Many Indians gathered Thursday in the country’s financial capital Bombay (west) to honor the memory of entrepreneur Ratan Tata, who died the day before at the age of 86.
At the head of the group that bears his name for twenty-one years, the industrialist transformed the century-old family business into a global conglomerate with more than $165 billion in turnover.
Taking advantage of the wave of liberal reforms launched in India in the 1990s, Ratan Tata diversified the group’s activities from steel to automobiles, in particular by purchasing British brands like Jaguar and Land Rover, or to IT.
The death of the big boss sparked a wave of emotion throughout India.
“Ratan Tata, goodbye and thank you,” headlined the Indian Express daily. “India is losing its jewel,” added the Hindustan Times
His remains were carried to the sound of trumpets and drums from an honor guard to the National Performing Arts Center, where the public began to pay their respects.
His transparent coffin wrapped in the Indian flag was to be cremated at a crematorium in the city in the afternoon, according to local media.
As soon as his death was announced, Hindu ultranationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the memory of a “visionary business leader”, a “compassionate soul” and an “extraordinary human being”.
Industrialist and multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani, considered the richest man in Asia, deplored “an immense loss, not only for the Tata group but for every Indian”.
Born in 1937 in Bombay, Ratan Tata wanted to become an architect and was working in the United States when his grandmother, who raised him, brought him back home to join the family business, founded in 1868.
He started out in 1962 in a Tisco steelworks (now Tata Steel), living in an apprentice hostel, before taking the reins of the group from 1991 to 2012.
The Tata group praised the philanthropic work of its former leader whose initiatives, “from education to health”, have “left an indelible mark which will benefit generations to come”.
