The Tata Family is perhaps the wealthiest and best-known industrial family in all of India. In 2012, nine years after the death of Tata Motors and Air India founder Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy, Tata was ranked as the sixth “Greatest Indian” in an Outlook Magazine poll. The patriarch of the Tata family was Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, born March 3, 1839 in Navsari. Jamsetji founded what would become known as the Tata Group of companies. His contributions to the advancement of the industrialisation of India earned him the unofficial title of “Father of Indian Industry”. Jamsetji passed away in 1904, the same year one of his heirs was born. J.R.D. Tata was born and raised in France and spent time in England. As an adult, he joined the family business in 1925 and was elected Chairman of Tata Sons in 1938. Seven years later, he formed Tata Motors, India’s only OEM auto manufacturer. Today, the Tata Group is headed by Ratan Tata, who, despite the immense wealth of the Tata Group, is not listed amongst the richest people in the world. This is because the Tata Group gives 65 per cent of its earnings to charitable organisations.
