Tata Group (disambiguation).

The lists in this article may contain items that are not notable,
not encyclopedic, or not helpful. Please help out by removing such
elements and incorporating appropriate items into the main body of the
article. (June 2009)
This article is in a list format that may be better presented
using prose. You can help by converting this article to prose,
if appropriate. Editing help is available. (June 2009)

Tata Group

Type Private

Industry Conglomerate

Founded 1868

Founder(s) Jamshetji Tata

Headquarters Mumbai, India

Area served Worldwide

Key people Ratan Tata

[1]
(Chairman)

Products Steel
Automobiles
Telecommunications
Software
Hotels
Consumer goods
 Revenue  US$ 67.4 billion (2009-10)[2]

Total assets  US$ 52.8 billion (2009-10)

Employees 396,517 (2009-10)

Subsidiaries Tata Steel

Tata Steel Europe
Tata Motors
Tata Consultancy Services
Tata Technologies
Tata Tea
Titan Industries
Tata Power
Tata Communications
Tata Teleservices
Tata AutoComp Systems Limited
Taj Hotels

Website Tata.co.in

The Tata Group (Hindi: टाटा समह

ू ) is a multinational conglomerate company
headquartered in Mumbai, India. In terms of market capitalization and revenues, Tata
Group is the largest private corporate group in India. It has interests
in steel,automobiles, information technology, communication, power, tea and hospitality.
The Tata Group has operations in more than 85 countries across six continents and its
companies export products and services to 80 nations. The Tata Group comprises 114
companies and subsidiaries in seven business sectors,[3] 27 of which are publicly listed.
65.8% of the ownership of Tata Group is held in charitable trusts.[4] Companies which
form a major part of the group include Tata Steel (including Tata Steel Europe), Tata
Motors (including Jaguar and Land Rover), Tata Consultancy Services, Tata
Technologies, Tata Tea (includingTetley), Tata Chemicals, Titan Industries, Tata
Power, Tata Communications, Tata Teleservices and the Taj Hotels.

The group takes the name of its founder, Jamsedji Tata, a member of whose family has
almost invariably been the chairman of the group. The chairman of the Tata group
is Ratan Tata, who took over from J. R. D. Tata in 1991 and is one of the major
international business figures in the age of globality.[5] The company is currently in its
fifth generation of family stewardship.[6]
The 2009 annual survey by the Reputation Institute ranked Tata Group as the 11th most
reputable company in the world.[7]The survey included 600 global companies.

Contents
 [hide]

1 History
2 Engineering
3 Energy
4 Chemicals
5 Services
6 Consumer Products
7 Information systems and
communications
8 The Tata logo
9 Philanthropy and nation building
10 Tata acquisitions and targets
o 10.1 Targets
11 Revenue
12 Controversies and Criticisms
o 12.1 Kalinganagar, Orissa
o 12.2 Dow Chemicals, Bhopal Gas
Disaster
o 12.3 Supplies to Burma’s military
regime
o 12.4 Land acquisition in Singur
o 12.5 Dhamra Port
o 12.6 Soda extraction plant in
Tanzania
13 See also
14 References
15 External links

[edit]History

The beginnings of the Tata Group can be traced back to 1868,[8] when Jamsetji

Nusserwanji Tata established a trading company dealing in cotton in Bombay
(now Mumbai), British India.[9] This was followed by the installation of Empress
Mills inNagpur in 1877. Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai) was opened for
business in 1903. Sir Dorab Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji became the chairman of the
group after his fathers death in 1904. Under him, the group ventured into steel
production (1905) and hydroelectric power generation(1910). After the death of Dorab
Tata in 1934, Nowroji Saklatwala headed the group till 1938. He was succeeded
by Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata. The group expanded significantly under him with
the establishment of Tata Chemicals (1939), Tata Motors and Tata Industries (both
1945), Voltas (1954), Tata Tea (1962), Tata Consultancy Services (1968) and Titan
Industries (1984). Ratan Tata, the incumbent chairman of the group succeeded JRD
Tata in 1991.[10]

