‘India’s biggest corporate decision’: Tata Group chair’s exit raises hard succession questions
N Chandrasekaran will step down in February and analysts say the group should prioritise a ‘swift and transparent’ succession process
The answer matters well beyond the group’s boardroom. Tata’s businesses span salt, software, cars, steel, airlines and hi-tech manufacturing, with annual revenue equivalent to about 5 per cent of India’s gross domestic product and more than a million employees, giving the trust-controlled empire an outsize role in the country’s economic ambitions.
Chandrasekaran, 63, said on Wednesday that he had informed the board he would not seek reappointment once his tenure ended in February next year, after directors failed to reach a decision on his future role.
Tata Sons is the principal holding company of the Tata Group, whose foundations date back to before India’s independence from British rule and whose controlling shareholder, Tata Trusts, gives the charitable trusts unusual influence over one of Asia’s most prominent business empires.
The Tata Group comprises 31 key mainstream companies operating across 10 distinct business verticals, though the broader ecosystem includes over 100 operating and subsidiary companies globally.
