Tata Group

• Date founded: 1868
• Industry: Varied (steel, automotive, insurance, power, chemicals, teleservices, beverages, communications, information systems, and hotels)
• Corporate headquarters: Mumbai, India
• Type: Private

Overview

The Tata Group is a multinational corporation of more than one hundred companies based in Mumbai, India. The company was founded as a trading firm in 1868 and expanded into the hotel business at the start of the twentieth century. Within two decades, it branched out into steel, electricity, aviation, and other pursuits. By the mid-2020s, the Tata Group had estimated revenues of more than $160 billion. Among its companies, Tata Communications was one of the world's leading telecommunications firms; Tata Motors was one of the top ten automakers in the world; and Tata Steel was one of the top fifteen steelmakers. The majority of the Tata Group was held by Tata Sons, a charitable trust endowed by members of the Tata family. Natarajan Chandrasekaran was the Chairman of Tata Sons beginning in 2017.

History

In 1868, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, a twenty-nine-year-old working for his father's banking company, established a trading company in what was then called Bombay (now Mumbai), India. In 1869, he entered the textile industry, turning an old property in Bombay into a cotton mill. He sold the property a few years later for a profit. After a journey to England to learn about the British textile industry, Jamsetji returned to India and founded several successful cotton mills.

Beginning in the 1880s, Jamsetji aspired to grow his business by moving into the hydroelectric power and the steel and iron industries. In 1892, he established the JN Tata Endowment to promote higher education in India. In 1903, the Tata Group opened the first luxury hotel in India—the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay.

After Jamsetji's death in 1904, his son, Sir Dorab Tata, took over the business. He followed his father's wishes by establishing the Tata Iron and Steel Company in 1907. Seven years later, the company's first plant in Jamshedpur in eastern India began production. In 1910, the Tata Hydro-Electric Power Supply Company, the first of what would become three Tata-run electric companies, was established. The companies operated independently until 2000 when they were merged into a single entity. In 1911, the Tata Group established the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in southern India.

In 1932, the group established Tata Airlines, which launched its first domestic flights in 1938. The airline was renamed Air India Ltd. in 1946. Air India was nationalized in 1953 when it was bought out by the Indian government. The decision was opposed by the Tata Group's then chairman JRD Tata. Under his leadership, the company expanded into chemicals, technology, cosmetics, tea, and other industries. The Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company was created in 1945 as a manufacturer of engineering and locomotive products. About a decade later, the company began manufacturing automobiles. In 2003, it was rechristened as Tata Motors.

In 1968, the Tata Group established India's first software services company when it formed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Three years later, Tata opened its first international business with the founding of Tata Precision Industries in Singapore. In 1996, Tata Teleservices was created to take advantage of the booming telecommunications business. Five years later, the Tata Group entered into a joint venture with the insurance company American International Group (AIG) to form Tata AIG.

Impact

In the 2020s, Tata enterprises included over thirty companies operating in more than one hundred countries. Each company functioned independently with its own board of directors and shareholders. The majority shareholder of the Tata Group is Tata Sons, a philanthropic trust established by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata and his sons. About 66 percent of Tata Sons' investments are tied to charity trusts, mainly Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and Sir Ratan Tata Trust, which provide funds for a variety of causes.

Among the Tata Group's most noteworthy businesses are Tata Communications, the predominant international telecommunications service in India. The company was formed in 2002 after the Tata Group bought a controlling stake in Indian telecommunication giant Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL). In 2007, Tata Steel merged with the British-Dutch metals manufacturing company Corus Group to form the second-largest steelmaking company in India. Tata Consultancy Services lists itself as the second-largest information technology services company in the world when ranked by market value and profit. In 2004, TCS went public in the largest private sector initial public offering (IPO) in the history of the Indian stock market.

The Tata Oil Mills Company—founded in 1917 as a soap, detergent, and cooking oil company—and Lakme Cosmetics—created in 1952—were both sold to international food and personal care product giant Unilever in 1984. In 2000, Tata Tea acquired the British company Tetley Tea to create the world's second-largest tea manufacturer. In 2010, Tata Tea renamed itself Tata Global Beverages, and in 2020, Tata Global Beverages and Tata Chemicals merged, forming Tata Consumer Products Limited.

Tata Motors is one of India's largest automobile companies. In 2002, the company created the Indica, a supermini vehicle touted as the first passenger car designed and produced in India. Two years later, the company purchased the truck-manufacturing arm of South Korea's Daewoo Motors. In 2008, Tata purchased the British luxury vehicle maker Jaguar Land Rover from the Ford Motor Company. That same year, Tata Motors unveiled the Tata Nano, a vehicle billed as the world's "cheapest" car. The marketing strategy, however, backfired as consumers were turned off by the word cheapest. By 2017, the Nano was rebranded the Nano EV and was planned to be reintroduced as an electric vehicle.

By the mid-2020s, the company was reporting revenues of over $165 billion. Tata Group announced intentions to invest $18 billion in electronics and semiconductors and build nine new factories between 2025 and 2027. The company acquired 60 percent of electronics company Pegatron India and over 25 percent of India's iPhone industry. In 2022, it acquired Air India.

Bibliography

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"Face of Tata Group to Change in Next Decade, Ratan Tata Says." Reuters, 20 Sept. 2017, www.reuters.com/article/us-tata-sons-strategy/face-of-tata-group-to-change-in-next-decade-ratan-tata-says-idUSKCN1BV2RT. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.

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"Tata Group Plans 18 Billion Investment in Electronics and Semiconductors." Communications Today, 6 Jan. 2025, www.communicationstoday.co.in/tata-group-plans-18-billion-investment-in-electronics-and-semiconductors. Accessed 27 Jan. 2025.

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