Tales From Tata Group

The Tatas have a legacy of nation-building for over 150 years. Dancing across this long arc of time are thousands of beautiful, astonishing stories, many of which can inspire and provoke us, even move us to meaningful action in our own lives.

A diamond twice as large as the famous Kohinoor pledged to survive a financial crisis; a meeting with a ‘relatively unknown young monk’ who later went on to be known as Swami Vivekananda; the fascinating story of the first-ever Indian team at the Olympics; the making of India’s first commercial airline and first indigenous car; how ‘OK TATA’ made its way to the backs of millions of trucks on Indian highways; a famous race that was both lost and won; and many more interesting nuggets are recorded by author Harish Bhat in his new book.

The name Tata is synonymous with the history and growth of the country – the two, at times, seeming inseparable. While government programmes, like Make In India, have become fashionable today, many visionaries from the business house saw this as the way forward for the country to progress. Setting up the country’s first steel plant, first airlines (Tata Airlines later became Air India), first cancer hospital, first silk farm, first Indian car, the world’s slimmest watch, one of the world’ s fastest supercomputers, first national centre for performing arts, establishing the country’s first institute of science, besides many more firsts, have been the Tatas’ contribution to nation-building.

The book is dotted with anecdotes and vignettes that fill one with amusement. This book is a collection of little-known tales of individuals, events and places from the Tata Group that have shaped the India we live in today.