of India’s most admired business magnets who transformed the over 150-year-old family’s business conglomerate, the Tata Group, into a successful multinational corporation with globally recognisable brands.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, in a moving message, called him “a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being”. Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that Ratan Tata left behind an extraordinary business and philanthropic legacy and was instrumental in mentoring and developing modern business leadership in India. Cornell University’s Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff stated, “Ratan’s quiet demeanour and humility belied his international profile. His generosity and concern for others enabled research and scholarship that improved the education and health of millions of people in India and beyond, and extended Cornell’s global impact.” Well-wishers queued outside Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, to bid him farewell as the Mumbai police honored him with a ceremonial gun salute.

For the Indians, the Tata Group symbolises one of the world’s great success stories for its historic connection and remarkable contribution to the very fabric of our nation. It’s an extraordinary and legendary India-owned enterprise that has made a difference in the world with its art of giving.