Heritage | Milestones | Tata Steel & Vivekananda | Testimonial from the Prime Minister's Office

The Founder : Pioneers : Landmark

Heritage

The Founder - Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904)

• Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata ranks among the greatest visionaries of Industrial enterprises of all time.

• Gifted with the most extraordinary imagination and prescience, he laid the foundations of Indian industry, contributed to its consolidation, and became a key figure in India’s industrial renaissance.

• Born on 3rd March, 1839 into a family descended from Parsi priests in Navsari, a centre for age-old Parsi culture, he was educated at Elphinstone College, Bombay.

• Initiated early into the techniques of trade by his father, he travelled wide, gained a scientific outlook, and set up at first, textile business in India, introducing new machinery that vastly improved the production of cotton yarn in the country. He however realised that India’s real freedom depended upon her self-sufficiency in scientific knowledge, power and steel, and thus devoted the major part of his life, and his fortune to three great enterprises – The Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore, the hydro-electric schemes, and the Iron & Steel Works at Jamshedpur.

• Wealth to him was not the end but a means to an end, the increased prosperity of India. His attitude to labour was remarkably ahead of his times, constantly reinforcing the norm that the success of industry depended upon sound and straightforward business principles, the interests of the shareholders, the health and welfare of the employees. As early as 1892, he established the J N Tata endowment for higher education abroad of outstanding Indian students.

• A pioneer in town planning, he was mainly responsible for modernising Bombay, he envisaged and conceived a steel town to the very last detail, later to be named Jamshedpur, after him.

Pioneers - Sir Dorabji Tata (1859-1933)

• J N Tata had exhorted to his sons to pursue and develop his life’s work; his elder son, Dorab Tata carried out the bequest with scrupulous zeal, and distinction.

• Thus, even though it was Jamsetji Tata who had envisioned the mammoth projects, it was in fact Dorab Tata who actually brought the ventures to existence and fruition. He was the first Chairman of the gigantic Tata enterprises.

• He had a deep interest in people. The great labour strike in 1920 in Jamshedpur ended in a day due to his intervention. It demonstrated India could have no better employer of labour than Sir Dorab.

• A great sportsman (riding, tennis, football, cricket), he was President of the Indian Olympic Association which he served keenly with liberal funds, and total commitment. He was the Founder of the Parsi Gymkhana of Bombay, and a founder member of the Willingdon Sports Club.

• His charities were numerous and munificent. The Dorab Tata Charitable Trust that he executed, covering property and crores of rupees is used today for innumerable charitable causes and institutions.

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhai Tata (1904-1993)

• JRD Tata has been one of the greatest builders and personalities of modern India in the twentieth century.

• He assumed Chairmanship of Tata Sons Limited at the young age of 34; but his charismatic, disciplined and forward-looking leadership over the next 50 years and more, led the Tata Group to new heights of achievement, expansion and modernisation. Under his stewardship, the number of Tata ventures grew from 13 to around 80, encompassing steel, power generation, engineering, hotels, consultancy services, information technology, art and culture, consumer goods, industrial products, etc.

• He was the pioneer of civil aviation in India. In 1932, he introduced air transport in the country--the enterprise later became Air India.

• He implicitly followed the principles of business ethics of the great visionary Jamsetji Tata, his ideal. He also personally crusaded for issues that he felt were imperative for India’s development--family planning, women’s education, spread of literacy. The 100% successful family welfare schemes at Tata Steel and the various educational programmes for all, directly emanate from JRD Tata’s insight.

• Numerous national and international honours were bestowed on JRD Tata. These included Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bessemer Medal of the Institute of Metals, London, and the United Nations Population Award.

• Government of India conferred the highest civilian award of the land, Bharat Ratna to JRD Tata in 1992.

• For all his colossal achievements, JRD Tata was a modest, sensitive man, forever espousing the cause of his employees. His natural love for people endeared him to all... across the entire spectrum of society.

Landmark

Tata Steel was established almost hundred years ago. It has evolved ever since to reach the pinnacle of success where it stands today with pride. We present to you ‘Landmarks’- these are the significant milestones in the company’s journey towards Industrial Harmony.