Ratan Tata: A titan moves on

A file photo of Ratan Naval Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons, at the inaugural function of the ninth Auto Expo in New Delhi, India. A beacon of India Inc. and philanthropist, Tara steered a sprawling corporate empire and its global expansion, taking the group's revenue from $4 billion to $100 billion with a slew of big buys.

An early photograph of Ratan Tata with his uncle and mentor, JRD Tata. JRD handed over the reins to Ratan Tata, thus succeeding him as Chairman in 1991. It was a decision that surprised many company veterans as several senior contenders were in the group.

A family portrait of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata with cousin RD Tata and sons Ratan Tata & Dorab Tata at  TATA Steel of India and South East Asia office in Jamshedpur, India. A portrait of Ratan Tata before the bust of Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata at Tata House, Mumbai, India.

Ratan Tata (left) with his younger brother Jimmy & family pet in his schooldays in 1945.
Ratan Tata during his time in Los Angeles in 1962, where he worked with Jones & Emmons.

Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata presses a key on a laptop to list India's largest software company, Tata Consultancy, on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange as TCS Managing Director S.Ramadorai (3L) looks on in Bombay, August 25, 2004.  TCS leapt as much as 27 percent as the company made its stock market debut after staging the country's biggest-ever initial public offering.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons and Cyrus Mistry (right), Deputy Chairman of Tata Sons, meet with Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma (left) on December 22, 2011, in New Delhi, India. Mistry, who took charge of the Group from 2012 to 2016, was ousted after a fallout with Tata over issues like expansion and diversification.

(Left) Ratan Tata was seen at Tata's marquee Taj Mahal Palace Hotel on the day following the terrorist attack on the hotel in Mumbai on November 26, 2008. (Right) Ratan Tata, along with his staff, met at the renovated passage of the heritage wing of the Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai on August 12, 2010, after the renovations following the terrorist attack.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Motors, hands over keys of Tata Nano to its first owner, Ashok R. Vichare, a class one officer in Mumbai customs, on July 17, 2009, in Mumbai. Among the audacious projects that Tata helmed was this small car, aimed at providing vast middle-class Indians with a safe and affordable four-wheeler.

Tata Group chief Ratan Tata at the launch of Jaguar and Land Rover brands in Mumbai on June 28, 2009. Tata Group's estimated $2.3 billion purchase of Ford-owned British marquee brands was the Indian automotive industry's 'a giant leap' moment.

(L to R) B Mutharaman, Managing Director of Tata Steel; Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Steel; James Leng, Chairman of Corus; and Philippe Varian, Chief Executive of Corus, shake hands during a photocall in central London, following the announcement that the Indian company would purchase Anglo-Dutch steel company Corus on October 20, 2006. The 4.3 billion pound ($8.04 billion) takeover bid for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group, India's largest ever, was expected to create the world's fifth-largest steel maker.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Group holds a glass of water from a Swach water filter during the product's unveiling in Mumbai on December 7, 2009. Among Tata's legacy of mass market innovation was this portable, replaceable filter-based purifier that uses low-cost natural ingredients, delivering safe drinking water, combating the rise of water-borne diseases.

(Left) Ratan Tata greets Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at the release of a commemorative postage stamp in honour of noted late Indian jurist Nani Palkhivala in Mumbai on January 16 2004. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confers a Doctorate of Literature to Ratan Tata during the 66th Annual convocation of Tata Institute of Social Sciences at Deonar, Mumbai on May 6, 2006.

Ratan Tata, Chairman of Tata Sons, photographed with Tata World Truck in Mumbai on June 28, 2009. Jointly developed by Tata Motors and its two subsidiaries, Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company in South Korea and the Tata Motors European Technical Centre plc in the UK, the launch comprises a range of trucks covering multi-axle trucks, tractor-trailers, tippers, mixers, and special application vehicles.

British Prime Minister David Cameron (C) chairs a meeting of the 'UK-India CEO Forum', at 10 Downing Street on February 3, 2011 in London, England. The business meeting was jointly chaired by the CEO of Standard Chartered, Peter Sands, and CEO of TATA, Ratan Tata and is the first of the UK-India CEO forums to be held here.

Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee (5th from right) and Minister of State for Finance Anand Sharma pose with business leaders (from left) Anand Mahindra, Anil Ambani, Y.C. Deveshwar, Narayana Murthy, Sunil Bharti Mittal, R.P. Goenka, Ratan Tata and G.M. Rao during a meeting in New Delhi on August 1, 2011. India's finance minister met with top industrialists to discuss how to boost Asia's third-largest economy as a government panel sharply cut the nation's growth forecast to 8.2 percent after a string of rate hikes has crimped economic activity.

