The passing of Padma Vibhushan Ratan Naval Tata in Mumbai, the headquarters of the Tata conglomerate that he led for over two decades, marks in many ways the end of an era for the Tata group and the wider world of Indian business. Ratan Tata’s tenure as head of the group was co-terminus with the era of liberalisation that dramatically changed the Indian business landscape, driving him to bold bets, deep changes and new directions. None of this was easy, given Ratan Tata was tasked with moving the group that was otherwise a part of the Indian story of the Hindu rate of growth. He asked it to move faster and look higher.

This meant making changes so that Ratan Tata could first take full control from the Tata old guard, and then move the organisation to rethinking scope and size. Building the world’s cheapest car (or the people’s car, as the Nano was called), taking the software giant TCS public, buying up Tetley and Jaguar Land Rover are just a few highlights from a career that shook the group on the one hand but kept the ship steady at the same time.

It was a challenging journey that never fully came to be told in all its detail, given that Ratan Tata preferred to work in the quiet and remained an introvert all his life, quite the reverse........

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