Tata Group

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Tata Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded in 1868 by Jamsetji Tata and gained international recognition after purchasing several global companies. It is one of India's largest conglomerates and is owned by "Tata Sons", a charity registered with the Charity commissioner in India.

Each Tata company or enterprise operates independently under the guidance and supervision of its own board of directors and shareholders. There are 30 publicly listed Tata enterprises with a combined market capitalisation of about $145 billion as of November 2017. Tata companies with significant scale include Jaguar, Land Rover, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Power, Tata Chemicals, Tata Global Beverages, Tata Teleservices, Titan, Tata Communications and Taj Hotels.

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Chairman

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1868-1904)
Sir Dorab Tata (1904-1932)
Nowroji Saklatwala (1932-1938)
JRD Tata (1938-1991)
Ratan Tata (1991-2012)
Cyrus Pallonji Mistry (2012-2016)
Ratan Tata (2016-2017)
Natarajan Chandrasekaran (2017-present)

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Subsidiaries

This section lists the Tata companies and details their business:

Chemicals

Consumer products

Energy

Engineering

Information systems and communications

Services

Steel

Acquisitions:

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, $165 million
December 2005 - Brunner Mond Chemicals, $10 million
June 2006 - Eight O'Clock Coffee, $220 million
November 2006 - Ritz Carlton Boston, $170 million
January 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
January 2008 - Imacid Chemical Company, Morocco
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
October 2008 - Miljo Grenland / Innovasjon, Norway
April 2010 - Hewitt Robins International, United Kingdom
July 2013 - Alti SA, France
December 2014 - Energy Products Limited, India
June 2016 - Welspun Renewables Energy, India

Who owns how much in Tata group firms? - Livemint

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Philanthropy

The Tata Group has helped establish and finance numerous research, educational and cultural institutes in India. The Tata Group was awarded the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 for philanthropic activities. Some of the institutes established by the Tata Group are:

The Energy and Resources Institute (formerly known as Tata Energy and Research Institute), a non-governmental research institute
The JRD Tata Ecotechnology Centre
National Centre for Performing Arts
Tata Center for Technology & Design at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tata Centre for Technology & Design at IIT Bombay
Tata Cricket Academy
Tata Football Academy
Tata Institute of Social Sciences
Tata Management Training Centre
Tata Medical Center, inaugurated on 16 May 2011 by Ratan Tata
Tata Memorial Hospital
Tata Trusts, a group of philanthropic organisations run by the head of the business conglomerate Tata Sons

Tata Cancer Hospital

The Tata Group donated INR 2.20 billion ($50 million) to the Harvard Business School (HBS) to build an academic and a residential building on the institute's campus in Boston, Massachusetts. The new building is called the Tata Hall and is used for the institute's executive education programmes. This amount is the largest given from an international donor to Harvard Business School.

In 2017, Tata Football Academy has won the bid to form a football club based on Jamshedpur of Jharkhand in the 4th edition of Indian Super League along with Bengaluru FC.

Tata Technologies: One of the best kept secrets of the Tata Group ...

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Controversies and criticisms

The Tata Group has also attracted several controversies and criticisms, including the following.

Munnar, Kerala

The Kerala Government 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 said they possessed 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 was a shortage of 278.23 hectares in that. The Chief Minister of Kerala V.S. Achuthanandan, who vowed to evict all on government land in Munnar, formed a special squad for the Munnar land takeover mission and started acquiring back properties. However, later he had to abort the mission as there were many influential land grabbers and faced opposition from his own party.

Kalinganagar, Odisha

On 2 January 2006, policemen at Kalinganagar, Odisha, 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.

Supplies to Burma's military regime

Tata Motors reported that deals to supply hardware and automobiles to Burma's military junta had 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. In 2009, TATA Motors announced that it would press ahead with plans to manufacture trucks in Myanmar.

Land acquisition in Singur

The Singur controversy in West Bengal led to further questions over Tata's social record, with protests by locals and political parties (though the involvement of Mamata Banerjee's party was widely criticised as an act for political gains) 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 then Chief Minister of Gujarat, who quickly made land available for the Nano project.

In a historic judgement on Aug 31 2016, the Honorable Supreme Court of India set aside the land acquisition by the West Bengal Government in 2006 to facilitate Tata Motors to set up its Nano plant, and directed the West Bengal government to take possession of the land and distribute it to the land owners within 12 weeks.

Dhamra Port, Odisha

On the environmental front, the Port of Dhamara controversy has received significant coverage, both within India and in Tata's emerging global markets.

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. 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 say that the port could interfere with mass nesting at the Gahirmtha beaches and the ecology of the Bitharkanika mangrove forest.

Soda extraction plant in Tanzania

Tata group, along with a Tanzanian company, joined forces to build a soda ash extraction plant in Tanzania. Environmental activists oppose the plant because it would be near Lake Natron, and it has a very high chance of affecting the lake's ecosystem and its neighbouring dwellers.

It could also jeopardise the Lesser Flamingo birds there, which are already endangered. Lake Natron is where two-thirds of Lesser Flamingos reproduce. 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 makeup of the lake. 22 African nations are against the creation of the project and have signed a petition to stop its construction.

Data and intellectual property theft

In April 2016, a U.S. Federal Grand Jury awarded Epic Systems a $940 million judgement against Tata Consultancy Services and Tata America International Corp. Filed Oct. 31, 2014, the charges accused Tata of "brazenly stealing the trade secrets, confidential information, documents and data" and that the 6,477 unauthorized downloads could be used to enhance Tata's competing product, Med Mantra.