The entrepreneur had been hospitalized in Bombay for several days. After taking over the family business in the 1990s, he made the Tata group one of the largest firms on the planet, with countless activities in the industry.
He had led India’s largest economic empire, present across the world in a myriad of sectors. Indian entrepreneur Ratan Tata, who transformed the group that bears his name into a global conglomerate, has died at the age of 86, the group announced this Wednesday evening, October 9, in a message published on X .
Ratan Tata, who was the boss of the firm for more than twenty years, was in intensive care in a Bombay hospital, according to sources cited by Reuters. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tribute to him in turn on “visionary businessman, an empathetic soul and an extraordinary human being.”
From tea to steel
After obtaining a degree in architecture at the American Cornell University, Ratan Tata returned to India in 1962 where he began working for his great-grandfather’s group, founded a century earlier. Taking over in the 1990s, he made it prosper to the point of creating an industrial multinational, particularly in tea and steelworks in Europe. He was notably named businessman of the year by Forbesin 2005.
After stepping down from the group leadership in 2012, Ratan Tata had become a significant investor in various Indian start-ups and received several awards, including the ‘Padma Vibhushan’ in 2008. This is the second highest civil distinction in India, which was awarded to him for his exceptional and distinguished service in commerce and industry.
