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Jamshedji Tata

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Jamsetji Nasarwanji Tata
Born(1839-03-03)3 March 1839
Navsari, Gujarat, India
Died19 May 1904(1904-05-19) (aged 65)
Bad Nauheim, German Empire
OccupationFounder of Tata Group
SpouseHirabai Daboo
Parent(s)Nusserwanji and Jeevanbai Tata

Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (Gujarati: જમ્શેત્જી નુંસ્સેર્વાનજી ટાટા; 3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian industrialist, who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest conglomerate company. He was born to a Parsi family in Navsari, Gujarat, India.

He founded what would later become the Tata Group of companies. Jamsetji Tata is regarded as the "father of Indian industry".[1]

Early life

Jamsetji Tata was born to Nasarwanji and Jeevanbai Tata on 3 March 1838 in Navsari, a small town in South Gujarat. Nasarwanji Tata was the first businessman in a family of Parsi Zoroastrian priests. He started trading in Bombay.

Jamsetji joined his father in Bombay at the age of 14 and enrolled at the Elphinstone College. He was married to Hirabai Daboo[2] while he was still a student.[3] He graduated from college in 1858 and joined his father's trading firm. It was a turbulent time to step into business as the Indian Rebellion of 1857 had just been suppressed by the British government.

Business

Statue of J. N. Tata at Indian Institute of Science at the faculty hall with a miniature model of the faculty hall in his hand

Jamsetji worked in his father's company until the age of 29. In 1868, he started a trading company with a seed capital of Rs. 21,000. In 1869, he acquired a bankrupt oil mill in Chinchpokli, converted it into a cotton mill and renamed the mill Alexandra Mill. He sold the mill two years later for a healthy profit. Thereafter he set up a cotton mill in Nagpur in 1874. He christened it Empress Mill on 1 January 1877 when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India.

He devoted himself to bringing to fruition four of his key ideas: setting up an iron and steel company, a world-class learning institution, a one-of-a-kind hotel and a hydro-electric plant. Only one of the ideas became a reality during his lifetime. The Taj Mahal Hotel was inaugurated on the 3rd of December 1903.[4]

However, the foundations laid by him and hard work by his successors ensured that each of the ideas were eventually established and are respectable entities in their respective fields today:

  • Tata Steel (formerly TISCO - Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited) is Asia's first and India's largest and became world's fifth largest steel company, after that it acquired anglo-Dutch Corus group producing 28 million tonnes of steel annually.[5]
  • The Indian Institute of Science
  • The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was founded by Dr. Homi Bhabha. Dr. Homi Bhabha approached J.R.D Tata requesting his support towards the establishing of a scientific institution. The institution was founded in 1945.[6]
  • The Tata Power Company Limited is India's largest private sector electricity generating company with an installed generation capacity of over 2300 MW.[7]

Among his notable ventures that did bear fruition during his lifetime was the historical Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Colaba district in Mumbai.[8] The hotel was completed for a princely sum of Rs. 4,21,00,000 on 16 December 1903. Taking inflation into account it would cost Rs. 11,475,496,284 (£160,962,295) in 2010 prices.[9].It was the only hotel in India to have electricity. It had American fans, German elevators, bathtubs from Turkey and British butlers and waiters worked there.[citation needed]

Personal life

Jamsetji Tata married Hirabai Daboo. Their sons, Dorabji Tata and Ratanji Tata, succeeded Jamsetji as the chairman of the Tata group.

Death

While on a business trip in Germany in 1904, Tata became seriously ill. He died in Nauheim on May 19, 1904, and was buried in a Parsi cemetery in Woking, England.

Legacy

The company started by Jamsetji Tata came to be known as the Tata Group and is today among the largest private sector firms in the world.

Jamshedpur, also known as Tatanagar, a city in the Indian state of Jharkhand is named after him. The Tata Group has many facilities there, viz Tata Steel, Tata Motors (manufacturing heavy vehicles) also includes HVAL, HVTL, Telcon, Tata Power, Jusco, Tata Cumins, Tata Robins Frazer (TRF), Tata bearing, Tayo[disambiguation needed], Tata Tubes Division, Tinplate, Tata Agrico, IS&WP, Tata Pigments.

Biography

  • For the Love of India: The Life and Times of Jamsetji Tata by R M Lala (ISBN 0-670-05782-7)

References

  1. ^ JAMSHEDJI TATA Founder of TATA Industries
  2. ^ "Family Tree of the Tatas". Retrieved September 9, 2006.
  3. ^ "Biography on [[TIFR]] website". Retrieved September 9, 2006. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  4. ^ "Biography on the official website of Tata". Retrieved September 9, 2006. [dead link]
  5. ^ "Tata Steel website". Retrieved September 9, 2006.
  6. ^ Homi Bhabha
  7. ^ "Tata Power website". Retrieved September 9, 2006. [dead link]
  8. ^ "Taj Hotels website". Retrieved September 9, 2006.
  9. ^ Indian Rupee pegged at Rs 15 to a pound in 1898 Indian rupee#Use in India. Calculated pound equivalent and used UK National Archives [1] to calculate inflation.
  • EPW at www.epw.org.in Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, A Centenary Tribute
Wikisource has the text of a 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Jamshedji Tata.

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