Ratan Tata, the doyen of Indian industry, passed away on 9 October 2024.  He was 86 years old. I never met Mr. Tata personally but saw him briefly at Mumbai airport in 1992 and knew some of his very close associates.

The first time I saw Ratan Tata was in 1992 at the Mumbai International Airport.  I was going to Switzerland for a conference by Air India flight.  Near the flight gate the lines of Air India and Swissair were side by side.

Suddenly I glanced and saw Tata standing next to me in the Swissair line. He was carrying his small briefcase and a travel garment bag. There was nobody with him.

I was really amazed at his humility and unassuming nature that such a great man was standing like an ordinary person in line. In a short time one of the girls at the Swissair counter recognized him and immediately came to escort him to the aircraft. Tata neither made any fuss nor pulled his weight.

On the same occasion I also saw Nusli Wadia, former Chairman of Bombay Dyeing, coming with 5-6 policemen, cutting the security line and bypassing the X-ray scanning devices.  I did not see Wadia getting onto the plane, but it is quite possible that he may have barged into the flight with airport security in tow.   

This incident was a powerful indicator of the humility and unassuming nature of Tata.  Similar stories have been narrated by lots of people.

PM had high regard for Tata

The second time I saw Tata was during my Padma Awards Ceremony in March 2022. N. Chandrasekaran, the Chairman of Tata Sons, was getting Padma Bhushan on that same day and Ratan Tata had come in a wheelchair to witness this ceremony. There was no fuss created about his coming. He was not well, completely bent, and had difficulty getting out of the wheelchair but quietly sat in the third or fourth row.  Both these events showed Tata’s humbleness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a great regard for Ratan Tata. So, after the Padma ceremony and before the photo session, Modi spent 15 minutes behind closed doors with him. 

H. N. Sethna, the former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and the father of India’s nuclear project, was a good friend of mine. We both were in the Jamnalal Bajaj awards committee (he was the chairman) and we used to discuss lots of things together. He used to regale us with great stories of Homi Bhabha and BARC (Sethna was the founder of BARC).

Sethna was also a close relation of Ratan Tata.  Many times, he told me that I should go and see him and ask for funds.  Due to my stupidity I never went to meet Ratan Tata. Not getting the money was of no consequence but I lost a great opportunity to meet a great human being.

Philanthropy close to his heart

People have written a lot about Ratan Tata and are going to write more but I think his greatest legacy was that he stopped many very ambitious people from growing under the Tata umbrella (satraps of their enterprises) who were only interested in making money and were not concerned with philanthropy which was very dear to him. Ratan Tata followed the great tradition of Tatas where the focus was on philanthropy and CSR.

To my mind Ratan Tata’s greatest gift to the group was that he consolidated all the Tata companies under one umbrella with tighter control and mandated them to do more social work.

This legacy is being very ably followed by Ratan Tata’s successor N. Chandrasekaran.  I had the great satisfaction of addressing the Tata Group in June 2022 in Taj Hotel Mumbai, which included Chandrasekaran and about 40 CEOs of the major Tata companies.  The talk was on how to make the CSR work of Tata companies more effective.

In Ratan Tata’s death, India has lost a great patriot and a noble man, but his legacy will continue since he has chosen his successors well.