Tata tussle sparks tremors from Singapore to Solihull
The future of the conglomerate behind Air India, Land Rover and iPhone manufacturing hangs in the balance.
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Noel Tata, the chairman of Tata Trusts, has a battle on his hands as many predict that the Tata conglomerate could break up.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Vasuki Shastry
Over the past two weeks, India’s business community and media have been fixated on an extraordinary boardroom tussle in the storied Tata Group. While the 158-year-old house of Tatas is a beloved household name in India, the US$185 billion (S$237 billion) conglomerate also touches distant shores as it makes everything from the Land Rover to Tetley tea to the latest version of the Apple iPhone and runs software giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). In good measure, the group also owns Air India, the troubled national carrier which the Tatas assumed control of in 2022.
The impact of this messy saga will reverberate across the world – from Singapore, where the group has had a longstanding presence since the early ’70s, to Solihull in the UK, where the Range Rover is produced. Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in Tata in the next few months will not stay with Tata.