(From left) Essar Group Chairman Shashi Ruia,  Chairperson of the Regional Government of Astrakhan Konstantin Markelov, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, former Gujarat state finance minister Vajubhai Vala, Japan's ambassador to India Takeshi Yagi, Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, Canadian High Commissioner to India Stewart Beck, Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata and British High Commissioner to India James Bevan hold their hands up together during the "Vibrant Gujarat Summit" at Gandhinagar, Gujarat on January 11, 2013. Begun by the Gujarat government to attract investments, the state remains a preferred destination for many corporates for its investor-friendly policies, good infrastructure, and quality workforce.

Starbucks Coffee Company's Chairman Howard Schultz (L) and Tata Group's Chairman Ratan Tata pose during a function to celebrate the launch of the country's first new Starbucks outlet in Mumbai on October 19, 2012. Starbucks, the world's biggest coffee chain, has finally entered the vast Indian market in a joint venture with the country's giant Tata, making an initial $78 million investment and aiming for 50 cafes by the year's end.

Air Asia Group CEO Tony Fernandes and Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group and Air Asia India stakeholder Ratan Tata speak to the media during their joint venture airline launch event in Bangalore on July 3, 2014. The launch of AirAsia India in June 2014 marked the Tata Group's foray into the airline business a second time.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) greets Indian businessman Ratan N. Tata with US Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (right) before a dinner at the US Ambassador's residence in New Delhi on July 30, 2014.

Ratan Tata speaks with a student during his visit to the Team Indus Foundation campus in Bangalore to launch the "Moonshot Wheels" bus on February 7, 2017. The Moonshot Wheels bus will traverse 12,500 km across 11 Indian states stopping at schools in rural India to give young students a glimpse of lunar and space exploration, with an aim to inspire the next generation about India's first private moon mission.

Ratan Tata greets Infosys founder N. Narayana Murthy at the inauguration of the Invest Karnataka 2016 event in Bangalore on February 3, 2016.

(Left)Ratan Tata prepares for a flight in the backseat of a US Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet aircraft during the third day of the Aero India 2007 air show at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, in Bangalore on February 9, 2007. (Right) Ratan Tata looks at Tata Power'  Akash' Air Force Launcher and Multi Barrel Rocket Launcher in the French Defence Industry Pavilion at the International Defence Exhibition "Defexpo India-2004" in New Delhi on February 4 2004.

(Right) President K R Narayanan presents Padma Bhushan award to  Ratan Tata at Rashtrapati Bhawan in 2000 in New Delhi. (Left) President Pratibha Patil presents the Padma Vibhushan, a civilian Honour to Ratan Tata, former chairman of Tata Sons, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on May 10, 2008.

Tata Trusts Chairman Ratan Tata addresses the inaugural UCLA-Tata Global Forum on "Innovating for a Sustainable Energy Future" on January 11, 2016 in New Delhi, India.  The two-day global forum is aimed at bringing together leading UCLA energy environment scholars with Indian business and government leaders for a discussion on sustainable energy sources.

Ratan Tata and RSS head Mohan Bhagwat at Yashwant Natya Mandir, Mahim during an event to honour NGO Nana Palkar Smruti Samiti's 50 years of work among the sick and the needy on August 24, 2018 in Mumbai, India. Nana Palkar Smruti Samiti was established in 1968, to perpetuate Nana Palkar's memory and to fulfill his mission to help the sick and needy.

Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis, Industrialist Ratan Tata and actor Akshay Kumar with students and dignitaries during the Transform Maharashtra event at NSCI, Worli, on May 1, 2017, in Mumbai, India. At the day-long conclave, shortlisted teams will be given the opportunity to present their ideas in a brainstorming session that is expected to last for five hours. The idea is to get suggestions from college students across the state and to use them to bring about changes in socio-economic sectors.

Indian industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata meet during Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony as Indian Prime Minister at the President house in New Delhi on May 30, 2019.

(Left) Actor Shabana Azmi and Ratan Tata attend the Dada Saheb Phalke Excellence Awards in Mumbai on April 25, 2016. (Right) Ratan Tata at a ceremony to mark the completion of restoration work funded largely by the Aga Khan Trust at Humayun's Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage site, on September 18, 2013, in New Delhi, India.

Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group and present chairman Natarajan Chandrashekharan (right) take part in the 179th Founders Day celebrations in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand state on February 3, 2018. The event marked 179 years since the birth of Indian industrialist Jamsetji Tata who founded the Tata Group, which is now India's largest conglomerate.

Ratan Tata with Founder Shantanu Naidu during the launch of Goodfellows, India's first companionship startup for senior citizens, at President Hotel, Cuffe Parade on August 16, 2022 in Mumbai, India. The new startup offers companionship for the elderly and focusses on how to make them feel less lonely.