[edit]Engineering

The Tata Nano, world's cheapest car

 TAL Manufacturing Solutions exports titanium-composite floor beams that are

installed in the Boeing 787 aircraft.[11]
 Tata AutoComp Systems Limited (TACO) and its subsidiaries, auto-component
manufacturing
 Tata Motors (formerly Tata Engineering and Locomotives Company Ltd
(TELCO)), manufacturer of commercial vehicles(largest in India) and passenger cars
 Jaguar and Land Rover
 Tata Projects
 Tata Consulting Engineers Limited
 Telco Construction Equipment Company
 TRF Bulk Material Handling Equipment and Systems, and Port and Yard
Equipments.
 Voltas, consumer electronics company
 Voltas Global Engineering Centre
[edit]Energy
 Tata Power is one of the largest private sector power companies. It supplies
power to Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and is the retailer of electricity in
the northern suburbs of New Delhi.
[edit]Chemicals

 Rallis India
 Tata Pigments
 Tata Chemicals, headquartered in Mumbai, India, Tata Chemicals has the largest
single soda ash production capacity plant in India. Since 2006 Tata Chemicals has
owned Brunner Mond, a United Kingdom-based chemical company with operations
in Kenya and the Netherlands.
 Advinus Therapeutics, headquartered in Bangalore, Indian, a Contract research
organization focused on drug discovery and development for Pharmaceutical, Agro
and Biotech industries.
[edit]Services

 The Indian Hotels Company

 Tata Housing Development Company Ltd. (THDC)
 TATA AIG General Insurance
 TATA AIG Life Insurance
 Tata Advanced Systems Limited
 Tata Asset Management
 Tata Financial Services
 Tata Capital
 Tata Investment Corporation
 Tata Quality Management Services
 Tata Share Registry
 Tata Strategic Management Group (TSMG) is one of the largest consulting firms
in South Asia.
 Tata Services
 Tata Consulting Engineers Limited
[edit]Consumer Products

 Tata Salt, i-Shakti Salt, Tata Salt Lite

 Tata Swach water purifier
 Eight O'Clock Coffee
 Tata Ceramics
 Infiniti Retail
 Tata Tea Limited is the world's second largest manufacturer of packaged tea and
tea products. It also owns the Tetley brand of tea sold primarily in Europe.
 Titan Industries manufacturers of Titan watches
 Trent (Westside)
 Tata Sky
 Tata International Ltd - Leather Products Division
 Tanishq jewellery
 Star Bazaar
[edit]Information systems and communications

 Computational Research Laboratories

 INCAT
 Nelco
 Nelito Systems
 Tata Business Support Services (formerly Serwizsol)
 Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS) is Asia's largest software company with
2008-09 revenues being over US$ 6 bn.
 Tata Elxsi is another software and industrial design company of the Tata stable.
Based in Bangalore and Trivandrum.
 Tata Interactive Systems
 Tata Technologies Limited
 Tata Teleservices
 Tata Communications, formerly VSNL, the Indian telecom giant, was acquired in
2002. Tata-owned VSNL acquired Teleglobe in 2005.
 CMC Limited
 TATANET, Managed connectivity and VSAT service provider
[edit]The Tata logo
The Tata logo was designed by the Wolff Olins consultancy. The logo is meant to signify
fluidity; it may also be seen as a fountain of knowledge; maybe a tree of trust under
which people can take refuge.

[edit]Philanthropy and nation building

The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality research,
educational and cultural institutes in India.[12][13] The Tata Group was awarded the
Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of the group's long history of
philanthropic activities.[14] Some of the institutes established by the Tata Group are:

 Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

 Tata Institute of Social Sciences
 Indian Institute of Science
 National Centre for Performing Arts
 Tata Management Training Centre
 Tata Memorial Hospital
 Tata Football Academy
 Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic organizations run by the head of the
business conglomerate Tata Sons[15]
 The JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre
 The Energy and Resources Institute (earlier known as Tata Energy and Research
Institute) - which is an NPO completely committed to the cause of research in the
field of renewable energy.
A comprehensive list is available on the company website.

