The Spirit of J R D Tata : “Making steel may be compared to making a chappati. To make a good chappati, even a golden pin will not work unless the dough is good”

Quotes :

“Making steel may be compared to 

making a chappati. To make a good 

chappati, even a golden pin will not work 

unless the dough is good”

The Life and Times of  J  R  D  Tata  :

The year 2004 is significant for the Tata Group, as it marks the 100th birth anniversary of JRDTata and Naval Tata and the death centenary of Jamsetji Tata.

For two generations and more JRD epitomised a way of life and a culture of business that cared for the country and its people.

"The wealth gathered by Jamsetji Tata and his sons in half a century of industrial pioneering formed but a minute fraction of the amount by which they enriched the nation. The whole of that wealth is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete; what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over." --J R D Tata

Established in 1859, the Tata Group was already India's biggest business conglomerate when Tata became its fourth chairman in 1938. He was then just 34 years old.

Under his leadership, the Tata assets climbed from Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million) in 1939 to over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in 1990.

In 1939 the group included fourteen companies with sales of Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.80 billion); in 1993, the year of his death, sales were Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) contributed by over fifty large manufacturing companies, besides innumerable holding, investment, subsidiaries and associate concerns, making it India's biggest business group.

 J R D Tata in his own words :

• While I usually came back from meeting Gandhiji elated and inspired but always a bit sceptical, and from talks with Jawaharlal, fired with emotional zeal but often confused and unconvinced, meetings with Vallabhbhai were a joy from which I returned with renewed confidence in the future of our country. I have often thought that if fate had decreed that he, instead of Jawaharlal, would be the younger of the two, India would have followed a very different path and would be in better economic shape that it is today.