| Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Conglomerate |
| Founded | 1868 |
| Founder(s) | Jamsedji Tata |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Ratan Tata (Chairman)[1] |
| Products | Automotive, steel, telecommunications, metals, financial services, hotels, property development, energy, engineering products, consumer products, chemicals, information technology, retailing |
| Revenue | US$ 83.3 billion (2010-11)[2] |
| Profit | US$ 5.8 billion (2010-11)[2] |
| Total assets | US$ 68.9 billion (2010-11)[2] |
| Owner(s) | Tata Sons |
| Employees | 424,365 (2010-11)[2] |
| Subsidiaries | List of subsidiaries |
| Website | www.tata.com |
Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.[3] It is one of the largest conglomerates in India by market capitalization and revenue. It has interests in communications and information technology, engineering, materials, services, energy, consumer products and chemicals. Tata Group has operations in more than 80 countries across six continents and its companies export products and services to 80 nations. It comprises 114 companies and subsidiaries in eight business sectors,[4] 27 of which are publicly listed. 65.8% of the ownership of Tata Group is held in charitable trusts.[5] 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 (including Tetley), Tata Chemicals, Titan Industries, Tata Power, Tata Communications, Tata Sons, 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 current 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.[6] The company is currently in its fifth generation of family stewardship.[7] TATA Group's 114 companies are held by its main company Tata Sons and the main owner of Tata Sons are various charitable organisations developed and run by Tata Group. Out of which JRD Tata Trust & Sir Ratan Tata Trust are the main holders. About 65% ownership of Tata Sons which is the key holding company of the other 114 Tata Group Company is held by various charitable organisations.
The 2009, annual survey by the Reputation Institute ranked Tata Group as the 11th most reputable company in the world.[8] The survey included 600 global companies. The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality research, educational and cultural institutes in India.[9][10] The group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of its long history of philanthropic activities.[11] Tata gets more than 2/3 of its revenue from outside India.[12] In June 2011, based on market value Tata Group has become India's wealthiest group with $98.7 billion.[13]
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The beginning of the Tata Group can be traced back to 1868,[14] when Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata established a trading company dealing in cotton in Bombay (now Mumbai), British India.[15] This was followed by the installation of 'Empress Mills' in Nagpur in 1877. Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay (now Mumbai) was opened for business in 1903. Sir Dorab Tata, the eldest son of Jamsetji Tata became the chairman of the group after his father's 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, 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.[16]
This section lists the Tata companies and details their business:
Chemicals
Consumer Products
Energy
Engineering
Information systems and Communications
Services
Steel
The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous quality research, educational and cultural institutes in India.[9][10] The Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 in recognition of the group's long history of philanthropic activities.[11] Some of the institutes established by the Tata Group are:
The Tata Group has donated a Rs. 220 crore ($50 million) to the prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS) to build an academic and a residential building on the institute’s campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The new building will be called the Tata Hall and used for the institute’s executive education programmes.[18] The amount is the largest from an international donor in the business school's 102-year-old existence.
The recent The Brand Trust Report,[19] 2011 has ranked TATA as the second most trusted brands of India.
One Tata project that brought together Tata Group companies (TCS, Titan Industries and Tata Chemicals) was developing a compact, in-home water-purification device. It was called Tata swach which means “clean” in Hindi and would cost less than 1000 rupees (US $21). The idea of Tata swach was thought of from the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which left thousands of people without clean drinking water. This device has filters that last about a year long for a family of five. It is a low-cost product available for people who have no access to safe drinking water in their homes.[20] The advantage of this device is that it does not require the use of electricity.[21]
TCS also designed and donated an innovative software package that teaches illiterate adults how to read in 40 hours. “The children of the people who have been through our literacy program are all in school,” says Pankaj Baliga, global head of corporate social responsibility for TCS. [20]
In 1912, Tata Group expanded their CEO’s concept of community philanthropy to be included in the workplace. They instituted an eight-hour workday, before any other company in the world. In 1917, they recommend a medical-services policy for Tata employees. The company would be among the first worldwide to organise modern pension systems, workers’ compensation, maternity benefits, and profit-sharing plans.[20]
Trusts created by Tata Group control 65.8% of company shares[22] , so it can be sait that about 66% of the profits of Tata Group go to charity.[23] The charitable trusts of Tata Group fund a variety of projects, for example the Tata Swach and the TCS project. They founded and still support such cherished institutions as the Indian Institute of Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Tata Memorial Hospital. Each Tata Group company channels more than 4 percent of its operating income to the trusts and every generation of Tata family members has left a larger portion of its profit to them.[20]
After the Mumbai attacks, Salries of then heavily attacked Taj Hotel employees were paid despite the hotel being closed for reconstruction. About 1600 employees were provided food, water, sanitation and first aid through employee outreach centres. Ratan Tata personally visited families of all the employees that were affected. The employee’s relatives were flown to Mumbai from outside areas and were all accommodated for 3 weeks. Tata also covered compensation for railway employees, police staff, and pedestrians. The market vendors and shop owners were given care and assistance after the attacks. A psychiatric institution was established with the Tata Group of Social Science to counsel those who were affected from the attacks and needed help. Tata also granted the education of 46 children of the victims of the terrorist attacks.[24][25]
Despite their public commitment to philanthropy the Tata group has attracted several controversies. Here are some:
The Kerala Government had filed an affidavit in the high court saying that Tata Tea had 'grabbed' forest land of 3,000 acres (12 km2) at Munnar. The Tatas, on the other hand, say they possess 58,741.82 acres (237.7197 km2) of land, which they are allowed to retain under the Kannan Devan Hill (Resumption of Lands) Act, 1971, and there is a shortage of 278.23 hectares in that. Chief Minister of Kerala V.S. Achuthanandan, who vowed to evict all government land in Munnar formed a special squad for the Munnar land takeover mission. However, later he had to abort the mission as there were many other influential land grabbers and faced opposition from his own party.
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.[26]
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.[27]
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.[28] In 2009, TATA Motors announced that it would press ahead with plans to manufacture trucks in Myanmar.[29][30]
The Singur controversy[31] 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.[32]
On the environmental front, the Port of Dhamara controversy has received significant coverage, both within India and in Tata’s emerging global markets.[33][34]
The Dhamra port, a venture between Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro, has come in for criticism for its proximity to the Gahirmatha Sanctuary and Bhitarkanika National Park, from Indian and international organisations, including Greenpeace. Gahirmatha Beach is one of the world’s largest mass nesting sites for the Olive Ridley Turtle and Bhitarkanika 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.[35] On the other hand, conservation organisations, 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.[36][37]
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.[38][39]
Tata, along with a Tanzanian company, joined forces to build a soda ash extraction plant in Tanzania.[40] The Tanzanian government is all for the project.[40] 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 neighbouring dwellers.[41]
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.[41] It could also jeopardise the Lesser Flamingo birds there, which are already endangered. Lake Natron is where two thirds of Lesser Flamingos reproduce.[42] 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.[40] Twenty-two African nations are against the creation of the project and have signed a petition to stop its construction.[40]
The international brand consultancy Brand Finance has ranked the $68-billion conglomerate, Tata Group,as 50th most valuable brand in the world.The most recent Global 500 report by Brand Finance shows that despite the controversies, Tata Group's brand value has soared to $15.08 billion for the current year compared to $11.2 billion last year in 2010.[43]