[edit]Tata acquisitions and targets

 February 2000 - Tetley Tea Company, $407 million

 March 2004 - Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company, $102 million
 August 2004 - NatSteel's Steel business, $292 million
 November 2004 - Tyco Global Network, $130 million
 July 2005 - Teleglobe International Holdings, $239 million
 October 2005 - Good Earth Corporation
 December 2005 - Millennium Steel, Thailand, $167 million
 December 2005 - Brunner Mond Chemicals Limited, $120 million
 June 2006 - Eight O'Clock Coffee, $220 million
 November 2006 - Ritz Carlton Boston, $170 million
 Jan 2007 - Corus Group, $12 billion
 March 2007 - PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) (Bumi Resources), $1.1 billion
 April 2007 - Campton Place Hotel, San Francisco, $60 million
 February 2008 - General Chemical Industrial Products, $1 billion
 March 2008 - Jaguar Cars and Land Rover, $2.3 billion
 March 2008 - Serviplem SA, Spain
 April 2008 - Comoplesa Lebrero SA, Spain
 May 2008 - Piaggio Aero Industries S.p.A., Italy
 June 2008 - China Enterprise Communications, China
 June 2008 - Neotel, South Africa.
 October 2008- Miljo Grenland / Innovasjon, Norway
 Imacid chemical company, Morocco [16]
[edit]Targets

 Close Brothers Group, $2.9 billion

 Orient-Express Hotels, $2.5 billion
 January 2008 - T-Systems International (IT division of Deutsche Telekom)
[edit]Revenue

Tata gets more than 2/3rd of its revenue from outside India.[16]

[edit]Controversies and Criticisms

[edit]Kalinganagar, Orissa
On 2 January 2006, policemen at Kalinganagar, Orissa, opened fire at a crowd of tribal
villagers. The villagers were protesting the construction of a compound wall on land
historically owned by them, for a Tata steel plant. Some of the corpses were returned to
the families in a mutilated condition. When pushed for comment, TATA officials said the
incident was unfortunate but that it would continue with its plans to set up the plant.[17]
[edit]Dow Chemicals, Bhopal Gas Disaster
In November 2006, survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster were outraged by Ratan Tata’s
offer to bail out Union Carbide and facilitate investments by Carbide’s new owner Dow
Chemical. Tata had proposed leading a charitable effort to clean-up the toxic wastes
abandoned by Carbide in Bhopal. At a time when the Government of India has held Dow
Chemical liable for the clean-up and requested Rs. 100 crores from the American MNC,
survivor’s groups felt that Tata’s offer was aimed at frustrating legal efforts to hold the
company liable, and motivated by a desire to facilitate Dow’s investments in India.[18]
[edit]Supplies to Burma’s military regime
TATA Motors reported deals to supply hardware and automobiles to Burma’s oppressive
and anti-democratic military junta has come in for criticism from human rights and
democracy activists. In December 2006, Gen. Thura Shwe Mann, Myanmar’s chief of
general staff visited the Tata Motors plant in Pune. ["Myanmar Ties." 8 December 2006.
The Telegraph, Calcutta, India]. In 2009, TATA Motors announced that it would press
ahead with plans to manufacture trucks in Myanmar.[19],[20]
[edit]Land acquisition in Singur
The Singur controversy[21] in West Bengal led to further questions over TATA’s social
record, with protests by locals and political parties over the forced acquisition, eviction
and inadequate compensation to those farmers displaced for the TATA Nano plant. As
the protests grew, and despite having the support of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) state government, TATA eventually pulled the project out of West Bengal,
citing safety concerns. The Singur controversy was one of the few occasions when
Ratan Tata was forced to publicly address criticisms and concerns on any environmental
or social issue. Ratan Tata subsequently embraced Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of
Gujarat, who quickly made land available for the Nano project.[22]
[edit]Dhamra Port
On the environmental front, the Dhamra port controversy has received significant
coverage, both within India and in Tata’s emerging global markets. (‘India – Tata in
troubled waters’, Ethical Corporation, November 2007, London, UK)[23]

