Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who put a staid and sprawling Indian conglomerate on the global stage with a string of high-profile acquisitions, has died, the Tata Group said in a statement late on Wednesday. He was 86. Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years as chairman, had been undergoing intensive care in a Mumbai hospital, two sources with direct knowledge of his medical situation told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.
“It is with a profound sense of loss that we bid farewell to Mr. Ratan Naval Tata, a truly uncommon leader whose immeasurable contributions have shaped not only the Tata Group but also the very fabric of our nation” the company said. Ratan Tata “was a visionary business leader, a compassionate soul and an extraordinary human being,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on social media platform X.
“Extremely pained by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family, friends and admirers in this sad hour.” After graduating with an architecture degree from Cornell University, he returned to India and, in 1962, began working for the group his great-grandfather had founded nearly a century earlier.
He worked for several Tata companies, including Telco and now Tata Motors as well as Tata Steel, later making his mark by erasing losses and increasing market share at group unit National Radio & Electronics Company. In 1991, he took the helm of the conglomerate when his uncle J.R.
D. Tata stepped down – the passing of the bat.