... But for both leaders, digital first is the way forward...

MUMBAI: Even as sparks fly at Bombay House, the headquarter of the Tata Group, there is one area that ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry and interim chairman Ratan Tata seem to agree on — the importance of the digital business in the group’s future plans.

Neither the digital operations, which have so far seen investments of more than ₹1,500 crore, nor Tata Industries, which houses a crucial part of the group’s future plans, figured in the letter that Mistry sent to the directors of Tata Sons after his ouster, where he alleged irregularities and corporate governance issues in subsidiaries.

The corresponding lack of mention even by the current Tata Sons board about one of the most ambitious moves by Mistry — retail e-commerce Tata Cliq, big data analytics Tata iQ and Tata Digital Health — have also raised questions on whether this is an area that both sides concur.

While Tata Sons did not respond to queries on the issue, sources in the group said: “It is not appropriate to focus on one business or the other. The current situation is much larger than that. It is not within the limits of any particular business alone.”

Cyrus Mistry’s office did not respond to HT’s queries.

Among the three, the omnichannel e-commerce market place, Tata Cliq, is the largest and integrates store shopping and online buying. The data analytics firm will be based out of Bangalore. The health platform is the third initiative, which connects doctors with laboratories.

According to a person familiar with the group’s strategy, “Mr (Ratan) Tata has been known to promote startups. So he sees digital as a strong future trend.”

The Mumbai-based conglomerate with large interests in oldeconomy businesses, including steel, automobiles and chemicals, has been making visible efforts to grow its digital businesses, under the stewardship of Tata Industries executive director KRS Jamwal. Apart from Jamwal, RR Bhinge is the other Tata nominee on the board.

Incidentally, Mistry continues to be the chairman of Tata Industries and while the board has recently seen the exit of director Nirmalya Kumar, other members on the board include independent directors Ashish Dhawan and Ireena Vittal.

There needs to be a vote from at least one independent director in the event of any proposal to replace Mistry.