The Dhamra port, a venture between TATA Steel and Larsen & Toubro, has come in for
criticism for its proximity to the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and Bitharkanika National Park,
from Indian and international organizations, including Greenpeace. Gahirmatha Beach is
one of the world’s largest mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridley
Turtle andBhitarkanika is a designated Ramsar site and India’s second largest mangrove
forest. TATA officials have denied that the port poses an ecological threat, and stated
that mitigation measures are being employed with the advice of the IUCN.[24] On the
other hand, conservation organizations, including Greenpeace, have pointed out that no
proper Environment Impact Analysis has been done for the project, which has
undergone changes in size and specifications since it was first proposed and that the
port could interfere with mass nesting at the Gahirmtha beaches and the ecology of the
Bitharkanika mangrove forest.[25],[26]

Protests by Greenpeace to Dhamra Port construction is also alleged to be less on

factual data and more on hype and DPCL's (Dhamra Port Company Limited) response
to Greenpeace questions harbours on these facts,[27][28].
[edit]Soda extraction plant in Tanzania
Tata, along with a Tanzanian company, joined forces to build a soda ash extraction plant
in Tanzania.[29] The Tanzanian government is all for the project.[29] On the other hand,
environmental activists are opposing the plant because it would be near Lake Natron,
and it could possibly affect the lake's ecosystem and its neighboring dwellers.[30]Tata was
planning to change the site of the plant so it would be built 32 km from the lake, but the
opposition still thinks it would negatively disturb the environment.[30] It could also
jeopardize the Lesser Flamingo birds there, which are already endangered. Lake Natron
is where two thirds of Lesser Flamingos reproduce.[31] Producing soda ash involves
drawing out salt water from the lake, and then disposing the water back to the lake. This
process could interrupt the chemical make up of the lake.[29] Twenty-two African nations
are against the creation of the project and have signed a petition to stop its construction.
[29]

[edit]See also

 Jamsetji Tata
 Dorabji Tata
 J.R.D.Tata
 Ratan Tata
 Pallonji Mistry
 Corus Group
[edit]References

1. ^ "GEO and GCC". Tata Group. Retrieved 2009-06-21.

2. ^ "Leadership with trust". Tata Group. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
3. ^ "Tata Companies". Tata Group. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
4. ^ "A tradition of trust". Community Initiatives. Tata.com. Archived from the original on
2006-05-23. Retrieved 2006-10-30.
5. ^ Sirkin, Harold L; James W. Hemerling, and Arindam K. Bhattacharya (11-06-
2008). GLOBALITY: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything. New
York: Business Plus, 304. ISBN 0-446-17829-2.
6. ^ "Tata Family Tree" (PDF). tatacentralarchives.com. Archived from the original on 2007-
03-25. Retrieved 2007-06-02.
7. ^ Kneale, Klaus (6 May 2009). "World's Most Reputable Companies: The
Rankings". Forbes. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
8. ^ "Our Heritage". Tata Group. Retrieved 2009-06-21.
9. ^ Huggler, Justin (1 February 2007). "From Parsee priests to profits: say hello to
Tata". The Independent. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
10. ^ Hazarika, Sanjoy (28 March 1991). "BUSINESS PEOPLE; Nephew to Take Over Tata
Company in India". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
11. ^ "India's Tatta Group to supply parts for Boeing Dreamliner". Agence France-
Presse. Google News. 6 February 2008. Retrieved 21 June 2009.
12. ^ "The rainbow effect". 4 May 2008.
13. ^ "India's Tata Group: Empowering marginalized communities". 4 May 2008.
14. ^ "U.S. and Indian philanthropists recognized for conviction, courage and sustained
efforts". 4 May 2008.
15. ^ "Ratan Tata gifts $50m to Cornell varsity". The Economic Times. 21 October 2008.
Retrieved 21 June 2009.
16. ^ a b Timmons, Heather (4 January 2008). "Tata Pul