INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A believer in both services and manufacturing
Photographer: Brian Harkin/Getty Images4 min read Last Updated : Oct 10 2024 | 9:39 AM IST
In India, the Tata name is ubiquitous
People see it on the packet of tea that wakes them up in the morning, on the buses that carry them to work, and in the hotels where they go
The centuries-old conglomerate he led has grown along with his country, from the first stirrings of an industrial economy in the
subcontinent with its steel plant in Jamshedpur, through the dreary years of socialism and the burst of post-liberalization optimism.Click
Under him, a group that made steel, trucks, and chemicals quickly diversified into small cars and information technology.
The shift
Today, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
desperately working to turn back the clock with sweeping industrial policies
The government would like companies to stay home and indigenize their entire supply chains.
Tata Sons Ltd Chief Executive Officer N
building, in response to a push from the government, three semiconductor fabrication factories and one chip testing and assembly
look so good in hindsight
In 2007, Tata bought Corus Group Ltd, which made steel in the plants that used to belong to the Dutch and British national producers,
Koninklijke Hoogovens and British Steel, respectively
The week that Ratan Tata passed is also the first week in centuries that no steel is being poured in the UK.
Nevertheless, India trusted
his judgment, even in matters of politics: When Tata Motors Ltd picked Modi-run Gujarat as the location for a new car factory in 2008, it
was seen as a sign that the private sector trusted then-controversial Modi above all other chief ministers
Its companies should manufacture in and for the world, not just focus on the domestic market
The rest of India should, too.
I grew up in Jamshedpur, the beautiful company town that the Tatas built around their giant steel plant
Ratan Tata was already a larger-than-life figure then
Jamshedpur, with its world-class facilities, its orderliness and its productivity, seemed a harbinger of what India could become
Opinion piece, and these are the personal opinions of the writer
They do not reflect the views of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaperFirst Published: Oct 10 2024 | 9:38 AMIST
